Nokia and The Webby Awards are joining forces to give more power to the people.

The companies announced today they are teaming up to allow the global web community to choose their own Webby winners and to help shoot the first-ever “We Shot the Webbys” video campaign.

Hailed as the “Oscars of the Internet” by the New York Times, The Webby Awards is the leading international award honoring excellence on the Internet, including Websites, online film and video, interactive advertising, and mobile Websites.

Under the partnership, Nokia will be the exclusive Presenting Sponsor for the Webby People’s Voice Awards, with every 10,000th voter winning one Nokia Nseries multimedia devices. Last year, nearly half a million votes were cast in the Webby People’s Voice Awards.

To give the world a first-hand, behind-the-scenes look at this year’s Webby Awards, Nokia NSeries multimedia devices will be distributed to all the winners of the Webby Film & Video Awards. The film- and video-makers will use the devices to document their Webby experiences in “We Shot the Webbys,” an online video campaign.

“The Webby Awards and Nokia are both dedicated to helping people everywhere connect, communicate, and share ideas,” said David-Michel Davies, executive director of The Webby Awards. “We can’t wait to see what the Webby community has to share and hear what it has to say.”

“Nokia and the Webby Awards are joining in celebrating the creativity and excellence of both professional and consumer generated content on the web,” said Tero Ojanpera, EVP and Head of Nokia’s Entertainment and Communities Group. “We have created several special channels in our services that will allow consumers to participate in voting for their favorite websites, as well as creating and sharing special Webby Awards focused content during the event week on share.ovi.com.”

Voting for The Webby People’s Voice Awards presented by Nokia, kicks off with the announcement of nominees for The 12th Annual Webby Awards on April 8, 2008. Winners will be announced on April 29th and honored at two star-studded ceremonies in New York City: The Webby Film & Video Awards on June 9th and The 12th Annual Webby Awards Gala on June 10th.

Under the agreement, Nokia will also serve as Official Sponsor of WebbyConnect, the annual Web leadership summit introduced by the Webby Awards last year. Both programs are part of the newly-launched Webby Voice Project, a multi-faceted campaign which incorporates Nokia’s mission, products, and services to engage the global Web community.

About Nokia:
Nokia is the world leader in mobility, driving the transformation and growth of the converging Internet and communications industries. We make a wide range of mobile devices with services and software that enable people to experience music, navigation, video, television, imaging, games, business mobility and more. Developing and growing our offering of consumer Internet services, as well as our enterprise solutions and software, is a key area of focus. We also provide equipment, solutions and services for communications networks through Nokia Siemens Networks.

About The Webby Awards:
Hailed as the "Oscars of the Internet” by the New York Times, The Webby Awards is the leading international award honoring excellence on the Internet, including Web sites, interactive advertising, online film and video, and mobile web sites. Established in 1996, the 12th Annual Webby Awards received a record 9,500 entries from all 50 states and over 60 countries worldwide. The Webby Awards is presented by The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences. Sponsors and Partners of The Webby Awards include: Adobe; The Creative Group; .ORG; The Barbarian Group; Level3; Adweek; Fortune; Variety; Wired; IDG: Brightcove; PricewaterhouseCoopers; 2advanced.Net; KobeMail and Museum of the Moving Image.