Internet nominated for Nobel Peace Prize 2010

Technology

oi-Staff

Written by: Staff

Bangalore, Feb 3: How do you like the idea of Internet being awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 2010? The world might see Internet succeed the 2009 awardee US president Barack Obama as it is officially fighting for the world's most coveted prize alongside a Russian human rights group and a Chinese dissident.

While a Princeton philosophy professor, Kwame Anthony Appiah nominated Liu Xiaobo, a recently jailed Chinese dissident, Norwegian politician Erna Solberg has nominated Russian rights activist Svetlana Gannushkina and her group Memorial, media reports said on Tuesday, Feb 2.

It was the Italian edition of the Wired magazine which supported the idea of an inanimate object getting the prize. Wired reportedly nominated Internet for promoting "dialogue, debate and consensus through communication" as well as democracy.

In an article published on Nov 20, 2009, titled 'Wired Backs Internet for Nobel Peace Prize', the magazine said, "The internet has clearly been a boon for news junkies, LOLcats and the makers of goofball videos. But it"s also proven to be a powerful international force for peace."

“The internet can be considered the first weapon of mass construction, which we can deploy to destroy hate and conflict and to propagate peace and democracy," Riccardo Luna, editor-in-chief of the Italian edition of Wired magazine opined.

Besides using the instance of Iraq elections to establish how Internet could be used as a 'weapon of global hope', the magazine went on to say how it can be used for terrorism and warfare to prove the power of the media.

So, now that it has been officially nominated, the world has to wait and see if a medium of communication trumps activists and fighters to win the Nobel Prize 2010.

The winner will be announced in Oct 2010.

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