US polls,iPhone among top 10 Net moments in 10 yrs

Barack Obama's in the US presidential elections, launch of Wikipedia and emergence of the iPhone have been listed among the 10 most influential moments on the Internet in the past decade, the annual Webby awards said.

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.

It said, "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."

Some of the most influential Internet moments of the decade on Webby's list are -- US presidential campaign in 2008, Iranian election protests in 2009 when Twitter proved vital in organising demonstrations and as a protest too, Wikipedia, the free open-source encyclopedia, Facebook opens to non-college students and Twitter takes off in 2006 and the iPhone debuts in 2007.

Image: Barack Obama