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California Educational Data Processing Association |
The DataBus - Vol. 37, No. 2
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Each year the Computerworld Smithsonian Awards Program identifies and honors men and women whose visionary use of information technology produces positive, social, economic and educational change. These innovators, nominated by 100 Chairmen of the nation's leading Information Technology companies, are accorded a permanent place in history at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History.
Mr. George Fisher, Chairman of Eastman Kodak Company, nominated Desert Sands Unified School District's Metropolitan Area Network for an award in the Education and Academia category. Mr. Fisher nominated Desert Sands' Network because in his view, it was the year's very best example of technological innovation.
Desert Sands Metropolitan Area Network written, audio and visual material will become part of the Smithsonian permanent research collection and World Wide Web site, the "Innovation Network" at http://innovate.si.edu. The formal presentation of Desert Sands Metropolitan Area Network will take place Tuesday, June 10, 1997, 9 a.m., in the Enid Haupt Garden at the Smithsonian Castle. This ceremony will honor Desert Sands and officially induct its work into the Smithsonian's Permanent Research Collection.
In addition to the nomination, the Computerworld Smithsonian Awards Program invited DSUSD to send all material that could best describe the technological innovation. Once the information is received by Computerworld Awards Program, it will be sent to the archives of the National Museum of American History. Copies of the information will be distributed to a three-person panel of experts, leading technologists, prominent educators, and internationally-known leaders from both the public and private sectors. Five finalists will be announced in April. The announcement of the winners at a black-tie dinner at the National building Museum in Washington, D.C., has come to be known as the Academy Awards of the Information Technology Industry. But more important, the event represents an opportunity to onor and recognize the men and women who are harnessing the power of information technology to benefit mankind.
Every entry into the Permanent Research Collection becomes part of a public recognition campaign to ensure that all nominations receive attention from national and local media, as nationally recognized innovations that are changing our lives in positive ways.
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