Will reward for innovation
Can a reward be used to help jump-start an industry? asks Rafe Needleman in today's What's Next on the X Prize Foundation (a $10 million prize fund designed to get private industry to build a space-launch system for tourists):
In the early days of aviation, cash awards encouraged the development of many technologies and systems, thereby helping nascent industries to grow. Charles Lindbergh was competing for the $25,000 Orteig Prize when he crossed the Atlantic in 1926. The following year, commercial air traffic jumped dramatically.