Time Magazine's 2006 Person of the Year...ME!

Well, you too:

Congratulations! You were named "Person of the Year 2006" by Time magazine! "For seizing the reins of the global media, for founding and framing the new digital democracy, for working for nothing and beating the pros at their own game, Time's Person of the Year for 2006 is you," the magazine's Lev Grossman wrote.

They even put YOUR picture on the cover! Well, actually there's mirror on the cover, but that does the job. They put it up "because it literally reflects the idea that you, not us, are transforming the information age," Editor Richard Stengel said in a statement. Their last edition of 2006 will be released Monday.

Microsoft founder Bill Gates, his wife Melinda Gates and rock star Bono won their place on the last edition's front page last year and recent winners also include President George W Bush in 2004, and "The American Soldier" in 2003.

Time has been naming its "person of the year" since 1927, aiming to identify those who most affect the news.. Of course, their tradition has become the source of speculation and controversy almost every year (except this one, we think!). They made choices that were later thought awkard, such as Adolf Hitler in 1938 and Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979. But given the aim, they were quite normal choices, as were this year's runner ups Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Chinese leader Hu Jintao and North Korea's Kim Jong-il.

Time cited websites such as YouTube, Facebook, MySpace and Wikipedia, which allow users to interact with the web by uploading and publishing their own comments, videos, pictures and links, repots BBC. "It's about the many wresting power from the few and helping one another for nothing and how that will not only change the world, but also change the way the world changes," Time magazine's Lev Grossman writes.

The aim of the Person of the Year prize is to pick "the person or persons who most affected the news and our lives, for good or for ill, and embodied what was important about the year, for better or for worse".

"If you choose an individual, you have to justify how that person affected millions of people," said Richard Stengel, who took over as Time's managing editor earlier this year. "But if you choose millions of people, you don't have to justify it to anyone."

"This is an opportunity to build a new kind of international understanding, not politician to politician, great man to great man, but citizen to citizen, person to person. It's a chance for people to look at a computer screen and really, genuinely wonder who's out there looking back at them. Go on. Tell us you're not just a little bit curious."

The issue is dated December 25 2006, and as such I'll take it as a Christmas present!