Judy Estrin, one of Silicon Valley's top entrepreneurs, continues to sound warnings that innovation is in danger because of fundamental structural problems.

Ms Estrin again voiced her concerns during her speech at the SDForum Visionary Awards 2009. She was one of four recepients of the annual awards.

She said that Silicon Valley has been living off the innovative work that has been created over the past 30 years but that there needs to be new work done to support future startups.

"What I've been struck by, and concerned by, is that although everybody seems to understand that we have significant structural problems, few are willing to acknowledge their role in the solution. Each group tends to point to someone else that needs to change. The VCs need to take more risk, Wall Street needs to be less short-term focused, government is too involved, government is not involved enough... This is natural because change is hard. But isn't innovation and change what this valley is all about?"

She said that there is a need for "sustainable innovation" so that our future generations, our children, can experience a quality of life at least as good as we have had.

Here is her speech: