The 2007 batch of MacArthur Fellows (AKA the $500,000 genius grantees) includes tinkerer Saul Griffith. Tim O'Reilly has written a long appreciation of Saul and his projects.
The 2006 crop of MacArthur "genius" fellows announced. Names I recognized include George Saunders, David Macaulay, and Atul Gawande. I know I say this every year, but no web/internet folks on the list.
Update: Several readers pointed out that Luis von Ahn (co-inventor of the CAPTCHA) and James Fruchterman both qualitfy as web folks. I guess I was thinking more along the lines of someone who uses the internet to produce medium-specific art or literature or has shaped the social space of the internet. Ward Cunningham for wikis, Justin Hall for links.net (if that was still active), even Dave Winer for his work on blogs, RSS, and podcasting.
