Nominations for this year's Nobel Peace Prize have closed and, amongst a record 237 nomination, it includes "The Internet". All of it, apparently! Every computer, every server, every router that is part of the global phenomenon that is the Internet. But can it win?
The Nobel Committee members are keeping tight-lipped about the whole process and refuse to be drawn on the chances that the Internet could actually win it. After all, doesn't this Prize go to people? Well, no, not always; sometimes it has been won by organisations, including: International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (1985), Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (1954 and 1981) and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2007). But these are formally constituted organisations and therefore, like corporations, could be considered an abstract form of personhood. But the Internet?
Who would physically go up and receive the prize? Where would it be stored? Who would deliver a speech? The Internet was nominated by the Italian edition of Wired magazine because it fosters "dialogue, debate and consensus". Internet for Peace, set up to help support the nomination of the Internet, says the prize would be "a Nobel for each and every one of us".
