Internet up for Nobel peace gong

If Obama gets one, so do the rest of us

The Internet has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, backed by a handful of tech industry luminaries.

The Nobel Institute does not release its annual list of nominations, but told the BBC that this year 237 nominations have been made for its sometimes-revered Peace Prize, and the entity known as The Internet is among them.

The Internet is backed for the prize by 2003 Nobel winner Shirin Ebadi as part of a wider campaign by the Italian publishers of Wired magazine. However, Ebadi's statement of support for the campaign reads more like a note of extreme caution.

“Internet can also be used for propaganda of war and terrorism's attacks, as Taliban and some other terrorist groups have used the Internet to attract many fans. it should not be ignored that in some cases Internet has been used as a tool to spread information about making the small bombs,” she wrote.

The InternetForPeace.org campaign also lists Creative Commons chief Joi Ito, $100 laptop guru Nicholas Negroponte and fashion designer Giorgio Armania among its supporters.

If we win, The Internet will join a list of shady characters including Henry Kissinger, Yasser Arafat and Mother Teresa stretching back to 1901. The 2010 winners are announced in the autumn.