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Online Safety Project Inducted as Smithsonian Laureate
by Anne Collier
Editor
The Sage Letter"The Online Safety Project is a national treasure and a major addition to our documentation on the role technology plays in shaping our world."
Daniel S. Morrow
Executive Director
Computerworld Smithsonian Awards
SafeKids Founder Larry Magid receives medal from Patrick McGovern
Chairman of International Data Group as SafeKids.Com and SafeTeens.Com
sites are accepted for inclusion into the Smithsonian Archives.At a Washington DC ceremony on April 12th, the Online Safety Project was inducted into the Smithsonian Institution's Permanent Collection as a result of the project's nomination for a Computerworld Smithsonian award.
The Online Safety Project is the parent organization behind SafeKids.Com and SafeTeens.Com.
OSP founder Larry Magid was at the ceremony in DC accepting a medal on behalf of the project. We asked him to describe the experience….
"I showed up at about 8:45 Monday morning. There was a very large tent set up on the mall about half way between the Capitol and the Washington Monument. Hundreds of people were milling around drinking coffee and eating fruit kabobs and bagels. It was very nice - though unseasonably cold and windy for April in Washington. The ceremony was called to order at 9:30.
It opened with a brass band and a military honor guard presenting the colors. There were nearly 400 of us "laureates" seated behind the podium, and they read the name and gave a medallion to every single person on that stage. It was quite a long process."
We asked Larry what struck him most. "There were two cool things, really. There will be about five finalists for each category and one winner. I don't know if we'll be a finalist or a winner, but the great thing is that everybody there got a medal and was recognized as having made a significant contribution that will be available to the American people forever….
"The second thing was getting out there to meet the other laureates. It just feels good that the 'nation's museum,' which is really what the Smithsonian is, is saying not just to the Online Safety Project but to everyone that what we're doing is part of the record of what makes America
America…. It's not something we give thought to very often, but these are things that contribute to the fabric of our society."
Those contributors Larry's referring to - the Smithsonian laureates - are Web sites, technologies, and education programs selected by a nominating committee of about 100 CEOs and chairmen of companies in the high-tech industry (AOL chairman Steve Case nominated the Online Safety Project).
Once you're nominated you submit a case study that is reviewed by a Smithsonian archivist. After it passes that mark, the project goes into the Smithsonian's permanent archives. If you're in Washington, you can view the material from the Online Safety Projects and other laureates in the Information Technology area of the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.
Finalists will be announced later this month; winners sometime in June (we'll keep you posted).
You can view information on all the laureates at the awards site.
