Nuclear Virginia

According to the Lynchburg News and Advance:

If the nuclear renaissance is on the way, Lynchburg, home to AREVA NP, might be the new Florence, Italy.

Through a partnership with Maryland-based utility Constellation Energy and Virginia-based BWX Technologies and about $600 m in funding from French utility company EDF, AREVA would like to be one of the first to build its Evolutionary Power Reactor in the United States. The new company, UniStar Nuclear, has made its intentions known to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that it plans to submit applications within the next 12 months to build two AREVA reactors, the first in Maryland.

Bus 2.0 Disruptor List

Business 2.0 recently identified 10 businesses with the potential to rewrite the rules of existing industries or open up entirely new markets.

Here's their list of the The Next Disruptors :

Bloom Energy wants to short-circuit electric utilities by building a power plant in every home. Zink is trying to create a market for mobile printing, without the ink. Blinkx thinks it can become the Google of video. Virgin Charter is helping to launch the air-taxi industry. Expensr is a webtop application for managing personal finances. Zipcar sprinkles its rental cars throughout urban neighborhoods with the densest populations and lets people book online by the hour. Raydiance has developed the world’s first fully software-controlled, desktop-size USP laser that cuts without heating surrounding material. MFG.COM is an online exchange for the manufacturing industry. PatientsLikeMe is an online community where patients can discuss and track medical conditions. Vanu uses software that allows mobile networks to accommodate devices with different standards.

AltLaw Launch

The Columbia Law School’s Program on Law and Technology, and the Silicon Flatirons Communications Program at the University of Colorado Law School just launched AltLaw, a free full text of the U.S. Supreme and Circuit Appeals Courts.

The Program on Law and Technology at Columbia Law School was founded to publicize research on the legal problems created by technological innovation, and to design and disseminate technologies that might serve the public’s interest in law and legal change.

The Silicon Flatirons Telecommunications Program brings to campus individuals from legal, technical, regulatory and business backgrounds to discuss issues facing the telecommunications community.

Thanks to BoingBoing for the pointer to this new site.

TR 35 for 2007

The TR 35 Innovators for 2007 were announced in the recent issue of Technology Review. The 2007 Young Innovator is David Berry, seeking renewable petroleum from microbes. Tapan Parikh of the University of Washington is the Humanitarian of the Year. The full list of young innovators under 35 is here.

In addition to academic and corporate researchers, entrepreneurs on the list include Sanjit Biswas of Meraki Networks, Garrett Camp of Stumbleupon, Tariq Krim of Netvibes, Jeff LaPorte of Eqo Communications, Christopher Loose of Stericoat, Neil Renninger of Amyris Technologies, Kevin Rose of Digg, and Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook.

Hype Cycle Definitions

Gartner's Hype Cycles provide a snapshot of the relative maturity of technologies, IT methodologies and management disciplines, comparing overhyped areas against those that are high impact. They estimate how long technologies and trends will take to reach maturity, helping organizations decide when to adopt.

Snippets from the Five phases of the Gartner Hype Cycle:

• Technology Trigger: The first phase of a Hype Cycle is the "technology trigger" or breakthrough, product launch or other event that generates significant press and interest.
  

• Peak of Inflated Expectations: ... a frenzy of publicity typically generates over-enthusiasm and unrealistic expectations. There may be some successful applications of a technology, but there are typically more failures.

• Trough of Disillusionment: Technologies enter the "trough of disillusionment" because they fail to meet expectations and quickly become unfashionable.
  

• Slope of Enlightenment: ... some businesses continue through the "slope of enlightenment" and experiment to understand the benefits and practical application of the technology.
  

• Plateau of Productivity: A technology reaches the "plateau of productivity" as the benefits of it become widely demonstrated and accepted... and stable.

The Priority Matrix supplements the vertical visibility or "hype" axis of the Hype Cycle with a focus on the potential benefit of the technology, rated as transformational, high, moderate or low.
2007 charts, with links to Gartner, the Gartner media industry blog.

Emerging Technology Hype Cycle 2007

The Gartner Hype Cycle diagram for emerging technologies, below, reflects the major themes from Jackie Fenn's latest report: Web 2.0 innovations, the commercialisation of user interaction techniques and mobile technologies and applications. Ten of the 36 emerging technologies they considered are viewed as having transformational impact on business.



The Gartner emerging technology Priority Matrix is below.



Dion Hinchcliffe of ZDNet provides a Checkpoint on Web 2.0 in the Enterprise.