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<p class=MsoNormal>Hello everyone,<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>Today is the deadline for submissions to the Computer
History Museum prize. A good number of books have been received already by the
prize committee, but if you have one (published 2006-8) that hasn’t been dispatched
yet then now would be a good time to run to the post office with copies
for each of our three inaugural judges: Tom Misa, Paul Ceruzzi, and Jen Light. The
call is on our website at <a href="http://www.sigcis.org/?q=node/56">http://www.sigcis.org/?q=node/56</a>
and in various other places around the Internet thanks to the promotion
efforts of Jeffrey Tang, the SIGCIS secretary. (And no, this isn’t an
April Fools’ Day prank).<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>We talked about the prize a little bit at our lunch meeting
in Lisbon back in October, but now it’s really happening I wanted to
share a few thoughts with the full SIGCIS membership. The prize is a small but
significant step in the maturation of our field. As sociologists of science
would tell you, the emergence of a new sub discipline relies on the creation of
new institutions and practices to support new identities. Some of these came
long ago to the field, such as Annals of the History of Computing and the
CBI’s Tomash fellowship. Others will take a great deal of enthusiasm and money
to accomplish and remain projects for the distant future. But the CHM prize is
now a reality and fills one of the most important of the remaining gaps. We
now have a ceremony in which members of our SIG gather every year to
celebrate an outstanding work of scholarship, chosen by their peers within that
same community because it advances in some exciting way our collective project.
Over the years the growing list of its recipients will document the future evolution
of the field and showcase some of the best work in the history of technology.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>For this achievement there are some people who need to be
acknowledged. Thanks to the vision and generosity of a donor who wishes to
remain anonymous we have a pledge for indefinite support of the $1,000 a year
cash prize plus an endowment amount of at least $20,000 in the event of the
donor’s death. That lets us launch the prize at a respectable level freeing
up our homespun fundraising for other projects such as graduate student travel
and workshop organization. SHOT seems to have taken the cash amounts out of its
prize descriptions online, but it is comparable financially with many of our
parent society’s major awards. So thank you, Donor X. You’ve made a
real difference.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>Things moved very quickly from tentative discussion at our
2007 lunch meeting of the possibility of SIGCIS initiating a prize. By early
2008 we had our funding pledge. SIGCIS does not have a significant fundraising
operation and does not plan to develop one. So we are dependent on formal and
informal collaboration with other organizations in the field. I am enormously
grateful to veteran curator Doron Swade, who attended out 2007 meeting and took
the idea back with him to the Computer History Museum where he was then working
as a consultant. The museum’s chairman, Len Shustek, brought the prize
idea to the attention of our donor and sealed the deal. Without Len’s
willingness to use his charm and connections on our behalf the prize would
still just be a vague prospect for the future.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>But it takes more than money to make a prize. We were
determined to learn from best practices in the area and to make the prize as
credible as possible. An ad-hoc steering committee consisting of Tom Misa
(chair), Bill Aspray, Mike Mahoney, and Paul Ceruzzi was recruited and charged
with setting up policies and procedures for the prize. Should it be for books
or articles? Awarded every year? Open to popular books? What to call the field
it recognizes? Drawing on a deep familiarity with the field and long service on
other prize committees the committee answered these, and many other questions.
This was Mike’s last service to the SIG, and as always his advice guided
us well. Tom and Paul also agreed to stay on as judges to give continuity from
the policies set by the ad-hoc committee into their practical implementation.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>As their mailboxes fill with hefty volumes the judges have a
good deal of reading ahead of them, and also deserve our thanks for the time this
will require away from their own research and other commitments. I hope that as
many of you as possible will be able to join us in Pittsburgh this autumn for
the presentation of the first prize.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>Best wishes,<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>Tom Haigh<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
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