Schmoozing At The Industry Hall Of Fame


CRN logo By Heather Clancy, ChannelWeb

12:00 AM EST Mon. Dec. 11, 2006
From the December 11, 2006 issue of CRN
The best sort of innovation has no end point in sight. There is no better reflection of that than this year's inductees into the CRN Industry Hall of Fame.

From the moment the first award recipient, computer scientist Alan Kay, stepped on stage to make his acceptance speech, it was clear that his quest to make technology a better tool for humankind is far from over. Kay's longtime passion, enabling children to learn and explore their creativity through technology, today encompasses projects such as the Squeak programming language and the initiative to design and distribute a notebook that costs as little as $100. He's got his hand in some commercial programming projects, too, as I discovered during an animated dinner conversation.

When it comes to disciplined operational execution, there is perhaps no better personification than Intel Chairman Craig Barrett. Yet, when he approached the podium, a matter-of-fact Barrett was more interested in talking about his future responsibility than in his past accomplishments in helping Intel invest in awesome fabrication capabilities or in extending its reach into compelling emerging markets. Those responsibilities include applying his knowledge and connections around the world to making primary education more effective—and more accessible—to all children through technology. Once interested in forestry as a career, Barrett also is passionate about advances in power management that could help the cause of green computing.

Autodesk Executive Chairman Carol Bartz has often pooh-poohed questions that remark on her rare status as a powerful female business leader and that overlook the fact that by any gender-neutral measure she is an extremely successful chief executive. So it is perhaps not surprising that she plans to spend at least some of her future energy on helping develop applications and games that play to young girls' early interests and encourages them to embrace technology on their own terms.

As his company's most visible blogger, Network Appliance co-founder Dave Hitz, who was inducted for his work to make network-attached storage a simpler solution proposition, today applies his technical prowess to leading NetApp into new market segments.

And although the late Nathan Morton, the force behind CompUSA's nationwide ascension, was taken too early to act on his latest dreams, he, too, was looking to help write the script for an undefined future. One of the last ventures he backed was Remote Light, a company that is using fiber- optics technology to transform the way lighting and energy are controlled throughout a home or commercial building.

As author and venture capitalist Geoffrey Moore said in a keynote presentation earlier on the day of the Hall of Fame event, nostalgia can be a dangerous thing when all you can do is reflect on the way things always have been instead of using that knowledge to learn and change. We've recognized a diverse set of technologists, business leaders and solution providers over the 10 years we've run this project. The ones who stand out in my mind have been way more interested in the future than in the past, and this year's inductees are a wonderful exemplification of that.
 
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