The Internet platform GuttenPlag Wiki has been awarded the renowned Grimme Online prize for its work in uncovering plagiarized passages in the doctoral thesis of former German Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg.

The jury awarded GuttenPlag Wiki the prize in the "special" category for coming up with the idea and putting it into action. It lauded what it described as the "fair and impartial working methods of the administrators of the wiki." A wiki is a website that allows its users to make contributions or corrections.

Collaborative effort

Earlier this year, more than 1,000 volunteers contributed to GuttenPlag Wiki, identifying numerous passages of plagiarized text in Guttenberg's thesis. The scale of plagiarism in the dissertation is displayed in graphic form on the website.

"The project demonstrated that, by working collaboratively, comparisons of text can be well organized - as well as showing the opportunities the Web provides for working together," the jury said.

Guttenberg had been seen as a possible successor to Chancellor Angela Merkel

A total of eight prizes in four categories were presented at the awards ceremony in the western German city of Cologne on Wednesday. GuttenPlag Wiki was among 26 websites nominated.

Uwe Kamman, the director of the Grimme Institute which sponsors the awards, said websites like GuttenPlag Wiki showed that you don't have to have a big publishing house with a big budget behind you to make an impact.

A political role

"The net is political, creative, innovative, and also an important element for collective control mechanism and individual participation," Kamman said.

The revelations of plagiarism published on GuttenPlag Wiki helped increase the pressure on the defense minister to step down. He had been one of Germany's most popular politicians.

Guttenberg announced on March 1 that he was resigning from all of his political posts after weeks of criticism over the affair. The University of Bayreuth had withdrawn Guttenberg's law doctorate just one week earlier, after finding that substantial parts of his thesis were plagiarized.

Author: Chuck Penfold (dpa, EPD, Reuters)

Editor: Susan Houlton