One Web for a Day on “One Web Day”

Hurray for One Web Day!

September 22, 2009 is the big day of this year, when thousands of internet users from across the globe simultaneously celebrate what is dubbed as the “Earth Day for the Internet.”

The main goal of this global event is to celebrate online life and to make visible a huge global community that cares about protecting the future and ensuring the safety of the internet and its users.

This year’s One Web Day focuses on the core internet value of ONLINE PARTICIPATION IN DEMOCRACY coupled with great attention to internet concerns such as censorship, connectivity and individual skills.

In essence, One Web Day is a day of celebration that provides an avenue for people to share, educate and in turn empower both their co-internet users and themselves by getting informed the important issues surrounding the future of the Internet and how it affects the users. OneWebDay.org’s Nathan James gives rather concrete examples of these issues in http://onewebday.org/about-2/ saying,

“We need to get organized. The Internet is under enormous pressure in this country, as it is around the world. Here are some examples:

• Access providers want to track what everyone is doing online and use it for their commercial advantage. They’re developing prioritization technology that will be like a cell phone layer on the internet – able to bill differently for different uses. They’re working closely with law enforcement and Hollywood in ways that will make internet use unpredictable and heavily-surveilled. The greatest engine of free speech and democratic outreach the world has ever seen is being co-opted by telephone companies. This isn’t good for our future.

• At the same time, we’re suffering from enormous digital divides. Lower-income and rural communities don’t have adequate connectivity. Senior citizens and minorities are often left out. Skills are inadequate, and there is a lot of fear of the Internet.”

The OneWebDay.org website also offers advice on what individual internet users can do to participate or help in the one Web Day endeavor. These advices include:

1. If you’re a Web user, use a standards-compliant Web browser like Firefox or Opera. They’re free, faster, and more protective of your privacy. And because they conform to Web development standards, they make things easier for people who make Web sites. If you’re a Web developer, test your sites with the w3c’s Markup Validation Service.
2. Edit a Wikipedia article. Teach people what you know, and in so doing, help create free universal knowledge.
3. Learn about an Internet policy issue from the Center for Democracy and Technology, and teach five other people about it. There are real legal threats that could drastically change the way the Internet works. We should all be aware of them.
4. Take steps to ensure that your computer can’t be treated like a zombie. Computer viruses can steal your personal information. They can also cause major network outages on the Web, slowing things down and making sites inaccessible. Vint Cerf estimates that more than 150 million PCs have already been zombified, and are now awaiting their next order. To learn more about the threat of zombie computers, read this article.
5. Join an Internet rights advocacy group:
   • Become a member of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The EFF has championed the public interest in every critical battle affecting digital rights, from privacy to free speech to Internet service.
   • Join the Internet Society. ISOC is dedicated to ensuring the open development, evolution and use of the Internet for the benefit of people throughout the world, particularly by establishing Internet infrastructure standards.
   • Support Creative Commons by donating and by using their licenses to copyright your work. If you’re outside the U.S., help support their counterpart, iCommons.
6. Help promote public Internet access. If you live in a city, there is likely an organization dedicated to providing free wireless access in public spaces.
7. Donate to the Wikimedia Foundation. The Wikimedia Foundation supports not only Wikipedia, but several other projects to create free knowledge: textbooks, news, learning tools, and more.
8. Donate a computer. You can donate a new $100 laptop to children in impoverished countries, or donate your used computer to Goodwill or a school.
9. Write your OneWebDay story. Talk about what the Internet means to you and why One WebDay matters at http://onewebday.org/stories
10. If your city is hosting a OneWebDay event, show up on September 22 and participate.”

One Web Day has constantly been celebrated annually in many countries on September 22 since it was first celebrated on September 22, 2006. Susan Crawford, who now advises President Barrack Obama on science, technology and innovation policies at the US National Economic Council, founded the One Web Day celebration and set up their website. She traveled to different cities persuading people celebrate the day and was able to come up with a board now consisting of online luminaries like Mary Hodder, David Weinberger, David Isenberger and Doc Searls. They are joined by business people like Allison Fine, Rick Whitt, Kaarli Tasso and David Johnson along with NYC PR person Renee Edelman and former state AG Jim Tierney, Maine. The board is now headed by its new President Mitch Kapor who is also co-founder of the Electronic Freedom Foundation who took over Crawford in May 2009—the year when it was announced that Ford Foundation will give the organization a major funding.

The first One Web day celebration was held in New York City’s Battery Park on 2006, featuring speakers like Craig Newmark (founder of Craig’s list), Scott Heiferman and Drew Schutte.

In 2008, the event was celebrated in over 30 international events in Melbourne, Paris, Brussels, London, Copenhagen, Tunisia, Singapore and many others.

This year, the event will involve even more cities and countries including Argentina, Belgium, Canada, Columbia, Bulgaria, Egypt, India, Peru, UK and the Philippines.

It is the Philippine’s first time to celebrate One Web Day and it is spear headed by piusonline.com in cooperation with eventphilippines.com. The country has one of the fastest growing internet communities and the users now include children. So if you care enough to keep the internet and yourselves safe from any invasion of privacy, do your share in preserving the “internet ecosystem” and cooperate with One Web Day Philippines Celebration Soon!

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