Elon University’s Imagining the Internet Center awards the Areté Medallion to highly distinguished humanist innovators, change agents and thought leaders who have dedicated their lives to initiating and sustaining significant contributions that have positively impacted the global future. From the ancient Greek, areté – pronounced ERA-tay’ – is a noun used to describe people who embody goodness and excellence. Its definition has also encompassed virtue, character, dignity and distinction.
People in possession of areté are people of the highest effectiveness; they use all their faculties—strength, intelligence, bravery and wit—to achieve real results of benefit to all. In its essence, areté denotes the act of living up to one’s full potential. It is a true measure of an individual’s impact on the world.
Areté Medallion honorees
2016 – Vinton Gray Cerf
2018 – Sir Timothy John Berners-Lee
2020-21 – Jimmy Donal Wales
About Imagining the Internet
The mission of Elon University’s Imagining the Internet Center is to explore and provide insights into emerging network innovations, global development, dynamics, diffusion and governance. Its research holds a mirror to humanity’s use of communications technologies, informs policy development, exposes potential futures and provides a historic record.
It works to illuminate issues in order to serve the greater good, making its work public, free and open. The Imagining the Internet Center sponsors work that brings people together to share their visions for the future of communications and the future of the world.
The center is a network of Elon University faculty, students, staff, alumni, advisers and friends working to identify, explore and engage with the challenges and opportunities of evolving communications forms and issues. They investigate the tangible and potential pros and cons of new-media channels through active research.
Among the spectrum of issues addressed are power, politics, privacy, property, augmented and virtual reality, control and the rapid changes spurred by accelerating technology. It exposes future possibilities while simultaneously providing a peek back at the past.