Here's a theory: Al Gore wouldn't have won the Nobel Prize without the internet. He should be lauded not just for the work, but for using the new medium to challenge conventional MSM wisdom (a movie about a powerpoint?), and using the internet to transform ideas into activism.

Remember how Gore's team got Matt Groening to make a Youtube video called, ''Al Gore's Terrifying Message,''? It was on hundreds, if not thousands of blogs.

Or how they use the Inconvenient Truth website to get people (yes, me and my friends) to finally take the carbon footprint test and learn about ways to cut down? How they used the internet to get thousands of people to sign up to be trained to give the slideshow locally, in the US and around the world?

I think the internet was also part of initial excitement around the Inconvenient Truth movie. I don't remember exactly how they did it (does anyone? not that there is an "exactly" in internet buzz) but I remember hearing that the producers used email, blogs, and everything they could to drum up interest around the movie before it came out.

Gore's Nobel is not just about vision or passion or intelligence, but about using the internet for creating interest and then translating that interest into meaningful citizen engagement. Doing the same thing is harder, sure, for us non-former VPs, but its a great model for all of us, showing how internet-enabled campaigns can transform political discourse and action.

And for next year's Nobel, I nominate Jimbo Wales and the wikipedians.