互聯網十大影響力事件 iPhone、奧巴馬上榜
The launch of Wikipedia, emergence of the iPhone and the election of U.S. President Barack Obama were among the 10 most influential moments on the Internet in the past decade, according to the annual Webby awards.
Other events singled out by the New York-based International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, which has presented the annual Webby awards since 1996, were the Iranian election in 2009 when protests demonstrated the power of Twitter and other social network in reshaping democracy.
"The Internet is the story of the decade because it was the catalyst for change in not just every aspect of our everyday lives, but in everything from commerce and communication to politics and pop culture," said David-Michel Davies, the executive director of The Webby Awards, in a statement.
"The recurring theme among all of the milestones on our list is the Internet's capacity to circumvent old systems and put more power into the hands of ordinary people."
Here is the Webby's list of the 10 most influential Internet moments of the decade:
- Craigslist, the free classifieds site, expands outside San Francisco in 2000, impacting newspaper publishers everywhere
- Google AdWords launched in 2000 allowing advertisers to target their customers with laser-sharp precision
- Wikipedia, the free open-source encyclopaedia, launches in 2001 and today boasts more than 14 million articles in 271 different languages and bringing strangers together on projects
- Napster shutdown in 2001, opening the file-sharing floodgates
- Google's IPO in 2004 put the search engine on the path to powering countless aspects of our everyday lives
- Online video revolution in 2006 that led to a boom in homemade and professional content on the Internet and helped reshape everything from pop culture to politics
- Facebook opens to non-college students and Twitter takes off in 2006
- The iPhone debuts in 2007 and smartphones go from a luxury item to a necessity with an app for just about every aspect of modern life
- US presidential campaign in 2008 in which the Internet changed every facet of the way campaigns are run
- Iranian election protests in 2009 when Twitter proved vital in organising demonstrations and as a protest too
日前，一年一度的“威比獎”評選出過去十年十大最具影響力的互聯網事件，維基百科的推出、iPhone的面世以及貝拉克•奧巴馬當選美國總統等事件上榜。
位於紐約的國際數字藝術與科學學會自1996年開始舉辦一年一度的“威比獎”評選，此次上榜的其它事件還包括今年的伊朗大選，緣起大選的抗議活動彰顯了Twitter和其它社交網站在重塑民主過程中的作用。
“威比獎”的執行主管大衛-邁克爾•戴維斯在一份聲明中說：“互聯網是過去十年的一個大事件，因爲它推動了諸多領域的變化，不僅包括我們日常生活的各個方面，還涉及商務、通訊、政治、流行文化等各個領域。”
“上榜的所有里程碑事件都說明了這樣一個主題，那就是互聯網超越舊體制，賦予普通人更多權力的能力。”
“威比獎”評選出的過去十年互聯網十大最具影響力事件如下：
1. 2000年，免費分類信息網站Craigslist將業務拓展到舊金山以外地區，開始影響到各地的報紙發行商。
2. 2000年，谷歌發佈AdWords網絡廣告平臺，使廣告商可精準地定位目標受衆。
3. 2001年，免費開放源代碼百科全書“維基百科”上線，迄今該平臺已用271種不同語言發表了1400多萬篇文章，並通過各種主題將陌生人聚集在一起。
4. 2001年，（舊版）Napster網站關閉，開啓了文件共享之源。
5. 2004年，谷歌首次公開募股，從此搜索引擎開始影響人們生活的方方面面。
6. 2006年，網絡視頻革命，從此互聯網上涌現出大批自制且具專業水準的視頻內容，流行文化和政治等各領域也因此發生變化。
7.2006年， Facebook面向非大學生羣體開放，Twitter面世。
8. 2007年，iPhone問世，智能手機從奢侈品成爲必需品，其應用功能與現代生活息息相關。
9. 2008年，美國總統大選，互聯網改變了競選過程的各個方面。
10. 2009年，伊朗大選抗議活動中使用Tweeter。Twitter在組織示威遊行和抗議活動中發揮了重要作用。
Vocabulary:
catalyst：something that initiates or causes an important event to happen（引發變化的因素，催化劑）
circumvent：to surround or encompass, as by stratagem; entrap（迴避，智取）
floodgate：anything serving to control the indiscriminate flow or passage of something（水閘，閘門）
app：an application; application program（計算機程序，應用程序）
