The million-euro technology advertisement

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By Teemu Luukka
     
      When the President of the Republic, Tarja Halonen, hands over the first Millennium Technology Prize to Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, the audience in Helsinki’s Finlandia Hall will include both the Finnish political elite, as well as a large number of scientists from Finland and abroad - and naturally plenty of representatives of the international media.
      The President, the researchers, and the journalists will be needed, because the most important goal of the Millennium Prize is to make Finland a world-renowned technology country.
      However, not everyone is convinced that success is a foregone conclusion, even though helping in the effort are plenty of money, and a group of Finland’s most important enterprises, including Nokia, Kemira, and Fortum. Kari Enqvist, Professor of Cosmology at the University of Helsinki, and others, have said that excessive hopes have been placed on the Millennium Prize.
      In an article in the magazine Tekniikka ja Talous ("Technology and Economy"), Enqvist calls the prize "The Nobel Prize of Finnish Vanity". In his view, the Millennium is an administratively created artificial prize of the type that are not easily successful. In Enqvist’s opinion there are already many great technology prizes that few people know anything about.
      In his March column he asks how many people have heard of Holmes Rolston III and the Templeton Prize. The Templeton Prize, which is worth more than one million euros, is given out for development of the relationship between religion and science, and last year it was won by the American Holmes Rolston III.
      "Certainly, I hope that the Millennium Prize will prosper and bring much honour to Finland, but I remain sceptical. I feel that its credibility is diminished by the fact that the prize is perceived to be an award given out by the state", Enqvist writes on the threshold of the Millennium Prize celebration.
      Enqvist points out that Finland is a small and rather unknown country. "How would we look at a prize sponsored, for instance, by Slovenia?"
     
The Millennium Prize is awarded by the Finnish Technology Prize Foundation, whose top figure for the past two years has been Ossi Kokkonen, former CEO of the paper manufacturer Metsä-Serla. He actually welcomes the criticism.
      "Criticism is necessary. If a prize cannot withstand debate, we might as well forget it."
      Kokkonen admits that Finns need to work hard before the Millennium Prize will also award its giver. For now he is relatively satisfied with how the prize has been received internationally. After the spring he has collected about 200 newspaper articles about the prize from around the world.
      Nevertheless, the competition is hard. The winner, Tim Berners-Lee, has also received at least the Japan Prize, the Eduard Rhein Prize, the World Technology Prize, the Paul Evan Peters Prize, and the Charles Babbage Prize. According to the report by the foundation, about 20 great technology prizes are distributed around the world. The forerunner of them all is Nobel, even though none of the various Nobel Prizes is specifically a technology prize.
      The Japan Prize, which was given to Berners-Lee a few years ago, has so far received more publicity than the Millennium Prize, at least if the notoriety is measured by the Google Internet search engine. A Google search with the words Berners-Lee and Japan Prize brought 2,070 hits, while Berners-Lee and Millennium brought just 1,760 hits.
      Common to nearly all of the prizes is that they have both been the subjects of massive marketing efforts. Often the prizes are awarded in glittering ceremonies, during which a great international technology seminar is held. This will also take place in Finland next week.
     
The prize is also marketed between celebrations as well. The Millennium Prize is given out every second year - if an appropriate recipient is to be found.
      Kokkonen says that the foundation arranges tours marketing the prize around the world. Especially important targets include international engineering academies, through which the word can be spread quickly, and to the right people. The foundation also helps companies sponsoring the prize by holding technology events.
      "The purpose is to give the impression that Finland is a top country in developing technology that is close to people."
      "We are aiming at the years 2008 - 2010, when the prize will hopefully have been given out three or four times. Then the world should know what kind of a prize this is. It is a demanding task. After all, Tim Berners-Lee himself only heard about the prize when he was told that he had received it."
     
Helsingin Sanomat / first published in print 13.6.2004


Previously in HS International Edition:
  "Father of the World Wide Web" to collect Finnish technology prize worth EUR 1 million (16.4.2004)

TEEMU LUUKKA / Helsingin Sanomat
teemu.luukka@hs.fi