National Medal of Technology and Enterprise Architecture

There are a number of awards that encourage advancement in either business, technology, or the general sciences, and these advance the goals of enterprise architecture—which looks to analyze problem areas and uncover gaps, redundancies, inefficiencies, and opportunities and use this for business process reengineering and improvement or to develop technology solutions to advance the enterprise.

An award for technology has been given to individuals from many prestigious companies and universities. For example, in 2006 the National Medal of Technology was awarded to innovators from Alcatel-Lucent Bell Labs, MIT, John Hopkins University, and Purdue University.

National Medal of Technology—“The National Medal of Technology is the highest honor awarded by the President of the United States to America’s leading innovators. Established by an act of Congress in 1980, the Medal of Technology was first awarded in 1985. The Medal is given annually to individuals, teams, and/or companies/divisions for their outstanding contributions to the Nation’s economic, environmental and social well-being through the development and commercialization of technology products, processes and concepts; technological innovation; and development of the Nation’s technological manpower.

The purpose of the National Medal of Technology is to recognize those who have made lasting contributions to America's competitiveness, standard of living, and quality of life through technological innovation, and to recognize those who have made substantial contributions to strengthening the Nation’s technological workforce. By highlighting the national importance of technological innovation, the Medal also seeks to inspire future generations of Americans to prepare for and pursue technical careers to keep America at the forefront of global technology and economic leadership.” (www.technology.gov/medal)

Aside from awards for technology innovation, there have been awards for improving the business of government. For example, under Vice President Al Gore and the sponsorship of the National Partnership for Reinventing Government, there was the Hammer Award.

Hammer Awards— The Hammer Award is presented to teams of federal employees who have made significant contributions in support of reinventing government principles. The Award is the Vice President's answer to yesterday's government and its $400 hammer. Fittingly, the award consists of a $6.00 hammer, a ribbon, and a note from Vice President Gore, all in an aluminum frame. More than 1,200 Hammer Awards have been presented to teams comprised of federal employees, state and local employees, and citizens who are working to build a better government.

(http://govinfo.library.unt.edu/npr/library/awards/hammer)

Other awards such as the National Medal of Science offer recognition to more general advancements in any of the fields of science.

National Medal of Science— The National Medal of Science was established by the 86th Congress in 1959 as a Presidential Award to be given to individuals "deserving of special recognition by reason of their outstanding contributions to knowledge in the physical, biological, mathematical, or engineering sciences." In 1980 Congress expanded this recognition to include the social and behavioral sciences. (www.nsf.gov)

From a User-centric EA perspective, these awards are perfectly aligned with driving enhanced organizational performance whether from the perspective of the business functions and processes, technology innovation, and scientific areas that could progress information sharing, IT security, performance execution, and organizational change. The awards offer recognition at the highest level of government and inspire, promote, and reward major contributions to technology, business, and general scientific advancement, which advances society and help to make us more competitive in the global marketplace.

National Medal of Technology and Enterprise Architecture