The idea behind the Leonardo Award, according to its founders, is to recognize educational initiatives that use a value-based, holistic approach to reflect the dynamic nature and culture of knowledge and inspire companies across Europe to alter their learning processes accordingly. Asked about the international advisory board-˜s final choice of winner, its secretary, Günther Szogs, who is also a founding member of the "New Club of Paris", explains, "In terms of launching this approach into the digital age, Jimmy Wales is the ideal choice given his personal commitment to the idea of Wikipedia and the contribution made by volunteers across the globe."

Szogs goes on to describe how Wales has inspired many people to actively contribute their knowledge and creativity to the creation of the encyclopedia in their country, and how the success of this venture has now led to the emergence within businesses of many projects that adopt a similar approach. "Trying to keep up with the huge explosion of knowledge in Wikipedia is an ongoing challenge for the business world", Szogs continues. "Companies acknowledge their respect for the online encyclopedia and the work of its volunteers, primarily by promoting the Wiki ethos within their own organisations."

Following last year's winner, Professor Jacques Delors, for many years President of the European Commission and Chairman of the International UNESCO Commission on Education, Jimmy Wales is the second person to receive the Leonardo - European Corporate Learning Award.

Bringing the wisdom of crowds to center stage

Echoing the approach used in producing the online encyclopedia itself, Jimmy Wales feels that the spotlight cast by this award should not center on him, but rather on the many others involved in making Wikipedia a success. That is why, on Wednesday, 21 September 2011, there will be three Wikipedia education representatives from different European nations stepping up together to receive the Leonardo Award at the HRM Expo in Cologne: Nando Stöcklin (Switzerland), Ziko van Dijk (The Netherlands), and Denis Barthel (Germany).

Presenting the award will be the President of the "New Club of Paris", and holder of the award "Brain of the Year", Professor Leif Edvinsson of Lund University in Sweden.

Since 2006, Nando Stöcklin, a researcher at Bern University's Centre for IT in Education, and his Swiss colleagues have been looking at how Wikipedia can be used for educational purposes. In his book How to Make Clever Use of Wikipedia in School and at Work, he focuses on the pitfalls of Wikipedia: Given that the project is particularly vulnerable to manipulation and clever PR, Stöcklin wants to improve users' information-literacy skills so that they are better able to judge the quality of the articles contributed. Stöcklin's information courses about Wikipedia range from thirty-minute lecture contributions to longer presentations and whole-day courses.

The president of Wikimedia Netherlands, Dr. Ziko van Dijk, has been involved with Wikipedia since 2003: a German living in the Netherlands, he has written articles about German and Dutch history in German, Esperanto, Dutch, and English. He has a particular interest in making it easier for people to become involved with Wikipedia, hence the 2010 publication of his book "Wikipedia - How You Can Contribute to the Free Encyclopedia", in which he describes the project's background. Wikipedian van Dijk also researches the multilingual nature of the online encyclopedia, exploring the reasons why some countries' portals are more successful than others.

Denis Barthel, Wikipedia's education representative for Germany, has been writing for Wikipedia for many years and has worked as a project manager for Wikimedia Germany since 2007. Part of his remit is to develop the infrastructure of departmental meetings and literary scholarships and to promote closer collaboration with scientists as authors. Together with other Wikipedians, he developed the idea of the Wikimedia Germany's schools project, and his team of volunteer speakers and he go into schools to hold workshops and give presentations on the subject.