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Wall Street Journal's Technology Innovation Awards

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the fun-places-to-work dept.

Carl Bialik writes "Gene-sequencing company 454 Life Sciences was selected as the Gold Winner in the Wall Street Journal's 2005 Technology Innovation Awards. 'Around 750 applications were screened by a Wall Street Journal editor, who narrowed the field to 104 semifinalists. Then a panel of expert judges from industry, research organizations and academia scored each entry and picked the winners.' (Listen to an MP3 clip on how the judges chose.) Other winners include a company that has developed a low-cost method for manufacturing RFID tags; Riverbed Technology's network appliances; Fujitsu's ID system that uses the veins in a person's palm instead of fingerprints; and the Agitator tool to debug code."

4 of 58 comments (clear)

  1. Other Awards by ackthpt · · Score: 5, Insightful
    • Yahoo & Google for developing technology to assist PRC in filtering news and tracking radicals
    • Music companies for unmitigated greed in trying to muscle Apple into increasing prices
    • Sony and Blu-Ray coalition on develping new standards which drive a stake through the heart of, and bury Fair Use

    Kinda have to keep in mind what Wall Street is really interested in.
    --

    A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
  2. Its nice to see by mymaxx · · Score: 5, Insightful

    that someone recognized an innovation (see MIT's water purification solution) that isn't going to make a lot of money, but works to solve a serious problem.

  3. Doesn't Matter... by ackthpt · · Score: 5, Insightful
    How many of these companies will actually be around in 2 years? Great products don't always translate into success.

    Their IP will live on forever and be accumulated by some little holding company with a PO Box in rural Wisconsin. A year after any company produces a product anything like what their portfolio includes and they'll up-end the Bucket o' Laywers and it's Game On!

    --

    A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
  4. Flamebait by slashing1 · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Parent is an unfair characterization of the WSJ article. Obviously we are talking about companies with a profit motive here, but even nonprofit international aid and development organizations talk about the profit motive-- in the form of "sustainable development." The article specifically cites inventions that are not financially rewarding, for example

    "Clean water is not sexy, and $20 a year won't make anyone rich," says Robert Drost, a scientist at Sun Microsystems Inc.

    from the overall Honorable mention award. The overall Silver went to a company that is reducing toxic pollutants and decreasing greenhouse gas emissions through energy reduction.