OneWebDay

We’ve been following with delight the OneWebDay.ca tour. Last we checked, they’d made it to Toronto. Go take a look at the video — it’s great.

Speaking of video, we have a few video-related surprises that we’re hoping to announce next week — a OneWebDay video contest, a place to host any OWD videos, and a gigantor video OneWebDay collection. Stay tuned.

Don’t forget to visit OneWebDay.ca!

There are a couple of ways to do this — see the buttons on the right? You can donate to OneWebDay efforts online.

You can also buy a bumpersticker, thanks to bumperactive. They look great! Bumperactive made some laptop stickers for us that are terrific. They’re friendly and fast, and they share their revenues with us.

You can also donate equipment for OneWebDay celebrations. Write to volunteer at onewebday dot org, and we’ll put you in touch with responsible people.

More news re OneWebDay events:

In Sofia (Bulgaria), there will be a public debate at the Red House on OneWebDay about “The Web and Bulgaria,” and ISOC-Bulgaria will be organizing other events as well.

In Champaign-Urbana (Illinois), CUWiN will be hosting a LAN party/wireless hack night/beergarten/multimedia
integration extravaganza. They’re anticipating cool gadgets, games, and microbrew.

If you’ve got equipment to lend or you’d like to be involved in OneWebDay events around the world, please let us know at volunteer at onewebday dot org.

Why are we celebrating OneWebDay around the world?

Because the web is worth celebrating and protecting. It has changed our lives, and we need to recognize how important its continued health is to us. Because the web is made of machines, we often forget that it’s a social world. The web is us, and so it’s up to us to protect it.

That’s why we’re celebrating in public places (preferably wifi-enabled public places!). We want to make our connection to the web visible, outdoors, something for everyone to notice collectively.

We’re going to be creating a lot of video and text and pictures along the way, and come Sept. 22 this site will point to all of that — another way to make things collectively visible.

Your scribe went to visit the planned location for the OneWebDay celebration in New York City, and it will be a great place to be on the 22nd. Very very lively — lots of people, lots of sights, lots of wireless. More details coming soon.

About a month to go until OneWebDay. We’ve been getting lots of good emails — here’s a sample:

The Westport (CT) public library will unveil a new bookblog on September 22 in honor of OneWebDay: One Town, One Book!

Something interesting and public will happen in Champaign/Urbana, Illinois, “The Birthplace of the Graphical Browser.”

At least two towns in Hungary are planning something — we still don’t have the details, but we’ll let you know.

September 22 turns out to also be Bulgarian Independence Day, and we understand that OneWebDay and Independence Day are happening together in Bulgaria.

Ireland seems like the perfect place to celebrate OneWebDay — let us know what you’re planning.

If you need buttons or stickers or banners, take a look at the action page (better yet, download the button to your site!).

If you’re interested in being involved in a OneWebDay project in Charleston SC or Savannah GA, just let us know at volunteer at onewebday dot org. We’ll connect you to a person who’s willing to lead there.

If you’d like to sign up to help us get the word out about OneWebDay — and remind everyone how the web has changed their lives over the last ten years — write to us at support at onewebday dot org. We’d love to hear from you.

Finally, if you know of a physical celebration of OneWebDay that isn’t on this list, PLEASE write so we can link to it:

All over Canada
London, England
Vienna, Austria
Naples, Italy
SF, CA
NYC, NY
Boston, MA
Austin, TX
Chicago, IL
Charleston, SC

We think there are some celebrations planned for Germany, but we don’t know which cities are involved — please let us know so we can get the word out. Also, earlier this year we heard from Korea, Japan, China, and Australia, but (again) we’d like to link to what’s going on. If you’ve heard about something visible and outdoors happening on OneWebDay in your home town, please send word.

Some OneWebDay updates:

We’re very pleased to announce that Craig Newmark will be joining the OneWebDay celebration in New York City at lunchtime on Sept. 22. There couldn’t be anyone more webby than Craig, who started an email list that has become an open, friendly trading/buying ground that everyone has heard of. The plan is to be in Bryant Park on the day. We’ll talk about how the web has changed our lives, show some people who haven’t done it before how to blog and chat, and make sure that there are surprises for the crowd. More in the weeks to come.

In San Francisco, we’re planning an emergent flashmob series of celebrations and visual events around the city. We’re looking for donations of equipment — a “flashmob in a truck” — like screens and projectors and sound equipment. Write to us at volunteer at onewebday.org if you’ve got suggestions. And watch out for the flashmob announcements.

The goal here is to have fun, celebrate how the web has changed the world, dream about how we’d like it to change the future, and do something good (and web-related) for someone else. One Web. One World. One Wish.

We’re so delighted to announce the official launch of the OneWebDay tour in Canada — which starts today. Here’s the site in English, and the site in French.

The Canadian OneWebDay initiative is being led by the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA). They had a great idea: Have a Tour Ambassador talk to Canadians about how the internet has changed their lives.

So — get this — for the next month, Gavin Michael Booth (a Canadian-born video-film writer and producer) will take a crew across the country. He’ll visit 12 communities and talk to people about their online experiences. He’s going to Whitehorse, Yukon; Vancouver, BC; Edmonton, Alberta; Saskatoon, Saskatchewan; Winnipeg, Manitoba; Toronto, Ontario; Ottawa, Ontario; Montreal, Quebec; Moncton, New Brunswick; Halifax, Nova Scotia; Charlottetown, PEI; and St. John’s Newfoundland.

Then they’ll post what they find online. They’re celebrating that Canada is one of the world’s most connected nations!

So what is your country doing for OneWebDay? What good online-related deed will you personally undertake on Sept. 22?

One Web. One World. One Wish.

We are delighted to announce that there will be a OneWebDay celebration on Sept. 22 in Naples, Italy at Lanificio25 — which is a wonderful space
for artistic and cultural events that is located in the center of the city.

There’s a new blog up for the Naples celebration here — where everyone can say how the web has changed lives.

Let us know what you’re planning — either blog it here (you’ll need to register) or post your plans on the wiki.

The elements are simple:

1. Write about how the web has changed the world.

2. Write about how the web has changed YOUR world.

3. Write about how you’d like the web to shape the world in the future.

4. Do something good (outside your house!) and web-related on Sept. 22 to help someone else.

Congratulations to Naples — we can’t wait to see what happens!