From: Reuters
A contest to choose the seven natural wonders of the world could net a billion online and telephone votes, the head of the group organising the competition told Reuters.
An expert panel on Tuesday nominated 28 sites -- including the Amazon rainforest, the Dead Sea and Grand Canyon - for a short list for the New 7 Wonders of competition, the winners of which will be announced in 2011 after a global vote conducted online and via telephone and sms votes.
More than 100 million votes were cast in a previous 2007 contest for the new seven wonders of the world, an attempt to recast ancient history by ranking the top architectural marvels.
"This time we anticipate one billion votes, that's our target," Bernard Weber, founder of New 7 Wonders, told Reuters in an interview at the organisation's headquarters, a building designed by Swiss architect Le Corbusier on the shores of Lake Zurich.
The New 7 Wonders of Nature is a global Internet contest under the slogan: "If we want to save anything, we first need to truly appreciate it."
Other sites on the shortlist include the Galapagos islands, the Great Barrier Reef, Kilimanjaro, the Matterhorn, Jeju -- a volcanic island off Korea -- and the Sundarbans delta, the largest mangrove forest in the world at the mouth of the Ganges. For the full list click on www.new7wonders.com
Weber said he came up with the idea when he first had to buy a computer for Internet access and decided he need a project to work on that would create international interest. His partner, a teacher, suggested the seven wonders of the world.
Each voter has to pick exactly seven sites and is limited to one email address, though there is nothing to stop people registering under more than one address or firing in multiple ballots from their mobiles.
Weber's organisation is funding thanks to licensing deals but it may also consider corporate sponsorship to raise fund. Cities are bidding for the right to host the announcement of the seven natural wonders in 2011, Weber said.
"It is also using modern technology for the first truly global democratic exercise," said Weber, who was speaking in front of large glass windows providing views of Zurich's lake and tourists snapping pictures of the Le Corbusier centre building.
"The idea was, like picking up a Greek antique concept like the Olympics in sport, but more in culture and to apply to it the latest technologies -- internet, telephony -- so that everybody on the planet could participate," he said. (Additional reporting by Martin de Sa'Pinto)