Jimy Wales, co-founder of Wikipedia, wins Nokia Foundation Award

On Nov. 4, Jimmy Donal "Jimbo" Wales received €10,000 award at the Nokia Foundation scholarship awards ceremony in Helsinki, Finland.

Henry Tirri, head of the Nokia Research Center and Chairman of the Board of the Nokia Foundation, said during Nokia during the ceremony, "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. 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." Wikipedia was launched in 2001 by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger and is now the most popular and largest online encyclopedia. According to a company press release, the Nokia Foundation was set up 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." Jimmy Wales is only the third non-Finn who has been awarded a Nokia Foundation Award. There is no information as of yet about the award on Wikinews, which is is operated and supported by the Wikimedia Foundation. Wales serves on its Board of Trustees.