Computerworld Honors Program Announces Finalists for Prestigious 21st Century Achievement Awards; Award Honorees to be Announced at Washington, D.C., Gala on June 6, 2005

Business Wire, May 5, 2005

FRAMINGHAM, Mass. -- IDG's Computerworld Honors Program today announced the finalists for the 2005 21st Century Achievement Awards. Forty-eight organizations from around the world were selected by an academy of 30 judges for their positive contributions to the global information technology revolution. The finalists represent leading corporations, schools and universities, non-profit groups and government organizations, such as Citigroup, OnStar, Shell, Sprint, the University of Michigan, and WebMD. Among these finalists, 10 honorees of the program's prestigious 21st Century Achievement Awards will be announced at an awards gala at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C., on June 6, 2005.

The 48 finalists, in 10 categories, were selected by the judges from the 162 laureates whose case studies became part of the prestigious Computerworld Honors Collection this past April. In a ceremony at San Francisco City Hall, the 2005 Collection was formally presented to the Global Archives. More than 250 nominations were submitted this year by the industry chairmen and CEOs who serve on the program's Chairmen's Committee.

"The Computerworld Honors Program 21st Century Achievement Awards are presented to organizations from around the world whose visionary use of information technology promotes positive social, economic and educational change," said Bob Carrigan, president and CEO of Computerworld and chairman of the Chairmen's Committee of the Computerworld Honors Program. "The finalists for these awards along with the laureate innovators represented in the Honors Collection have been recognized by the leading IT industry chairmen as true revolutionaries in their fields."

In addition to recognizing the efforts of outstanding organizations, the Computerworld Honors Program also presents a series of Leadership Awards at the June 6 gala designed to honor the extraordinary achievements of individuals whose positive contributions to the information technology revolution have left an indelible mark on the world.

According to Dan Morrow, a founding director and chief historian for the Honors Program, "This year's finalists truly demonstrate how technology can significantly impact industries throughout the world. Their accomplishments are outstanding historical contributions to the information technology revolution in every sense of the word."

The 48 finalists, in the 10 categories, are:

Business and Related Services

Acxiom Corporation; Bellsouth; Cendant Travel Distribution Services; Cogent; and Tarari, Inc.

Education and Academia

Department of Defence (Australia); Instituo Tecnologico y de Estudios; School of Information and Library Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; University of Michigan, School of Pharmacy.

Environment, Energy & Agriculture

Broward County Environment Protection Department, Florida; Eskom; Fractal Technologies Pty Ltd.; Neptune Technology Group Inc.; Shell Oil Products, U.S.

Finance, Insurance & Real Estate

Citigroup; Habib Bank AG Zurich; Insurance Auto Auctions; MassHousing; Sprint.

Government & Not-Profit Organizations

Aidmatrix; Lighthouse International; New York City Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications; State of Pennsylvania, Department of Public Welfare; The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC).

Manufacturing

AAP Implante AG; Cambium Forstbetriebe; Medline Industries, Inc.; Premier Manufacturing Corporation.; Rockwool Corporation.

Media, Arts & Entertainment

ReserveAmerica; School of Information and Library Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; The Gallup Organization; The Phillips Collection; Turner Broadcasting / Turner Entertainment.

Medicine

IBU; LifeSpan Health System; Northern Lights Health Region; Ochsner Clinic Foundation; WebMD Practice Services.

Science

European Southern Observatory; International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI); National Aeronautics and Space Admin (NASA)

Transportation

FHWA/NHTSA National Crash Analysis Center (NCAC); Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport; IdleAire; Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore; OnStar.

The 2005 Collection, which will be archived in libraries, museums and academic and research institutions around the world, will serve as primary source material for scholars and as a resource for individuals who hope to use information technology to create solutions to address their own challenges. The Collection is comprised of case studies from 54 countries.

Case studies from the 2005 Computerworld Honors Collection are available at http://www.cwheroes.org, the official site of the Computerworld Honors Program, where the entire Collection is available to scholars, researchers and the general public worldwide. In addition, the Collection is distributed annually to the Honors Program's Archival Partners around the world. These partners include some of the world's finest research and scholarly institutions, each of which has generously agreed to include the Collection in its archives.

About the Computerworld Honors Program