EFF announces Pioneer Awards

Electronic Frontier Foundation Media Release

For Immediate Release: Thursday, April 27, 2006

Contact:

Katina Bishop
   Projects Coordinator
   Electronic Frontier Foundation
   katina@eff.org
   +1 415 436-9333 x101

EFF Honors Craigslist, Gigi Sohn, and Jimmy Wales with
Pioneer Awards

15th Annual Ceremony Highlights Innovations in Information
Technology

Washington, DC - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)
will honor craigslist and its leaders, Craig Newmark and
Jim Buckmaster; Gigi Sohn of Public Knowledge; and Jimmy
Wales of Wikipedia at its 15th annual Pioneer Awards
ceremony.  The presentation is at 7pm on Wednesday, May 3
at the International Spy Museum in Washington, DC, in
conjunction with the Computers, Freedom, and Privacy
conference (CFP).

This year's award winners all represent vital,
community-building organizations dedicated to spreading
knowledge in or about our digital world.  They were
nominated by the public and then chosen by a panel of
independent judges for their innovations in the realm of
information technology.

Craigslist is the world's most-used classified forum in any
medium, serving as a non-commercial community service.
Craigslist focuses on helping people with their basic needs
-- starting with housing and jobs -- with a pervasive
culture of trust.  Craigslist's Craig Newmark founded the
online community in 1995, and he still acts as a customer
service representative.  Jim Buckmaster has been
craigslist's CEO since November of 2000, helping to
transform it into one of the most popular websites in the
world while maintaining its renowned public service
mission.

Gigi B. Sohn is president and co-founder of Public
Knowledge, a nonprofit organization that addresses the
public's stake in the convergence of communications policy
and intellectual property law, and serves as PK's chief
strategist, fundraiser and public face.  Sohn often
testifies before Congress on intellectual property and
technology policy, and she takes an active part in debates
about proposed legislation.

Jimmy Wales is the founder and president of the Wikimedia
Foundation, a non-profit corporation that operates
Wikipedia -- a free, online, collaborative encyclopedia.
Wikipedia started in January of 2001, and now it's one of
the most-used reference sites on the Internet, with
editions in over 200 languages.

"I'm thrilled to honor this year's Pioneer Award
recipients," said EFF's Executive Director, Shari Steele.
"The Internet is a web of communities, among other things,
and Craig, Jim, Gigi and Jimmy have all been instrumental
in helping to give people the tools they need for sharing
information online."

The judges for this year's awards were Kim Alexander
(President and Founder, California Voter Foundation),
Esther Dyson (editor, Release 1.0, CNET Networks), Edward
W. Felten (Professor of Computer Science and Public
Affairs, Princeton University), Mitch Kapor (Chair, Open
Source Applications Foundation), Drazen Pantic
(Co-Director, Location One, New York), Barbara Simons (IBM
Research [Retired]and former President ACM), and James Tyre
(Founder, The Censorware Project).

Since 1991, the EFF Pioneer Awards have recognized
individuals and organizations that have made significant
and influential contributions to the development of
computer-mediated communications or to the empowerment of
individuals in using computers and the Internet.  Past
winners include Tim Berners-Lee, Linus Torvalds, and Ed
Felten, among many others.

This year, the Pioneer Awards are sponsored by Sling Media,
a consumer electronics company working to demystify
convergence technologies and to create empowering
experiences for the digital media consumer.  Sling Media's
Slingbox transforms Windows-based laptops, desktops, PDAs,
and smartphones into personal on-the-go digital TVs.  Learn
more about Sling Media at http://www.slingmedia.com.

More on the EFF Pioneer Awards:
http://www.eff.org/awards/pioneer/

For this release:
http://www.eff.org/news/archives/2006_04.php#004590

About EFF

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is the leading civil
liberties organization working to protect rights in the
digital world. Founded in 1990, EFF actively encourages and
challenges industry and government to support free
expression and privacy online. EFF is a member-supported
organization and maintains one of the most linked-to
websites in the world at http://www.eff.org/


     -end-

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