Software & Support Media has announced the premier JAX Innovation Award intended to honour and recognise the most remarkable and outstanding European contributions in the world of Java and Eclipse. These contributions can include products, open source projects, ideas, concepts, publications, or break-through technological innovations.

The award places special emphasis on 'Innovation' as the key driver in the Java and Eclipse world. The prize money, a whopping 20.000 Euro, is up for grabs. Software & Support Media aims at promoting and fostering European software development through this initiative, besides supporting innovations of European businesses and organizations.

A top-class jury incl. Erich Gamma (IBM OTI Labs), Sun Java Ambassador Daniel Adelhardt, and analyst Bola Rotibi (Ovum) e.g. will adjudicate all submissions based on their class and merit. The selection criterion is based on innovation, creativity, smartness, and practical relevance. The entry deadline for contriburions is April 18, 2006.

The JAX Innovation Award will be presented within the scope of JAX , Enterprise Architektur Konferenz , and Eclipse Forum Europe . The three conferences will take place in parallel from May 8 to 12 in Wiesbaden, Germany. Combined they represent one of the most important European conferences on professional information technology.

Software & Support Media also produces the following conferences for the Java and Eclipse ecosystems: JAX, Enterprise Architektur Konferenz, and the Eclipse Forum Europe. It also publishes the Java Magazin and Eclipse Magazin in German, and hosts the JAX Magazine online portal in English.