Dear Colleagues, Since 2000, the Riders movement (also known as the eRiders or Circuit Riders movement), has recognized outstanding achievements with the Dirk Award. This year marks the first time that nonprofit technology professionals and the communities that they serve can go online to nominate their heroes and pioneers:
<http://www.dirkaward.org/nominations/index.html> The award began as something of an affectionate joke during the early years of the annual Circuit Rider Roundup, which was then organized by TechRocks. According to the nominating committee: "The Dirk Award is named after its inaugural recipient, Dirk Slater, the rabble-rousing LINC Project Rider who received the award not only for his accomplishments as a rider but also to embarrass him for an impassioned speech he gave at the event. During this speech, which had everyone in tears and on the edge of their seats, Dirk implored the riders to organize themselves into a powerful and supportive community. He implored the crowd to acknowledge that circuit and eRiding was and is inspired by principles of social justice and community organizing that riders support with their technology services. The group thanked him with a little golden man." These days, the Circuit Rider Roundup takes the form of the annual Nonprofit Technology Conference, and is organized by the Nonprofit Technology Enterprise Network. Dirk Slater continues to serve as a leader and an inspiration in the field, as do the other Dirk Award recipients: Bill Lester, Teresa Crawford, Art McGee, Katrin Verclas, and Allen Gunn. In general, I don't attach a tremendous amount of significance to professional awards, and tend to entertain an assortment of worries about how awards (rather than the work itself) can be mistaken for achievement. However, I think the world of Dirk, and I love the spirit in which this award was created and is perpetuated. (By the way, a version of this item can also be found on my blog at <http://blog.deborah.elizabeth.finn.com/blog/_archives/2005/4/8/563996.html>.) Best regards from Deborah Deborah Elizabeth Finn Boston, Massachusetts, USA [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://blog.deborah.elizabeth.finn.com/blog http://public.xdi.org/=deborah.elizabeth.finn _______________________________________________ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
