Due to rapid technological innovation and application, there has been an abundance of both new technologies and public concern with these new technologies over the past two decades. In the face of various public concerns, some of these technical breakthroughs have been successful while many others have been unsuccessful. This white paper examines five cases of technical launches that have taken place during the last fifteen years (Lotus MarketPlace: Households, Caller ID, Pentium III Processor Serial Numbers, Cellular Phones, and Genetically Modified Food), and analyzes what factors led to their ultimate success or failure.
After a trademark dispute, the EPC Prototyping Platform is now called "Fosstrak" (previously Accada). Fosstrak stands for "free and open source software for track and trace".