Crowd wisdom: user-centric innovation

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Crowd wisdom: user-centric innovation
The World Economic Forum’s Technology Pioneers 2008

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Contents
PrEFaCE ForEWord CroWd Wisdom TEChnology PionEErs 2008 aCknoWlEdgEmEnTs 2 3 4 32

Crowd wisdom | The World Economics Forum’s Technology Pioneers 2008

Preface

In line with its commitment to improving the state of the world, the World Economic Forum has created the Technology Pioneers Community. Technology Pioneers are companies from around the world that develop and apply the most innovative and transformational technologies in the fields of information technology, energy and environment, and biotechnology and health. The work undertaken by these companies holds the promise of significantly affecting the way business and society operate. Each innovation is another step in society’s attempt to harness, adapt and use technology to change and improve our world. This year the World Economic Forum received a record number of applications from companies around the world to become a Technology Pioneer. From a highly competitive field, we are extremely pleased to have a community that is using innovation and technology in a markedly collaborative manner to dramatically affect the way society and business operate. The theme of the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2008 is The Power of Collaborative

innovation, and we are confident that the Technology Pioneers are at the forefront of both collaboration and innovation. The Forum is pleased to congratulate the 39 companies selected as Technology Pioneers 2008 on their truly remarkable achievements and welcome them to the community of the World Economic Forum. We would also like to express our thanks and appreciation to the members of the selection committee whose enthusiasm and expertise were critical in selecting the impressive group of Technology Pioneers featured in this publication. Finally, the Forum would like to thank BT for the content and publication of this report and for their strong ongoing commitment to the Technology Pioneers programme. andre schneider managing director and Chief operations officer World Economic Forum

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Crowd wisdom | The World Economics Forum’s Technology Pioneers 2008

Foreword

Globalisation and technology are accelerating the creation of new ideas and speeding them on their way to market. Today these ideas and concepts are triggering a new cycle of innovation. The result is an explosion of creativity that shows no sign of coming to an end. I call this phenomenon the Innovation Big Bang. To survive and thrive in this new environment, companies need both deep skills to lead and interpret the opportunities in their innovation networks, but also broad and flexible skills to engage with customer needs, assimilate new capabilities and execute. The window of opportunity for a new product or service innovation to carve out an appreciable marketshare has collapsed from years or months to weeks or even days. Invention is not enough. As far as customers are concerned, genuine innovation happens only when their daily lives actually get better or their firms achieve greater success as a result. The Innovation Big Bang increases the stakes. To ensure their competitiveness is sustainable and differentiable in the long term, firms must now look well beyond the limits of their own R&D departments and indeed their own payrolls. The world is full of people who are keen to offer their ideas, and firms will need to become exceptional exploiters of this immense pool of talent if they are to survive. That’s why, in my role as innovation champion for BT, I am committed to fostering innovation

networks because they form an integral part of BT’s open innovation strategy. It is through innovation networks that many companies can minimise the dangers of becoming over-aligned to one view of the future, a single market segment, or to one industry structure. The Technology Pioneers are at the heart of this emerging global innovation marketplace. BT is committed to being a strategic partner of the World Economic Forum’s Technology Pioneers programme because the technological innovation shown by these visionary companies demonstrates the real potential for a sustained impact across business and society globally. Previous Technology Pioneers have included Autonomy, Cambridge Silicon Radio, Google, Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Mozilla and Sling Media. This year’s Technology Pioneers were nominated by leading venture capital and technology companies from around the world. The final selection was made by a panel of leading technology experts appointed by the World Economic Forum. The depth, breadth and diversity of the innovation represented by this year’s Technology Pioneers delivers a wellspring of collaborative innovation opportunities for any organisation choosing to do business with them. matt Bross Chief Technology officer BT group

Crowd wisdom | The World Economics Forum’s Technology Pioneers 2008

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Crowd wisdom: user-centric innovation
S IT a bold and promising new approach to innovation, or just the application of new buzzwords to existing practices? The idea of involving customers directly in the development and deployment of new products and services, variously known as “user-centric innovation”, “outside innovation”, “mass collaboration”, “wikinomics” or “crowdsourcing”, certainly sounds novel. In some ways, however, it is not that different in practice from established practices such as opensource software development, in which volunteer programmers collaborate over the internet, or the even older practice of designing new products that take into account the wishes of particularly demanding customers. And even Scottish philosopher Adam Smith praised workmen who developed “easier and readier” tools for their own use, noting that many machines involved in early industrial processes were invented by endusers who improved upon earlier versions. But what is certainly new is that companies are now recognising that customers can play a valuable role in devising and distributing new ideas — and are taking a greater interest in tapping into a source of inspiration and innovation that may only have been used informally and occasionally in the past. This is bringing into being new products and services, by distributing tasks among large groups, exploiting large data sets and economies of scale, and harnessing the enthusiasm of volunteers, enthusiasts and tinkerers. Much of this has been made possible by the internet, of course, and its famed ability to allow groups of people with a shared interest, no matter how obscure, to connect with
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Customers are proving to be a useful and growing source of innovation globally

each other. But it is also a recognition by companies that their customers constitute a valuable supply of ideas, manpower, skills and information. The old model, in which a company develops a product and then puts it on the market for customers to buy, has given way in many cases to a new model in which customers participate in the development of new products, and help to create, improve, distribute and promote them. Companies generally have far more customers than they do employees, after all, so why not make use of their input? A classic example, cited by Eric von Hippel, a guru of user-centric innovation and the author of Democratizing Innovation , is that of the Lego Group, Europe’s largest toymaker, and its Mindstorms product. This combined Lego’s usual snap-together plastic bricks with a special control unit into which simple programs could be downloaded from a computer, thus making possible the construction of robots and other complex models. The software inside the Mindstorms brick was developed over a period of many months by a small team of Lego engineers. Within three weeks of the original product’s release in 1998, however, an internet user group had reverse-engineered the software and written their own, more efficient version. The user group quickly amassed hundreds of members — far outnumbering Lego’s original team of programmers. At first the company was unsure how to respond, but eventually it decided to embrace the contributions of its customers, opening up its products for further customisation and including their ideas in subsequent versions of Mindstorms. The number of potential innovators outside the company, its managers realised, was far greater than the number within the company. There are many other cases. Haier, China’s leading manufacturer of household appliances, found

Crowd wisdom | The World Economics Forum’s Technology Pioneers 2008

that some of its customers were using its washing machines to clean vegetables as well as clothes, so it made new models with wider outlet pipes to prevent them from getting clogged up with bits of peel. Boeing and Airbus design new airliners after holding detailed discussions with their main customers, and also work closely with their own suppliers of machine tools on the design of new production gear. Manufacturers of sports equipment, from mountain bikes to snowboards, have learned to pay attention

innovation in a number of fields, as this year’s Technology Pioneers demonstrate.

look it up on Wikipedia

“The number of potential innovators outside lego was far greater than the number within...”
to the ways in which advanced users customise their products. One survey found that 38% of members of specialised “extreme” sports clubs had developed or modified their own equipment, for example. These “lead users” can provide valuable ideas -— what Dr von Hippel calls a “product feedstock” — for future models. Manufacturers and users each have access to different information, which prompts them to innovate in different ways. In the case of scientific instruments, for example, users tend to modify them in order to get them to do entirely new things, whereas manufacturers’ innovations tend to be about making existing products easier to use, more convenient, or more reliable. In general, Dr von Hippel points out, manufacturers tend to look for problems that can be solved using whatever technologies they have to hand (a new material, an improved process, and so on), whereas users tend to look for new solutions to problems they really need to solve. That makes user-driven innovations more valuable and, studies suggest, more profitable as well when harnessed by manufacturers. And even when they are not directly involved in the development of a new product, users can play a valuable role in improving and deploying it, and their willingness to get involved is, once again, a recognition of the product’s appeal and value. The involvement of users in various ways now underpins

Perhaps the single best example is the Wikimedia Foundation, the organisation behind Wikipedia, the open-source, user-generated encyclopedia, and several other related projects. The basic idea of Wikipedia is that of an encyclopedia in which every page is a wiki — a web page with an “edit this page” button. This allows any reader to add to, correct and interlink the encyclopedia’s entries. (“Wiki” is a Hawaiian word that means “fast”, since the wiki-based approach to creating and editing web pages is much faster than using traditional authoring software.) Launched in January 2001, Wikipedia had 20,000 entries in English by the end of that year, 100,000 a year later, and then grew rapidly, amassing over 2m entries by October 2007 and making it the largest encyclopedia ever compiled. Wikipedia is arguably the most impressive item of “user-generated content” on the internet, not only because of its size, but also because of its accuracy. Studies have shown that although its entries vary in quality and contain errors, the frequency of errors is comparable to that of traditional encyclopedias. When an expert in a particular subject spots a mistake in a Wikipedia entry, it is, after all, a simple matter to correct it. Inevitably, some entries (such as those on Islam and George W Bush) have become the focus of controversy and conflict, so that it has become necessary to restrict the editing of some entries to prevent vandalism. But rather than being an indication of the weakness of Wikipedia’s approach, this could be seen as a measure of its success and influence. Look up almost anything using a search engine, and the corresponding Wikipedia entry will usually be at or near the top of the list of results. The wiki-based approach has inspired a host of

Crowd wisdom | The World Economics Forum’s Technology Pioneers 2008

other related projects in which the users directly participate in the creation and development of intellectual property. The basic idea is “many hands make light work”; useful things can be done by sharing out tasks among a large community of internet users and aggregating the results. This has also been called “wikinomics” and “crowdsourcing” and has much in common with the Web 2.0 movement, which involves harnessing the contributions of users, both in creating content and helping others to navigate it. One popular way to do this is to allow users of a website to apply keywords or “tags” to items of content such as video clips (YouTube), blog postings and news items (Digg, Reddit) or photographs (Flickr). This provides a flexible, bottom-up way of arranging and navigating through large amounts of information. Polar Rose, a start-up based in Malmo, Sweden, is applying the crowdsourcing approach to photographs with a particular aim: to create a visual index of images of people on the internet. Whenever its users, called “explorers”, see photographs of people on the internet, they have the option of adding a tag giving the name of the person shown. As more and more images are tagged, two things

a small radius, but it provides authorised access to other Foneros as well as its owner. The owner, in turn, gets free coverage when in range of another Fonero’s base station. BT, the UK’s main telecoms operator, recently joined forces with FON and has invited its 3m broadband customers to become Foneros. It joins other major operators such as Time Warner Cable, Neuf Cegetel and BB Excite. Non-Foneros can use the FON network by paying a small fee, with a small commission going to the Fonero through whose base station this fee is collected. The result, says FON, is the largest Wi-Fi community in the world — built and operated by and for its own users.

This won’t hurt a bit

“The internet is central to many examples of user-centric innovation...”
become possible: users can use the Polar Rose browser plug-in to ask “who is this” (a small rose icon is added to tagged photos) and can search for images containing a particular person. As with Wikipedia, the users of the service also help to build it. FON is a Spanish start-up with a novel approach to building a free wireless network: get the network’s users to do it, granting them free access in return for sharing their own Wi-Fi access. Members of the FON community, who are known as “Foneros”, install a Wi-Fi base station called “La Fonera”. This functions like an ordinary Wi-Fi base station, providing wireless access to a broadband internet connection within

It is hardly surprising that the internet is central to many examples of user-centric innovation. But that does not mean that the same sort of approach does not apply in other fields. It is not just programmers who like to build their own tools; the same is true of doctors, and surgeons in particular. They often face problems that can be solved by inventing a new device or customising or improving upon an old one, and their direct practical experience gives them insights that a theoretical researcher at a medicalinstrument manufacturer simply would not have. One survey of surgeons carried out in Germany found that 22% had devised or modified an item of medical equipment for their own use, and that around onehalf of these innovations ended up being adopted by medical-equipment makers. The first heart-lung machine, for example, was developed by John Gibbon, a Philadelphia surgeon, and his team in 1953, and was subsequently commercialised. The CyberKnife, invented by John Adler of Stanford University and now commercialised by his company, Accuray, based in Sunnyvale, California, follows in the same tradition. During a fellowship in Sweden, Dr Adler was inspired when he saw a device called a Gamma Knife, developed by Lars Leksell, a Swedish surgeon. This used 3-D imaging to deliver finely targeted bursts of radiation to destroy otherwise inaccessible brain lesions, but required the patient

Crowd wisdom | The World Economics Forum’s Technology Pioneers 2008

to be held perfectly still using a system of restraints screwed into the skull. Dr Adler set out to improve on this approach and devised the CyberKnife, which uses robotic technology to monitor and compensate for the patient’s movement during treatment. In addition, the CyberKnife can be used to treat hardto-reach lesions in other parts of the body, not just the brain. In keeping with the tradition of user-led innovation in medical technology, Accuray has set up an online forum to allow surgeons to share their experiences, offer advice to each other and, in the process, steer the development of subsequent versions of the product. As well as developing new tools and techniques, surgeons are also well placed to develop new medical devices and implants. Joshua Ben-Nun, an experienced Israeli eye surgeon, has developed a new kind of lens implant for use in treating cataracts (the gradual yellowing and clouding of the lens that causes loss of vision). The usual treatment is to remove the lens and to replace it with an artificial implant. But such implants have no ability to focus, so that the patient ends up with excellent longdistance vision, but must use glasses for reading. One way around this problem is to use a multifocal lens implant, with concentric, alternating rings that focus on near and distant objects. But these lenses can cause problems with night vision. Dr Ben-Nun’s company, NuLens, is one of several firms pursuing a new “accommodative” lens that can refocus just as a natural lens does, by changing its shape. His design is based on a flexible capsule of silicon gel that bulges in response to movement of existing eye muscles. It has been successfully tested in monkeys, and the first human trials are now under way. The latest twist on user-centric innovation in bioscience comes from 23andMe, a start-up based in California’s Silicon Valley. The company, which takes its name from the 23 pairs of chromosomes that make up an individual’s genome, is a “personal genetics” outfit that provides detailed analysis of its customers’ genomes from a saliva sample. By looking up the results on the company’s website, customers

can then find out about their ancestry, their inherited traits, and whether they are at risk of developing particular diseases. Several other companies offer similar services, all of them based on genetic analysis using “gene chips”, rather than the full sequencing of each customer’s genome — something that is still prohibitively expensive. 23andMe’s analysis, which looks at around 600,000 regions in the genome where the most important variations between individuals are found, costs US$999; sequencing a full genome would cost US$1m-2m, although this figure is expected to fall a thousand-fold within the next decade. What 23andMe adds, however, are social-networking features akin to those on Facebook or MySpace, allowing users to contact other people with whom they share ancestors or genetic risk factors. According to the company’s founders, by pooling the genetic data from thousands of users while maintaining personal privacy, it will eventually become possible to perform new kinds of research and enable users to take part in scientific studies. And as medicine becomes increasingly “personalised”, and new drugs emerge that only work well on a specific subset of the population, it will be possible for cancer patients, for example, to identify which treatment is best for them.

Plugging into the innovation grid

What of the field of energy? It is hard to imagine how users can drive innovation in such a capital-intensive industry, even working together. And yet they can. For instance, the Toyota Prius, an iconic petrol-electric hybrid car,

Crowd wisdom | The World Economics Forum’s Technology Pioneers 2008

captures energy usually lost during braking and uses it to power the vehicle at low speeds, such as in stop-start traffic, and to provide occasional bursts of acceleration when needed, thus boosting the car’s fuel economy. This is all very clever, but for some Prius drivers it is simply not green enough. So they have modified their vehicles by fitting them with extra batteries and new control software. This gives the modified Prius a range of 20 miles or so on all-electric power; the petrol engine only kicks in on longer journeys, or at highway speeds. (A standard Prius, in contrast, can travel less than a mile on battery power alone.) The modified version can be charged from the mains overnight, so that anyone with a short commute can use it as a pure electric vehicle. Toyota was initially sceptical about this “plug-in hybrid” approach. The company thinks the simplicity of the original Prius, which never has to be plugged in, has greater consumer appeal. But faced by the groundswell among its most enthusiastic customers as they modified their vehicles, it has conceded that plug-in hybrids might make sense after all, and is now developing its own version, due in 2010. Consumers are also becoming more influential as utility companies look for new ways to generate electricity and manage demand. One increasingly popular approach is to allow homes and offices that generate their own electricity (from solar panels or wind turbines) to sell excess power back to the grid when needed. Another proposal is that the batteries of electric cars could, in effect, be pooled to provide utilities with a vast energy-storage system. When the cars are plugged in, energy is dumped into their batteries from the grid.
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If more power is suddenly needed, it can then be borrowed back again, flowing out of the batteries and back onto the grid. Once there are significant numbers of electric (or plug-in hybrid-electric) cars in circulation, a useful proportion of them will be plugged in at any one time. Rather than simply being users of electricity, in short, consumers could soon be involved in generating and storing it, in partnership with utilities. All of this will require new “smart grid” technologies such as those developed by GridPoint, a start-up based in Washington, DC. It has devised an internetbased control system that gives utilities centralised control of power sources, energy-storage capacity and even individual appliances on customers’ premises. This allows a power company to draw on excess power from solar panels on its customers’ roofs when needed, for example, or turn down air-conditioning units to reduce demand when necessary. Customers can see what is going on via a website. Smarter grids that allow utilities to balance supply and demand more easily will pave the way for much wider adoption of alternative-energy sources by their customers. Similarly, SilverSpring Networks, based in Redwood City, California, has developed smart electricity meters that enable customers to take an active role in managing their energy consumption. A twoway network connection with the meter, based on internet standards, allows utilities to implement dynamic pricing and enables consumers to regulate demand accordingly. A washing machine, for example, could be set to come on when the electricity price falls below a certain level. As standards for smart grids start to emerge, they could underpin a bottom-up revolution in energy technology, just as the rise of internet standards has unleashed so much innovation in computing.

Crowd wisdom | The World Economics Forum’s Technology Pioneers 2008

Following the user, the user, the user

How can companies best exploit user-centric innovation? Dr von Hippel suggests three possible responses. The first, and simplest, is to adopt user-developed innovations and produce them commercially, in some cases in co-operation with the users responsible for the innovations. If advanced users of a particular product are modifying it in a

“attempting to discourage lead users from innovating can be counter-productive...”
particular way, it makes sense for the manufacturer to adopt their suggestions and offer the modified product to a wider customer base, as they are likely to have similar needs. Companies can gain competitive advantage by doing this more efficiently than their rivals, perhaps by forming close links with their lead users; attempting to discourage lead users from modifying products (in other words, innovating) can be counterproductive. A variation of this approach is to offer custom-manufacturing services to advanced users, which can be beneficial to both parties. Users can take advantage of high-quality manufacturing techniques, and manufacturers can learn and benefit from the designs cooked up by their customers. Threadless, for example, is an online T-shirt firm that invites internet users to upload T-shirt designs, vote for their favourites and order them to wear. Each week’s winning design wins a cash prize and prompts thousands of sales. The suggestion by the company’s founders that this approach could work in the car industry seems far-fetched, given the long lead-times involved, but it could probably work for surfboards or customised mobile phones. The second approach companies can take is to make life easier for would-be user innovators, by offering design tools or other platforms for their use. Many computer games, for example, now ship with special level-design software that enables gamers to design new levels and accessories for the game, which are often distributed on the internet. Traditionally, game

developers kept such tools to themselves. But they have now realised the value of enabling users to modify and extend their products. In some cases, these user-generated add-ons are adopted by the original manufacturer and become products in their own right. A good example is “Counter-Strike”, a counter-terrorism combat simulator, which was created by enthusiasts who modified an existing game called “Half Life”. Such was the popularity of “Counter-Strike” that it was eventually released as a separate title. This broadened access to the game, since there was no longer any need to apply software patches to “Half Life”, a fiddly process that put some people off. Providing tools for users is, in some ways, the opposite of what companies are used to doing. Rather than trying to anticipate the needs of their customers, they are in effect giving up and simply letting the users do what they like. But this can be a rich source of new ideas. Third, companies can acknowledge user innovations by selling complementary products or services. Many computer-makers, for example, sell machines that are designed to run Linux, an open-source operating system developed and maintained by its users. They do not profit from the software, but from the demand it creates for hardware. Similarly, many software companies have developed commercial products, such as database programs, that run on top of Linux. And a host of firms have sprung up to provide consulting and support services for Linux and other open-source products. They are thus capitalising, albeit indirectly, on user-driven innovation. Some software companies operate “hybrid” open-source models in which they make part, but not all, of their products freely available. Apple does this with its Mac OS X operating system, for example, the basic underpinnings of which are available as an open-source project called Darwin. This allows the company to benefit from improvements to Darwin made by volunteers, while retaining the ability to charge for the full version of its operating system, in which Darwin is overlaid with

Crowd wisdom | The World Economics Forum’s Technology Pioneers 2008

an advanced graphical interface. Apple also includes many popular pieces of open-source software with its Macintosh computers. It thus benefits from the innovation that goes into those products, while helping to encourage their adoption. Although some aspects of it have been around for years, it is still early days for the user-centric innovation model, and surprising examples of it continue to emerge. And while it is true that much of the action is currently in software, the same principles and ideas are increasingly being applied in other fields in unexpected ways. It might seem hard to imagine how user-driven innovation could be applied in the pharmaceuticals industry, given the huge costs and regulatory hurdles associated with developing new drugs. How can you possibly trust users to do it? But even here there are innovative approaches emerging from the undergrowth: one is a new online game, akin to a three-dimensional version of Tetris, in which players race to fit molecules together. As players compete, they are actually working their way through a library of drug candidates, looking for possible docking sites with

proteins associated with particular diseases. As one researcher in the field points out, people around the world play billions of hours of Solitaire on their computers each year; building the Panama Canal, by comparison, took just 20m man-hours. Searching for new drugs by getting volunteers to play a computer game? It sounds daft. But the idea of an encyclopedia written by its own readers, and becoming the largest and most comprehensive work of its kind, would have seemed outlandish a decade ago. Of course, user-centric innovation is not for everyone, and works better in some fields than others. That is the nature of innovation: as with Sudoku, the popular Japanese numberplacing puzzle, there is no single winning strategy that works, and success depends on combining a number of strategies. Usercentric innovation is just one more tool in the innovation toolbox. But even for companies that cannot find a way to embrace this new approach, it provides a valuable lesson: that good ideas can, and increasingly do, come from unexpected or unconventional sources.

“The idea of an encyclopedia, written by readers, becoming the largest and most comprehensive work of its kind, would have seemed outlandish a decade ago...”
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Crowd wisdom | The World Economics Forum’s Technology Pioneers 2008

Technology Pioneers 2008
Contents
Thirty-nine companies have been chosen as Technology Pioneers in 2008. They come from three categories: biotechnology and health, energy/environmental technology and information technology. Candidates are nominated by members, constituents and collaborators of the World Economic Forum. Candidates are reviewed by an external selection advisory Committee comprising technology experts in a variety of fields; the World Economic Forum takes the final decision. The pioneers are chosen on the basis of six selection criteria: innovation The company must be truly innovative. A new version or repackaging of an already well-accepted technological solution does not qualify as an innovation. The innovation and commercialisation should be recent. The company should invest significantly in R&D. Potential impact The company must have the potential to have a substantial long-term impact on business and society. growth and sustainability The company should have all the signs of a long-term market leader and should have wellformulated plans for future development and growth. Proof of concept The company must have a product on the market or have proven practical applications of the technology. Companies in “stealth” mode and those with untested ideas or models do not qualify. leadership The company must have visionary leadership that plays a critical role in driving it towards its goals. status The company must not currently be a Member of the World Economic Forum.

BioTEChnology/hEalTh
23andMe Accuray Anecova InSightec mondoBIOTECH Neurosynaptic NuLens Oxitec RainDance Technologies Resverlogix Rincon Pharmaceuticals SiGNa Chemistry

12 12 13 13 14 14 15 15 16 16 17 17

EnErgy/EnvironmEnTal TEChnology
Cima NanoTech FluXXion GridPoint Hycrete, Inc. LS9, Inc. Nanostellar Primafuel Silver Spring Networks SkySails Unidym, Inc. AdMob Arteris Clearwire Corporation Garlik Imaginatik Innovative Silicon Kayak Lumio Medio Meraki Polar Rose QlikTech Roundbox, Inc. SpeedBit Transclick Wikimedia Foundation Yandex

18 18 19 19 20 20 21 21 22 22 23 23 24 24 25 25 26 26 27 27 28 28 29 29 30 30 31

inFormaTion TEChnology

Crowd wisdom | The World Economics Forum’s Technology Pioneers 2008

biotechnology/health

biotechnology/health

23andme
Linda Avey and Anne Wojcicki, co-founders loCaTion California, USA nUmBEr oF EmPloyEEs 33 yEar FoUndEd 2006 origins Entrepreneurial start-up

accuray
Euan S Thomson, CEO loCaTion Sunnyvale, USA nUmBEr oF EmPloyEEs 450 yEar FoUndEd 1990 origins Entrepreneurial start-up

Advances in genetic analysis tools, which leverage data gleaned from the human genome project, are starting to shed light on how DNA influences the development and function of individuals. 23andMe aims to develop new ways to help people make sense of their own genetic information, by connecting customers with the 23 paired volumes of their own genetic blueprint (plus their mitochondrial DNA), bringing personal insight into ancestry, genealogy and inherited traits. The company builds on recent advances in DNA analysis technologies to enable broad, secure and private access to trustworthy and accurate individual genetic information. Combined with educational and scientific resources with which to interpret and understand it, people’s genomes have now become personal in a whole new way. The second phase of 23andMe will enable individuals—armed with their genetic information—to network with others and tag their particular research interests. The founders of 23andMe are Linda Avey, a biotechnology executive, whose recent career focus has been on the acceleration of personalised medicine, and Anne Wojcicki, who left the investment world with the hope that she could have a positive impact on medicine and biotechnology.

Accuray’s roots go back to 1987, when John Adler, now a professor of neurosurgery and radiation oncology at Stanford University Medical Center, developed the CyberKnife Robotic Radiosurgery System after completing a fellowship in Sweden with Dr Lars Leksell, the founder of radiosurgery. With the CyberKnife System, Mr Adler’s vision was to develop a non-invasive robotic radiosurgery system with superior accuracy for treatment of tumours anywhere in the body. The revolutionary concept reached far beyond the practice of radiosurgery at the time, which was restricted to the treatment of intracranial tumours. In 1999 the CyberKnife System was approved for the treatment of head, neck and upper spine tumours, becoming the first radiosurgery system to combine image guidance and computer-controlled robotics, and was subsequently approved for treating other tumours including in the lungs, liver, pancreas and prostate. Since then, Accuray has continued to develop its technology, launching tumour detection and tracking systems. In November 2007, Accuray notched up a new milestone when the CyberKnife System was used to treat its 40,000th patient. Significantly, 4,000 of those were being treated for lung cancer, a rapidly growing target for Accuray.

Why the company is a pioneer

Why the company is a pioneer

Since the sequencing of the human genome, the concept of personalised medicine has often been discussed, but rarely has its promise been rendered tangible. The founders of 23andMe have been able to envisage a way to generate valuable, personalised profiles based on the core of an individual’s DNA.

As Euan Thomson, the company’s CEO, has explained, the paradigm of cancer care today is shifting towards treatment alternatives that exhibit fewer risks, fewer side-effects and decreased recovery times. Accuray’s tried and tested radiosurgery technology is now recognised as being at the forefront of non-invasive cancer treatments, meaning that more patients can expect a better quality of life.

23andMe 2606 Bayshore Parkway Mountain View, CA 94043 USA

Telephone: +1 650 938 6300 Facsimile: +1 650 938 6305 www.23andme.com

Accuray 1310 Chesapeake Terrace Sunnyvale, CA 94089 USA

Telephone: +1 408 716 4600 Facsimile: +1 408 716 4601 www.accuray.com

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Crowd wisdom | The World Economics Forum’s Technology Pioneers 2008

biotechnology/health

biotechnology/health

anecova
Martin Velasco, Founder, Chairman and CEO loCaTion Lausanne, Switzerland nUmBEr oF EmPloyEEs 10 yEar FoUndEd 2004 origins Entrepreneurial start-up

insightec
Dr Kobi Vortman, president and CEO loCaTion Haifa, Israel nUmBEr oF EmPloyEEs 150 yEar FoUndEd 1999 origins Spin-off from GE Healthcare

Sterility now affects one couple in every 10, globally. In vitro technology has done much to offer hope to many couples who otherwise could not have children, but Anecova has now gone a step further. The company began with the vision of Dr Pascal Mock, a researcher in human embryo implantation at the Clinique des Grangettes in Geneva, and Martin Velasco, entrepreneur and business angel. Dr Mock came up with the idea of replacing the test tube used for in vitro fertilisation with a permeable capsule, inserted in the mother’s uterus, so that gametes (spermatozoa, ovules) and/or embryos would develop under more natural conditions. In vivo fertilisation was born, so to speak. The Anecova device is a vessel, 10 millimetres long and less than a millimetre in diameter, pierced with hundreds of tiny apertures to facilitate communication between the embryo and its natural environment. The result, Anecova expects, will be the development of better quality embryos. The advantage of the Anecova vessel is that an embryo can develop in close communication with its mother’s environment from the very start of its life. Importantly, it is also satisfying for the mother.

A patient is at the clinic, undergoing a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan, which diagnoses a tumour. In just ten minutes, the diagnostic suite has become an operating theatre. Instead of surgery, however, the patient remains inside the MRI—and a short time later the patient’s tumour is gone. This is the basis of the ExAblate 2000 technology developed by InSightec, which integrates MRI with focused ultrasound energy as a new treatment paradigm aimed at replacing invasive surgical procedures and providing a therapeutic alternative for some very serious diseases. In the procedure, the MRI provides the physician with 3D images of the target and surrounding tissue. High-intensity, focused ultrasound waves are precisely directed into the body at the target raising the temperature of the targeted tissue to up to 85° Celsius and destroying it. Meanwhile, the thermal imaging capabilities of the MRI scanner provide realtime feedback on all aspects of the procedure, giving greater control over therapeutic outcomes. ExAblate was first approved for use in 2004 to treat symptomatic uterine fibroids, and has since been used to treat more than 3,500 women. InSightec has also begun clinical trials to study its use in other indications including breast, bone, liver and brain tumours. It has also been approved in Europe as a treatment for pain palliation caused by bone metastases.

Why the company is a pioneer

If its clinical successes continue, Anecova will be at the forefront of assisted reproduction technology – not just technically, but also in the important step of cementing the physical bonds of a child with its parent at the earliest stage of life, no matter the circumstances of its birth.

Why the company is a pioneer

Healthcare providers are seeking ways to provide localised targeted therapy, while sparing healthy tissue and without necessitating long, expensive stays in hospital. InSightec’s ExAblate does just that, building on existing technology to create a new and precise treatment method with broad applications in serious medical conditions.

Anecova 6, Cours des Bastions CH - 1205 Geneva

Telephone: +41 22 310 9542 Facsimile: 41 22/310 9642 www.anecova.com

InSightec 5 Nahum Heth St. 39120 Tirat Carmel Israel

Telephone: +972 4 813 1313 Facsimile: +972 4 813 1322 www.insightec.com

Crowd wisdom | The World Economics Forum’s Technology Pioneers 2008

3

biotechnology/health

biotechnology/health

mondoBioTECh
Fabio Cavalli, co-founder, CEO and chief business architect loCaTion Basel, Switzerland nUmBEr oF EmPloyEEs 35 yEar FoUndEd 2001 origins Entrepreneurial start-up
Swiss-based mondoBIOTECH, founded just after the human genome was deciphered, has set its sights on finding treatments for so-called orphan diseases, and delivering its pipeline to larger biotechs and drug companies to be commercialised. mondoBIOTECH uses its technologies— human peptide platforms—to seek out novel biopharmaceutical products. Among its targets are lesser known diseases, but which are nonetheless debilitating, such as idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and pulmonary arterial hypertension. mondoBIOTECH has received 5 Orphan Medical Product Designations for the drug Aviptadil, in Europe and in the US. The last one was granted in October 2007 for Aviptadil in sarcoidosis, currently in mid-stage clinical trials—a rare lung disease in which patients are left with permanent lung damage. The disease affects as many as 80,000 people in Europe alone. Clinical trials of such drugs are expensive, so mondoBIOTECH is sailing an intelligent course to make sure they reach patients—licensing its intellectual property and collaborating with bigger companies. On Aviptadil, for example, the company has partnered with a US firm, Biogen Idec, to commercialise the drug for the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension.

neurosynaptic Comms
Sameer Sawarkar, CEO loCaTion Bangalore, India nUmBEr oF EmPloyEEs 26 yEar FoUndEd 2002 origins Entrepreneurial start-up

Medical technology can be a wonderful enabler, provided that it is widely accessible. Advanced medical diagnostics and treatment are becoming commonplace in much of the developed world. Yet many people worldwide continue to suffer, simply because they are unable to take advantage of even simple and standard medical facilities and diagnostics. Neurosynaptic Communications has set out to address this imbalance with a big vision: healthcare for all. Its mission is equally ambitious—to improve remote healthcare through technology. The company maintains that technology is key to breaking the distance barrier and achieving affordable, scalable and trustworthy healthcare delivery systems. The company, in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Technology at Madras, has developed a wide range of medical diagnostic equipment for clinics, hospitals and rural healthcare centres, under the umbrella of its ReMeDi medical data acquisition system. The system gathers medical information and backs it up with a complete telemedicine solution, even providing the possibility of video and audio conferencing. ReMeDi is one part of the platform of technologies being implemented by the Indian Institute of Technology’s Tenet group, in which local entrepreneurs in villages act as brokers of the technology, offering services such as telemedicine and broadband internet.

Why the company is a pioneer

Developments in technology have brought better medicines within the grasp of many patients. However, drug development remains expensive, so most large drug companies play it safe and concentrate on widespread diseases. Companies such as mondoBIOTECH play an increasingly important role in making sure that sufferers of lesser-known diseases eventually find relief from their conditions.

Why the company is a pioneer

While ”unmet needs” in medicine typically refers to untreated diseases, Neurosynaptic has recognised that access to reliable, innovative technology is often also an unmet need in many communities. With a big vision behind it, the company is working to redress that balance from the ground up.

mondoBIOTECH Hardstrasse 52 4052 Basel Switzerland

Telephone: +41 84 020 0027 Facsimile: +41 84 020 0028 www.mondobiotech.com

Neurosynaptic Communications #6, 29th Main, BTM Layout, II Stage, Bangalore - 560 076 Karnataka, India

Telephone: +91 80 6531 6520 Facsimile: +91 80 4111 0520 www.neurosynaptic.com

4

Crowd wisdom | The World Economics Forum’s Technology Pioneers 2008

biotechnology/health

biotechnology/health

nulens
Ori Gal, CEO loCaTion Herzeliya, Israel nUmBEr oF EmPloyEEs 17 yEar FoUndEd 2002 origins Entrepreneurial start-up

oxitec
Luke Alphey, founder and chief scientist loCaTion Oxford, UK nUmBEr oF EmPloyEEs 25 yEar FoUndEd 2005 origins Spin-out from Oxford University

By the age of 40 most people will have experienced some degree of presbyopia—a vision disorder that involves the eye’s inability to focus on near activities, like reading a newspaper. By the age of 65 many will also have had an operation for cataracts—the most common surgical procedure performed worldwide. Today’s cataract surgery procedures consist of inserting intraocular lenses (IOLs). Standard IOLs are monofocal, while the more advanced are multifocal or pseudo-accommodating with up to two diopters of accommodation. However, NuLens is developing a novel technology, real accommodating IOLs, which are designed to be inserted during cataract surgery and provide more than 10 diopters of accommodative power. Such a dynamic range means that patients could potentially leave cataract surgery with better vision than they had when they were 20 years old. The technology is still in clinical trials, but initial research has given NuLens plenty of confidence. Its management has the right pedigree for success too. Its chairman, Glenn Sblendorio, recently led a US$1bn deal between Eyetech, a biotech company, and Pfizer, a pharmaceutical firm, over Eyetech’s lead product, Macugen, and Gerald (‘Jerry’) Ostrov, a board member, was head of J&J Visioncare in 2005.

Insects ravage crops and carry diseases of humans and livestock. Billions of dollars are spent each year on insecticides, but there is a growing demand for more environmentally friendly techniques. One of the best pest control methods is the sterile insect technique (SIT), which has been in use since the 1950s. The technique is safe and has a low environmental impact—it is very specific for the target pest and reduces or eliminates the need for insecticides. However, its wider use is currently restricted by several issues, including the need to irradiate the insects to sterilise them (some insects such as mosquitoes cannot tolerate irradiation). Enter Oxitec, which is developing new technology to make SIT more affordable, safer and applicable to a wider range of pests. Oxitec’s platform, RIDL, employs genetics and molecular biology to improve significantly the cost effectiveness and safety of SIT, and to extend it to a broader range of insect pests, notably flies, mosquitoes and moths. Oxitec’s RIDL insects are bred to be sterile, but can live and reproduce normally if fed a special diet. They can therefore be reared in a factory and released to mate with wild pest insects without the need for an additional sterilising step. RIDL insects will also be more vigorous and competitive for mates than irradiated ones, so fewer RIDL insects will be required for effective control, thus reducing costs.

Why the company is a pioneer

With the continued ageing of the population and an estimated 1bn people aged over 60 by the year 2020, the presbyopia and cataract markets will be among the largest in healthcare. NuLens’s technology is poised to capture that market, while also leaving many people with a better vision of their future.

Why the company is a pioneer

One of the hardest pests to control is the mosquito— as seen by the increase in mosquito-borne diseases such as dengue fever and malaria in the developing and developed world. Oxitec’s technology could provide a safe and failsafe solution. The company was recently awarded part of a US$20m grant by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Grand Challenges for Global Health Initiative.
Oxitec 71 Milton Park Abingdon Oxford OX14 4RX UK Telephone: +44 1235 832 393 Facsimile: +44 1235 861 138 www.oxitec.com

NuLens Maskit 15 46121 Herzeliya Pituach Israel

Telephone: +972 (9) 954 9495 Facsimile: +972 (9) 954 8060 www.nu-lens.com

Crowd wisdom | The World Economics Forum’s Technology Pioneers 2008

biotechnology/health

biotechnology/health

raindance Technologies
Jonathan Rothberg, founder loCaTion Guilford, USA nUmBEr oF EmPloyEEs 35 yEar FoUndEd 2004 origins Entrepreneurial start-up

resverlogix
Donald J McCaffrey, president, CEO and cofounder loCaTion Calgary, Canada nUmBEr oF EmPloyEEs 34 yEar FoUndEd 2001 origins Entrepreneurial start-up
Revolutions don’t always have to be tumultuous— sometimes they happen quietly. This is especially true in medicine, where new ways of looking at diseases can create more effective treatments for even the best-known diseases. Resverlogix was born when an entrepreneur, Donald McCaffrey, met a clinician, Norman Wong, at a conference. The two discussed the paradigm shift in the treatment of atherosclerosis (a disease affecting arterial blood vessels) from the reduction of LDL cholesterol to raising HDL cholesterol, and realised they had a common goal of developing better therapies for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases. The result, several years later, is a product-driven, publicly traded drug development company with multiple programmes focused on several disease targets. Leading the charge is its NexVas technology, whose basis is a platform for the development of drugs by increasing the production of ApoA-l (the primary component of HDL cholesterol) to treat atherosclerosis, the underlying cause of cardiovascular diseases. This approach also holds promise for Alzheimer’s disease—recent clinical trial data from Alzheimer’s patients, coupled with findings from animal studies, indicate that raising ApoA-l/HDL levels could be beneficial in the treatment

RainDance Technologies has developed the Professional Laboratory System (PLS), a laboratory benchtop system that automates data-rich assay and screening protocols for academic laboratories and corporate research centres across several disciplines. RainDance pioneered the use of micronsized droplets to encapsulate chemical and biological samples on a microfluidic chip, making each droplet the equivalent of a well in a microtitre plate. Dozens of current generic and specialised genomic, drug discovery, diagnostic and industrial applications can be ported over to the PLS, which is then configured using inexpensive chips to replace a range of fluidhandling and analytical chemistry instruments, including microarrays, thermal cyclers, robotic screening platforms and flow cytometers. The company’s founders’ own achievements span the sciences, from physics to biochemistry. They include Dr Jonathan Rothberg, a serial entrepreneur who has also founded similarly innovative companies such as 454 Life Sciences and CuraGen. But RainDance’s platform has applications beyond life science research processes such as identification of cancer markers and drug discovery. It is also broad enough to take in enzyme evolution for industrial production, including biofuels.

Why the company is a pioneer

As laboratory research becomes increasingly complex, researchers depend increasingly on innovative technologies such as the RainDance PLS to help speed up and streamline the process—and save costs. The technology platform can process samples at 10,000 droplets per second, helping to deliver faster, cheaper and more accurate analysis than a host of common life science tools.

Why the company is a pioneer

Backing up Resverlogix’s research programme is the knowledge that working with larger partners is crucial if its products are to get to market. In the company’s armoury is ReVas, a research-stage technology for the development of therapeutics, which can be used with medical devices for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases. Validating that technology is a partnership with Medtronic, a leading developer of drug-eluting stents.

RainDance Technologies 530 Old Whitfield Street Guilford, CT 06437 USA

Telephone: +1 203 458 2947 Facsimile: +1 203 458 2514 www.raindancetechnologies.com

Resverlogix 279 Midpark Way SE Suite 202 Calgary, AB T2X 1M2 Canada

Telephone: +1 403 254 9252 Facsimile: +1 403 256 8495 www.resverlogix.com

Crowd wisdom | The World Economics Forum’s Technology Pioneers 2008

biotechnology/health

biotechnology/health

rincon Pharmaceuticals
Bruce D Steel, CEO loCaTion San Diego, USA nUmBEr oF EmPloyEEs 15 yEar FoUndEd 2003 origins Spin-out from The Scripps Research Institute
Protein therapeutics is one of the fastest-growing classes of molecules in drug development—more than 250 are currently in clinical trials. However, the time constraints, capital requirements and production costs involved in developing and producing protein therapeutics have created a massive barrier to entry in protein drug development. Rincon Pharmaceuticals aims to address the shortcomings inherent in current recombinant protein production technologies, which include the difficulty involved in making complex proteins, as well as slow development speed, poor manufacturing scalability and high production costs. To do that, it has developed a platform technology, AlgRx, based on the novel use of eukaryotic microalgae as a production system for recombinant proteins. Microalgae provide several advantages as a protein production host cell—they are easy to modify genetically, grow easily and rapidly (doubling in cell number every eight hours), can be cultivated at very large scale, are not known to contain human viruses or pathogens, and have the ability to make complex proteins that may not be made in other systems. The company’s strategy is to partner its AlgRx platform with other biotech companies’ pipelines and leverage its capabilities to develop a proprietary product pipeline. Rincon is currently evaluating several proteins produced in the AlgRx system as possible product candidates.

signa Chemistry
Michael Lefenfeld, founder, president and CEO loCaTion New York, USA nUmBEr oF EmPloyEEs 15 yEar FoUndEd 2003 origins Entrepreneurial start-up

Across a range of industries—from pharmaceuticals and petroleum to environmental remediation— getting the chemistry right can be one of the trickiest components of scaling a project up to industrial capacity. Alkali metals, for example, have limited use in large-scale chemical synthesis because of their volatility when exposed to air or moisture, and practical alternatives have proven difficult to develop. SiGNa Chemistry has developed and patented a method for making alkali metals and their derivatives a more practical part of industry’s clean chemistry toolkit, by encapsulating them in nano-structured porous oxides and removing their hazards. SiGNa’s alkali metal-porous oxide (M-SG) products are free-flowing powders that retain their parent alkali metal’s usefulness, being able to perform fast reductions at room temperature and to remove impurities. But importantly, they also have stability among their attributes—they do not ignite or oxidise in air, which means that they are safer and cheaper to use and ship.

Why the company is a pioneer

Why the company is a pioneer

Manufacturing capability is a key strategic asset in protein therapeutic development and is a major barrier to entry for the world’s top biopharmaceutical companies. Rincon’s AlgRx technology should help to reduce this barrier, while also developing unique and enhanced drug properties.

SiGNa Chemistry is an early-stage company, but the materials and processes it has developed to stabilise reactive metals are already winning customers. In pharmaceuticals and industrial chemistry, SiGNa’s materials have replaced hazardous processes with sustainable chemical pathways. They are also being used for the safe removal of polluting sulphur from petroleum, and constitute one of the most effective means for processing water into pure hydrogen fuel. SiGNa materials are also used as a benign mechanism for removing hazardous oil contamination, chemical warfare agents, PCBs and freons from the environment.

Rincon Pharmaceuticals 3030 Bunker Hill Street Suite 318 San Diego, CA 92109 USA

Telephone: +1 858 736 3131 Facsimile: +1 858 736 3101 www.rinconpharma.com

SiGNa Chemistry Corporate Offices 530 East 76th Street Suite 9E New York City, NY 10021 USA

Telephone: +1 212 933 4101 Facsimile: +1 212 208 2605 www.signachem.com

Crowd wisdom | The World Economics Forum’s Technology Pioneers 2008

energy/environmental technology

energy/environmental technology

Cima nanoTech
Jon Brodd, CEO loCaTion St Paul, USA nUmBEr oF EmPloyEEs 32 yEar FoUndEd 2002 origins Entrepreneurial start-up

FluXXion
Thijs Bril, CEO loCaTion Eindhoven, Netherlands nUmBEr oF EmPloyEEs 15 yEar FoUndEd 2003 origins Entrepreneurial start-up

Cima NanoTech is an advanced materials company specialising in nanomaterials for the electronics industries. The company’s commercial-scale nanomaterial production and advanced formulation capability have allowed the development of new technologies, such as conductive inks for use in inkjet printing of electronics and other applications and self-assembling transparent conductive coatings for flat panel displays, solar cells and other printed electronics applications. Cima NanoTech has spearheaded the development of nanotechnology by co-founding the Nano Functional Materials Consortium, a collaboration of academia and industry designed to develop and commercialise nanotechnology. Applications of Cima’s proprietary technology are being used by specialist firms in Japan, South Korea and the US. The company is also currently researching and developing nanoscale semiconductor materials for use in radio frequency identity (RFID) tags and other printed electronics.

FluXXion, a technology company, is the supplier of a new membrane technology for the bulk liquid and analytical filtering markets. The development and production of silicon wafer membranes is carried out in close co-operation with Royal Philips Electronics, with FluXXion applying the advanced capabilities in microsystem and semiconductor technology available at Philips’s high-tech campus in Eindhoven. The technology is then applied to the product design and manufacture of micro filtration membrane products for the bulk and analytical liquid filtration markets. FluXXion’s filter units make use of a dynamic cross-flow pulsing technology, which provides a mechanical cleaning mechanism that keeps the holes in the filters open during filtration. The microfiltration system comprises a silicon disk, the same kind used for computer chips, from which an extremely thin membrane (less than a thousandth of a millimetre) is made. This makes it possible to build very compact filtration units, and also ensures high flow rates.

Why the company is a pioneer

Cima NanoTech’s core group of researchers has developed patented methods for consistently manufacturing a wide range of nanometal and nanometal alloy particles that form the technology platform for its electronics-focused product development. The company’s nanometal dispersions is the enabling technology for nextgeneration digital inkjet printing of microcircuits and transparent conductive coatings for electronics.

Why the company is a pioneer

FluXXion’s key product is its bulk filtration unit, which enables low-cost filtration that is a hundred times faster than conventional processes, providing its customers with a far better yield. Compared with conventional membranes, the firm’s membrane systems provide improvements in terms of filtration quality, cost of ownership, energy consumption, chemical inertness, fouling prevention, waste disposal and cleaning ability.

Cima NanoTech 1000 Westgate Drive Suite 100 St Paul, MN 55114 USA

Telephone: +1 651 646 6266 Facsimile: +1 651 646 4161 www.cimananotech.com

FluXXion High Tech Campus 11 5656AE Eindhoven The Netherlands

Telephone: +31 40 277 4069 Facsimile: +31 40 274 4199 www.fluxxion.com

8

Crowd wisdom | The World Economics Forum’s Technology Pioneers 2008

energy/environmental technology

energy/environmental technology

gridPoint
Peter L Corsell, president and CEO loCaTion Arlington, USA nUmBEr oF EmPloyEEs 75 yEar FoUndEd 2003 origins Entrepreneurial start-up

hycrete, inc.
David Rosenberg, president and CEO loCaTion Carlstadt, USA nUmBEr oF EmPloyEEs 27 yEar FoUndEd 2005 origins Entrepreneurial start-up

With the world increasingly looking to harness as many different sources of energy as possible, the prospect of building new and costly power plants is starting to weigh up. GridPoint’s SmartGrid Platform allows electric utility companies to tackle climate change where it can really count: at the point of energy consumption. The technology is a modular, scalable and upgradable architecture that allows utilities to manage demand and supply using distributed conservation and generation technologies. The platform’s load measurement and control capability allows utility firms to draw clean energy from new fuel sources, such as solar panels, fuel cells and plug-in hybrid electric technologies, which reside at the home or business. This helps utilities to move closer to their environmental goals, while securing supply. The platform also helps homeowners and businesses to save energy through better management—nonessential loads can be reduced and energy peaks ironed out to make energy purchasing cheaper and more predictable.

Concrete is a wonderful building material, with one big drawback—it acts like a hard sponge and in many applications needs to be waterproofed. Traditional waterproofing relies on external membranes or coatings that must be applied with perfect workmanship in order to function correctly. In practice, this frequently fails and results in water ingress and corrosion of any steel reinforcement. Moreover, there is a large environmental impact, as many of these membranes are composed of toxic materials and are permanently bonded to the concrete, thus its recyclability. Hycrete’s technology provides a solution to this problem. The approach is based on a highperformance water-based material that, when mixed integrally with concrete, transforms concrete from an open network of capillaries to a waterproof and protective building material. This performance enhancement to the concrete eliminates the need for external membranes, coatings and sheeting treatments, which in turn accelerates construction timelines and uses less material, while being more economical and environmentally sound. Hycrete’s admixture also binds to the steel reinforcement inside the concrete, which prevents corrosion and improves structural life.

Why the company is a pioneer

GridPoint’s intelligent network not only offers a new means of dealing with the energy crisis, but

Summary Companies are recognizing their customers talent and are taking interest in tapping into their customers for a source of inspiration. In the process they are finding they receive innovative ideas for new products and services.

Description This article provides a lot of information on crowd wisdom providing information on companies that have been selected as technology pioneers in 2008 as a result of their achievements.

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