eWeek Excellence Awards Fund Boys & Girls Clubs

Last night, I had the pleasure of attending the eWeek Excellence Awards with Sunnies Laura Ramsey and Chhandomay Mandal. The entry fees that companies submit to eWeek for these awards go to the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, and representatives from the Lawrence, Mass. club and the Harlem, N.Y. club were on hand to accept. Kudos to Ziff for doing something so worthwhile with the funds.

Before the formal awards, we had the opportunity to chat with Technology Editor Peter Coffee, who commented on how notable it was that Sun was making its debut as a software winner, with not just one, but with two awards. (And from several hundred entries, I might add.)

Peter served as the emcee of the event. (Who knew the guy was so funny?) He introduced the award for Java Studio Enterprise 7, winner in the App Dev category, by highlighting the importance of collaboration among dispersed development teams. He applauded the innovation behind the the product's instant messaging environment tailored for developers. Laura snagged the award, crediting the Java engineering geniuses out in the Bay area, and swears she'll send it back to the team.

Sun also won the "E-Business Foundations" category, with Solaris 10, which Peter cited for its manageability, cost-effectiveness and for Sun's bold experiment in deliverying it to market. Chhando picked up the award, noting the tremendous number of downloads to date, with one more million registered licenses in just two months of availability. (To which, Peter quipped: "Can you believe we just heard the word 'download' in connection with Solaris?")

Parting thought: I'm sure it hasn't been easy for Ziff to maintain its investment in eWeek Labs, but I commend them for doing so. About two-thirds of the companies picking up awards last night were small firms. The Labs help bring a lot of innovation to light and can truly help the industry detect gems that might otherwise go undiscovered.