To give more power to the people, Nokia and The Webby Awards are joining forces.

The companies announced they are teaming up to allow the global web community to choose their own Webby winners and to help shoot the first-ever “We Shot the Webbys” video campaign.

Including Websites, online film and video, interactive advertising, and mobile Websites, the Webby Awards, hailed as the “Oscars of the Internet” by the New York Times, is the leading international award honoring excellence on the Internet.

Nokia will be the exclusive Presenting Sponsor for the Webby People’s Voice Awards, under the partnership, with every 10,000th voter winning one Nokia Nseries multimedia devices. Nearly half a million votes were cast in the Webby People’s Voice Awards last year.

Nokia NSeries multimedia devices, will be distributed to all the winners of the Webby Film & Video Awards, to give the world a first-hand, behind-the-scenes look at this year’s Webby Awards. The film- and video-makers will use the devices to document their Webby experiences in “We Shot the Webbys,” an online video campaign.

Executive director of The Webby Awards, David-Michel Davies, said: “The Webby Awards and Nokia are both dedicated to helping people everywhere connect, communicate, and share ideas”. “We can’t wait to see what the Webby community has to share and hear what it has to say.”

EVP and Head of Nokia’s Entertainment and Communities Group, Tero Ojanpera, said: “Nokia and the Webby Awards are joining in celebrating the creativity and excellence of both professional and consumer generated content on the web”. “We have created several special channels in our services that will allow consumers to participate in voting for their favorite websites, as well as creating and sharing special Webby Awards focused content during the event week on share.ovi.com.”

Voting for The Webby People’s Voice Awards presented by Nokia, kicks off with the announcement of nominees for The 12th Annual Webby Awards on April 8, 2008. Winners will be announced on April 29th and honored at two star-studded ceremonies in New York City: The Webby Film & Video Awards on June 9th and The 12th Annual Webby Awards Gala on June 10th.

Nokia will also serve, under the agreement, as Official Sponsor of WebbyConnect, the annual Web leadership summit introduced by the Webby Awards last year. Both programs are part of the newly-launched Webby Voice Project, a multi-faceted campaign which incorporates Nokia’s mission, products, and services to engage the global Web community.