Bernard Weber's New 7 Wonders Organization has been running a worldwide campaign to define the world's top wonders in the modern age. We reported on these New 7 Wonders in blogcritics a year ago in a post which saw many partisans of the Meenakshi Amman temple in Madurai, India. Unfortunately, the fans of the Temple were voting on the wrong site.

The organization has announced the shortlist of 21 global landmarks from a series of global votes. This shortlist will now be subject to another year of online voting to select the final New 7 Wonders of the World. The shortlist of landmarks is an inspiring list of fine places to visit:

Only the Great Pyramid of Giza featured in Philon of Byzantium's original list of 7 Wonders of the Ancient World survives today, and is on the shortlist. Agents for the Pyramid could not be reached to comment on it's involvement in the next season of Survivor.

"I believe that after more than 2,000 years it's time to redefine the world wonders," Weber said. "Thanks to internet and the telephone, for the first time in history the whole world can take part in this process."

19 million voters participated in the first round, about .31% of the world's population. All the same, it's an impressive involvement and possibly a harbinger of grassroots democracy. Similar responses were observed in the Miss World 2005 pageant, which saw SMS/online voting.

Voting continues through till January 1, 2007, when the final list will be announced. The website for the New 7 Wonders is currently unavailable, as it often is.