Steve Jobs nominated for Time Person of the Year
If the late Apple co-founder is selected as the winner, it would be the first time the distinction would be awarded posthumously.
Technology and social justice ruled the nominations for Time magazine's 2011 Person of the Year.
Apple's co-founder Steve Jobs was nominated by "NBC Nightly News" anchor Brian Williams to be Time magazine's Person of the Year. If selected it would be the first time the distinction would be awarded to a person posthumously.
"One guy, who changed our world, and I said to Seth Meyers as we walked across Sixth Avenue, 'Just look with me on this one block walk at how he changed the world around us. Look at how he changed the world.' Not only did he change the world, but he gave us that spirit again that something was possible that you could look at a piece of plastic or glass and move your finger-- that's outlandish. You could make things bigger or smaller like that. 'Oh the places you'll go' and oh the way you will change forever the music and television industries. So may he rest in peace, Steve Jobs, and the spirit he represents, are my nominee for Person of the Year," said Williams during his nomination speech.
Along with Williams, the panel of six included "Saturday Night Live" head writer Seth Meyers, actor Jesse Eisenberg, Chef Mario Batali, attorney Anita Hill, and conservative lobbyist Grover Norquist.
Other notable nominees included populists, U.S. Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren, Tunisian fruit vendor credited for kicking off the Arab Spring Mohamed Bouazizi, and "angry people."
"The major shifts globally and domestically have been made by individuals that have formed together to resist, reject, and often times even topple leaders. They've been movements of populism," argued Eisenberg, who nominated the populists.
Eisenberg elaborated by calling out the Arab Spring, Occupy Wall Street, and Tea Party movements. Seth Meyers agreed and nominated angry people.
"I think I would join with Jesse and I do think that angry people are the Person of the Year because I think they're right to be angry," said Meyers.
Following the same themes, Norquist supported the Jobs nomination and added Bouazizi for starting a revolution simply by wanting to sell his fruit.
"Bouazizi was the fruit vendor who had taken too much harassment from the police and the bureaucrats...he just wanted to sell fruit and the government was interfering with his ability to do that and he burned himself in December, but passed away this year. But I think he set off something that wouldn't have happened without his act, at least not when it did," said Norquist.
Batali agreed with the Jobs nomination and added American journalist and activist Michael Pollan, and bankers. Hill gave a nod to social justice, Egyptian activist Esraa Abdel Fatah, and Warren.
"The other person that I think who has really captured something really essential in this country in terms of her own personal spirit, but also the work that she's done: Elizabeth Warren. What she did, to go in to challenge Washington, D.C., and the entrenched politics with regard to consumer rights, establishing an agency in a climate that was really resistant to it, in an effort to protect the middle class, which is something she's been doing all of her life...Her work captures the American imagination in the spirit, but also her personality--her life story," said Hill.
Time's Person of the Year will be revealed in mid-December.
This story was originally published on CBSNews.com