Nokia Foundation Awards the Founder of Wikipedia

HELSINKI, November 4 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The Nokia Foundation has
granted its 2009 award to Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, the free,
multilingual encyclopedia. Wales was awarded for his contributions to the
evolution of the World Wide Web as a participatory and truly democratic
platform.
The EUR 10,000 award was presented at the Nokia Foundation scholarship
awards ceremony on 4 November, 2009.
"It's a great honor to present this award on behalf of the Board of the
Nokia Foundation to an individual who we believe has made a unique
contribution to accelerating online collaboration and interaction for
millions of people around the world, and effectively democratizing
information sharing," said Henry Tirri, head of Nokia Research Center and
Chairman of the Board of the Nokia Foundation.
"The theme for this year's award is Open Innovation, a way of working
which is very important for our activities at Nokia Research Center, and a
value which we believe is embodied in the participatory and inclusive
approach of Wikipedia," he continued.
Since its creation in 2001, Wikipedia has grown rapidly into one of the
largest reference web sites, so far attracting an average of more than 330
million monthly visitors this year. There are more than 75,000 active
contributors working on more than 14,000,000 articles in more than 260
languages. Wales is also the co-founder of Wikia.com, a project which expands
the participatory editing model into new areas, allowing the global community
to come together to build the "rest of the library".
Previous recipients of the Nokia Foundation annual award include Lauri
Kuokkanen (1995), Pekka Tarjanne (1996), Linus Torvalds (1997), Arto Salomaa
(1998), Kullervo Nieminen (1999), Osmo A. Wiio (2000), Ilkka Haikala (2001),
Veikko Rintamaki (2002), George Metakides (2003), Heikki Lyytinen (2004),
Moncef Gabbouj (2005), Marten Mickos (2006), Pekka Abrahamsson (2007), Aapo
Kyrola and Sampo Karjalainen (2008).
This year, the Nokia Foundation also awarded 77 scholarships with a total
value of EUR 385,000. All 77 scholarships were granted to post-graduate
students to support the completion of their doctorate studies in the field of
information and data communications technology.
About the Nokia Foundation
The Nokia Foundation was formed in 1995 to support the scientific
development of information and telecommunications technologies and to promote
education of the sector in Finland. Multidisciplinary research that bridges
approaches from other fields, like social, behavioral, business and services
sciences, is highly valued by Nokia.
The Nokia Foundation provides scholarships and awards for the purposes
mentioned above. Decisions are made by the board of the Foundation, which
consists of four representatives from Finnish universities and three
representatives of Nokia.
Established on the initiative of Nokia, the Nokia Foundation was entered
in the Finnish foundation registry in August 1995. Nokia Foundation is not
part of Nokia Corporation and its mandate is limited to granting funds in
line with the foundation's mission.
About Nokia
Nokia is a pioneer in mobile telecommunications and the world's leading
maker of mobile devices. Today, we are connecting people in new and different
ways - fusing advanced mobile technology with personalized services to enable
people to stay close to what matters to them. We also provide comprehensive
digital map information through NAVTEQ; and equipment, solutions and services
for communications networks through Nokia Siemens Networks.
http://www.nokia.com
SOURCE Nokia Corporation

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