OneWebDay

For OneWebDay, on September 22, we’re working on asking people to list the 10 amazing things for which the web should be celebrated.

There are so many: drawing scientists and data together; new forms of artistic efforts; quick reponses to crises; Wikipedia; new jobs… Make up a list!

We’re also asking people to list the 10 ways the web changes their lives. (Easy!)

And — and most importantly — we’re asking people to do one good web-related deed for someone else on OneWebDay. The one thing you should do on OneWebDay is help using the web.

You could teach a grandparent how to use a computer to be in touch with a grandchild.

You could show someone how to edit a wiki. You could send a recipe to a friend — and then make dinner together. You could help your town create wireless hotspots. You could help a school with a web-related project.

One Web. One World. One Wish.

CircleID is a terrific one-stop platform for internet news. As of today, every CircleID page has a link to OneWebDay — thanks so much.

If this is your first visit here, welcome! Here’s what’s up: OneWebDay is a day to make the web visible all over the world, in public places.

The idea is to show everyone what kinds of amazing collaborations and human interactions go on online. And to tell stories about how the web has changed our lives. It’s a transformative part of our world, this online phenomenon, and we shouldn’t take it for granted.

So if you can get together a few friends in a wireless hotspot, have some kind of a big screen available, and post text/pictures/video so the crowd can see something beautiful emerge, do it on September 22. Doesn’t take a lot of money, but it does take visual imagination. Or make it easy for people to type in text — their very first blog entry! so that the crowd sees it.

Welcome. We’re just two months away from the very first OneWebDay.

We’ve seen the draft OneWebDay logo for Canada (in both English and French), and it looks great. The last we heard, the plan was to hire a OneWebDay “ambassador” who would journey from town to town interviewing people about how the web had changed their lives.

The key here is to make the web’s impact on human lives visible. We make progress when things can be seen.

Consider having a session in your town on Sept. 22 where people post texts or tell stories about what the web means to them. The web has transformed lives, and we should talk about it publicly. Canada will be doing this — all over the country.

July 22 is “we blog it” day for OneWebDay — the day we’re urging bloggers all over the world to do a quick post reminding people that OneWebDay is just two months away.

We’ve created an action page that bloggers should link to: http://onewebday.org/action

On that page, there’s a button that you should put on your site — here’s the code for the button:

<a href="http://onewebday.org/action/" title="OneWebDay - Celebrate The Internet"><img src="http://onewebday.org/OWD_Web_Button_150.jpg" height="67" width="150" alt="OneWebDay" border="0" /></a>

If you add this component to your site, it will link people to the action page — and then THEY can download the button too! An endless OneWebDay link around the world…

Okay, so National Public Radio already did this in the States. But we’re going to do it for OneWebDay. We’re going to invite people to come blog here about what they believe the web has done to/for their lives, and why the web is important to them.

Watch this space — you’ll see some great things.

By the way, you don’t have to be invited! We’ve set up a new thingie so that you, dear reader, can sign up to post on the OneWebDay blog. Please come tell us all how the web has changed your life.

Plans are afoot for a Union Square event in San Francisco on OneWebDay. If you’re interested in getting involved, let us know at volunteer at onewebday dot org. We’ll make sure you get connected to the right people.

We’d like to make it easy for a large number of people to post to a blog, or put up a picture, or be part of an online collage on that day. Plus talk about how the web has changed their lives.

OneWebDay has a substantial offline component — we’re encouraging events in public squares around the world. This first year, we want people to sit up and take notice of OneWebDay in the heart of cities.

The next time you post to your Flickr account, consider whether the picture has anything to do with how the web has changed your life. If it’s relevant, tag it onewebday and it will show up here.

The next time you put up a blog post, consider writing about OneWebDay — tag the post onewebday and it will show up here.

On July 22, we’ll be encouraging a wave of blog posts — just two months before the big day!

We’ve seen a blog post linking here asking if anyone’s interested in celebrating OneWebDay in Canberra, Australia. The original blog link is here, and you can find the blogger’s email address here. Please do get in touch — spread the word.

Same thing in Berlin — there’s a post here looking for participation.

For those of you who are coming here for the first time, welcome!

The Web is worth celebrating.

If you write about OneWebDay or take a picture related to OneWebDay, tag it onewebday and it will show up on this site.
If you’re interested in being part of a project to celebrate the net on OneWebday, go to the ProjectWiki. If you’d like to coordinate a project, let us know and we’ll help find people for you to work with. If you’d like to sponsor a project, by providing computing resources or money, let us know. This site is serving as a clearinghouse for projects, helping to match people to ideas (and ideas to people).

* Have a OneWebDay meetup in your city

Set up an evening when people can get together and talk about projects that will make the web visible. Sample projects include:

5. Create a “what I did for OWD” plaque and a place online to collect these plaques — post the link on the OWD wiki!

* Donate to OneWebDay efforts around the world

About OneWebDay, Inc.
OneWebDay, Inc. is a non-profit organization. Really and truly. All donations will be devoted to making this celebration work well globally. To reach us, write to questions@onewebday.org.

We’ve created a OneWebDay button that links to an action page for OWD.

* Add this button to your site:

Copy the following code and post it on your site:
<a href="http://www.onewebday.org/?page_id=102
" title="OneWebDay - Celebrate The Internet"><img src="http://onewebday.org/OWD_Web_Button_150.jpg" height="67" width="150" alt="OneWebDay" border="0"/></a>