The OII Awards
Established in 2011 as part of the OII’s 10th birthday celebrations, our biennial awards are given out to recognize extraordinary contributions towards the development, use or study of the Internet for the public good. In so far as any academic department can have core values, these awards also embody everything the OII stands for – a belief in the great public good of a free and open Internet, in the vital importance of innovation, research and exploration, in the moral significance of hard work and aspiration tempered by a strong social conscience.
The OII makes two classes of award. Internet & Society Awards are given to outstanding individuals and organizations in recognition of their role in the development of the Internet for the public good through particular initiatives. Lifetime Achievement Awards are given to outstanding individuals whose vision, determination and hard work have shaped the global network of networks that is today’s Internet, and our use or understanding of it. These individuals have been selected by the OII on the basis that they have made a unique and long-lasting contribution.
The Evening
The awards are presented during a celebratory gala dinner, held at Balliol College in Oxford. The history of this college, more than 750 years old, presents a perfectly contrasting backdrop for the evening’s focus on the human potential of the Internet. Guests are treated to a fine dining three-course dinner with wine from the college cellar, before awards are presented by OII faculty and students.
The evening will begin with a public lecture by Professor Judy Wajcman, reflecting back on how our understanding of gender and technology has (or has not) changed since the publication of her seminal texts in the early 1990’s. The lecture will be held in the peerless space of the University’s Convocation House, and will be followed by a pre-dinner drinks reception in Divinity School. Tickets are available to purchase for the lecture and the dinner.
JUDY WAJCMAN
Judy Wajcman is the Anthony Giddens Professor of Sociology at the London School of Economics. Professor Wajcman was one of the founding contributors to the field of the social study of Science and Technology, as well as to studies of gender, work and organisations. Her books, The Social Shaping of Technology, Feminism Confronts Technology and Managing Like a Man are regarded as classics in the field. Over the last decade, she has carried out extensive research on the impact of digital technologies on the temporalities of everyday life.
KAREN BANKS
Karen Banks is a networking pioneer who has worked with information and communications technologies (ICTs) and their applications as tools for social change since 1990. She is a founding member of the Association for Progressive Communications’s (APC) Women’s Rights Programme, has served on the UN Working Group on Internet Governance, and remains a Director at GreenNet, a non-profit Internet service provider. She was inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame in 2013.
ANASUYA SENGUPTA
Anasuya Sengupta is the Co-Founder and Co-Director of Whose Knowledge?, a global multi-lingual campaign that aims to centre the knowledges and voices of marginalised communities (the majority of the world) in order to create an Internet for and from everyone. Initiatives have included the 2018 Decolonising the Internet conference, the #VisibleWikiWomen challenge to add more images of notable women to Wikipedia, and the communities-led Knowledge Sharing projects. Anasuya is the former Chief Grantmaking Officer at the Wikimedia Foundation, Regional Program Director for Asia and the Pacific Islands at the Global Fund for Women, and a 2017 Shuttleworth Fellow.
NANI JANSEN REVENTLOW
Nani Jansen Reventlowis the Director of the Digital Freedom Fund, which supports the advancement of digital rights in Europe through strategic litigation. She is a recognised international lawyer responsible for groundbreaking freedom of expression cases around the world, a lawyer at Doughty Street Chambers, affiliate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, and Lecturer in Law at Columbia Law School. You can follow Nani on Twitter @InterwebzNani.
