alphaWorks is IBM's "emerging technology portal". It is a web community for early adopters to preview and collaborate on prototype technology from IBM Research labs. International Business Machines Corporation (IBM, or colloquially, Big Blue) NYSE: IBM (incorporated June 15, 1911, in operation since 1888) is headquartered in Armonk, NY, USA. The company manufactures and sells computer hardware, software, infrastructure services and consulting services. ... Diffusion is the process by which a new idea or new product is accepted by the market. ...
alphaWorks was founded in August1996, in IBM's Advanced Technology group (called "Internet Division" at the time). The alphaWorks program has launched early release technology implementations in nascent technology communities of software developers, in areas like Java(TM) technology, XML and web services. Since 1996, alphaWorks has succeeded in helping IBM connect with innovative developers to lead the development of promising new standards, products and open source technology. alphaWorks is a key aspect of the developerWorks resource for developers. August is the eighth month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar and one of seven Gregorian months with the length of 31 days. ... 1996 (MCMXCVI) is a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty. ... Java is an object-oriented programming language developed by James Gosling and colleagues at Sun Microsystems in the early 1990s. ... The Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a W3C-recommended general-purpose markup language for creating special-purpose markup languages, capable of describing many different kinds of data. ... A web service is a collection of protocols and standards used for exchanging data between applications. ... developerWorks is resource by IBM for software developers. ...
Moreover, the alphaWorks initiative has transformed IBM's ponderous and process-driven approach to innovation into an approach that is dynamic and market driven.
The alphaWorks team receives about 150 alpha technologies from IBM Research each year, of which some 100 are suitable for posting to the alphaWorks Web site.
alphaWorks hence acts as a market barometer for emerging technologies, aggregating feedback from the developers and gaining their eventual commitment to support the technology.