Hello everyone, We will be following up soon with more news from out annual meeting & workshop last weekend. However, I did want to make sure that we make a timely announcement for those who could not be in Cleveland of the winner of our Computer History Museum book prize. This was awarded on Sunday for the third time, during our SIGCIS Workshop (http://www.sigcis.org/workshop11). Here’s the announcement from the prize committee: The SHOT SIGCIS/Computer History Museum Prize is awarded this year to Paul N. Edwards' A Vast Machine: Computer Models, Climate Data, and the Politics of Global Warming (The MIT Press, 2010). This book was selected out of a set of more than 15 excellent candidates. Paul Edwards’ insightful, ambitious and theoretically-sophisticated study addresses hotly debated political issues of our time through a methodical historical analysis. It traces the construction of climate sciences over two centuries, from weather forecasts to highly mathematized simulation models, from local observation to worldwide networks. Epistemological reflections on the relationship between data and models are interwoven with the institutional and political narrative of the development of a global knowledge infrastructure, particularly in the context of the Cold War. Computers and telecommunications then made it possible not only to digitalize more data and process more elaborate models, but also to produce standard representations of the world. We trust that this book, written at a high level of historiographical quality for a wide, non-specialized readership, will find a large audience. Thanks to the 2011 prize committee: Pierre Mounier-Kuhn (Chair) -- CNRS & Université Paris-Sorbonne, Jennifer S. Light -- Northwestern University School of Communication, and Jonathan Coopersmith -- Texas A&M University. Links: Prize website: http://www.sigcis.org/chmprize Paul Edwards website: http://pne.people.si.umich.edu/ A Vast Machine page: http://pne.people.si.umich.edu/vastmachine/index.html At MIT Press: http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2 <http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=12080> &tid=12080 At Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Vast-Machine-Computer-Climate-Politics/dp/0262013924 Background: The Computer History Museum Prize is awarded to the author of an outstanding book in the history of computing broadly conceived, published during the prior three years. The prize of $1000 is awarded by SIGCIS, the Special Interest Group for Computers, Information and Society. It is established through the generosity of an anonymous donor who wishes to honor the Computer History Museum. SIGCIS is part of the Society for the History of Technology. Previous winners: * 2009: Christophe Lécuyer <http://www.sigcis.org/node/89> , Making Silicon Valley: Innovation and the Growth of High Tech, 1930-1970 (MIT Press, 2006) * 2010: Atsushi Akera <http://www.sigcis.org/node/133> , Calculating a Natural World: Scientists, Engineers, and Computers During the Rise of U.S. Cold War Research (MIT Press, 2007) Congratulations go also to MIT Press, which published the first three books to win the prize. Best wishes, Tom