Though IBM is often viewed as a stodgy old technology giant focused primarily on delivering old-school solutions for big, plodding enterprises, the company continues to churn out new ideas and technologies that many never see.
When I think IBM, I typically think mainframe, COBOL, CICS, SOA (service-oriented architecture), Web services, Java middleware and Linux. I don't think of Web 2.0 technologies like AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML), wikis, mashups and other things.
Yet, although I've long known about alphaWorks—IBM's community site for providing folks with access to IBM's emerging technology coming out of the company's research labs—I rarely looked at what IBM was putting out on the site. It's hardly stodgy, but it also hasn't been promoted as well as it could have been.
