Info Mesa
Encyclopedia
Info Mesa is the named coined by Ed Regis
to describe the emerging technology companies and community in Santa Fe, New Mexico
. The name was first used in an article in Wired Magazine in 2000 and later in a book by Regis published in 2003. The main characteristics of the companies in the Info Mesa are the focus on extracting usable information from large data flows and understanding the emergent behavior of large numbers of interacting agents. Much of the technology originated in nearby Los Alamos National Laboratory
, National Center for Genome Resources
, and Santa Fe Institute
. The companies have applied these technologies to applications such as drug discovery
, black-box trading systems, bankruptcy
forecasting, airline scheduling
, reinsurance
, and professional physician networks
. The collapse of the dotcom boom and 9/11 led to the failure of many of the Info Mesa companies. However, many survived and succeeded.
Ed Regis (author)
Ed Regis is an American author and educator. He specializes in books and articles about science, philosophy and intelligence. His topics have included nanotechnology, transhumanism and biological warfare...
to describe the emerging technology companies and community in Santa Fe, New Mexico
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Santa Fe is the capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico. It is the fourth-largest city in the state and is the seat of . Santa Fe had a population of 67,947 in the 2010 census...
. The name was first used in an article in Wired Magazine in 2000 and later in a book by Regis published in 2003. The main characteristics of the companies in the Info Mesa are the focus on extracting usable information from large data flows and understanding the emergent behavior of large numbers of interacting agents. Much of the technology originated in nearby Los Alamos National Laboratory
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Los Alamos National Laboratory is a United States Department of Energy national laboratory, managed and operated by Los Alamos National Security , located in Los Alamos, New Mexico...
, National Center for Genome Resources
National Center for Genome Resources
The is a nonprofit research organization in Santa Fe, New Mexico founded in 1994 focusing on life sciences research, bioinformatics technologies, and leading-edge molecular data production including sequencing, genotyping, and gene expression....
, and Santa Fe Institute
Santa Fe Institute
The Santa Fe Institute is an independent, nonprofit theoretical research institute located in Santa Fe and dedicated to the multidisciplinary study of the fundamental principles of complex adaptive systems, including physical, computational, biological, and social systems.The Institute houses a...
. The companies have applied these technologies to applications such as drug discovery
Drug discovery
In the fields of medicine, biotechnology and pharmacology, drug discovery is the process by which drugs are discovered or designed.In the past most drugs have been discovered either by identifying the active ingredient from traditional remedies or by serendipitous discovery...
, black-box trading systems, bankruptcy
Bankruptcy
Bankruptcy is a legal status of an insolvent person or an organisation, that is, one that cannot repay the debts owed to creditors. In most jurisdictions bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor....
forecasting, airline scheduling
Scheduling (production processes)
Scheduling is an important tool for manufacturing and engineering, where it can have a major impact on the productivity of a process. In manufacturing, the purpose of scheduling is to minimize the production time and costs, by telling a production facility when to make, with which staff, and on...
, reinsurance
Reinsurance
Reinsurance is insurance that is purchased by an insurance company from another insurance company as a means of risk management...
, and professional physician networks
Social network
A social network is a social structure made up of individuals called "nodes", which are tied by one or more specific types of interdependency, such as friendship, kinship, common interest, financial exchange, dislike, sexual relationships, or relationships of beliefs, knowledge or prestige.Social...
. The collapse of the dotcom boom and 9/11 led to the failure of many of the Info Mesa companies. However, many survived and succeeded.
Companies on the Info Mesa
- Applied BiosystemsApplied BiosystemsApplied Biosystems, Inc. started as GeneCo , was the name of a pioneer biotechnology company founded in 1981 in Foster City, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area...
(closed Santa Fe office) - Assuratech (defunct)
- BiosGroupBiosGroupBiosGroup, founded in 1997 by Stuart Kauffman and Ernst & Young , was a spin off from the Santa Fe Institute. The company aimed to commercialize complexity science software in applications that helped companies manage projects and supply chains...
(consulting practice acquired by NuTech) - BioReason (acquired by Simulations Plus)
- Black Mesa Capital
- Caldera Pharmaceuticals
- Center for Adaptive Systems Applications (CASA)Center for Adaptive Systems Applications (CASA)The Center for Adaptive Systems Applications was a company founded in 1995 by physicists and a business developer from Los Alamos National Laboratory...
(acquired by HNC SoftwareRobert Hecht-NielsenRobert Hecht-Nielsen is an adjunct professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of California, San Diego. He co-founded HNC Software, and became a vice president of R&D at Fair Isaac Corporation when it acquired the company....
and then Fair IsaacFair IsaacFair Isaac Corporation is a public company that provides analytics and decision making services—including credit scoring—intended to help financial services companies make complex, high-volume decisions.- History :...
) - Complexica (merged with QformaQformaQforma, Inc. was founded in 2000 by physicist Roger D. Jones from the Los Alamos National Laboratory, and pharmaceutical executive, Kelly D. Myers. The company is one of several companies in Santa Fe, New Mexico that were founded on technologies first created at the Los Alamos National...
) - CommodiCast (changed name to QformaQformaQforma, Inc. was founded in 2000 by physicist Roger D. Jones from the Los Alamos National Laboratory, and pharmaceutical executive, Kelly D. Myers. The company is one of several companies in Santa Fe, New Mexico that were founded on technologies first created at the Los Alamos National...
) - Dalke Scientific Software (relocated to Sweden)
- Data Ventures
- Deep Web TechnologiesDeep Web TechnologiesDeep Web Technologies is a software company that specializes in mining the deep Web — the part of the Internet that is not directly searchable through ordinary web search engines....
- Daylight Chemical Information SystemsDavid WeiningerDavid Weininger is a chemist and entrepreneur. He is a co-founder of Daylight Chemical Information Systems, a company in Santa Fe, New Mexico that does rapid analysis of massive chemical databases. Weininger is the inventor of Simplified Molecular Input Line Entry Specification , a universal...
- Genzyme Genetics
- Infomesa, LLC (defunct)
- Los Alamos Visual Analytics (LAVA)
- Mesa Analytics & Computing, Inc.
- OpenEye Scientific SoftwareOpenEye Scientific SoftwareOpenEye Scientific Software develops large-scale molecular modeling applications and toolkits.-Scope:Primarily geared towards drug discovery and design, areas of application include structure generation, docking, shape comparison, charge/electrostatics, cheminformatics and visualization...
- PE Informatics
- Phase-1 Molecular Toxicology
- Prediction CompanyPrediction CompanyPrediction Company was founded in Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA, in March 1991 by J. Doyne Farmer, Norman Packard and James McGill. The company uses various forecasting techniques to build black-box trading systems for various financial markets...
(acquired by Union Bank of SwitzerlandUnion Bank of SwitzerlandUnion Bank of Switzerland was a large integrated financial services company located in Switzerland. The bank, which at the time was the second largest bank in Switzerland, merged with Swiss Bank Corporation in 1998, to become UBS to form what was then the largest bank in Europe and the second...
) - QformaQformaQforma, Inc. was founded in 2000 by physicist Roger D. Jones from the Los Alamos National Laboratory, and pharmaceutical executive, Kelly D. Myers. The company is one of several companies in Santa Fe, New Mexico that were founded on technologies first created at the Los Alamos National...
- QTL Biosystems
- Redfish Group
- Santa Fe Complex
- Strategic Analytics (acquired by Verisk AnalyticsVerisk AnalyticsVerisk Analytics is an American financial services firm based in Jersey City, New Jersey, that provides information and analytical tools for mortgage and insurance companies, to better help them identify risks and standardize procedures...
) - Swarm Corporation (defunct)