OneWebDay

In Chicago we decided to find out what people were doing with/on the Internet and what they thought of the Internet, the media and how it was integrated into our lives. We wanted to hear people speaking of the Internet in their own words. So we worked out a basic question set, adapting as the situation required, with room for exploration as opportunity presented itself. Our questions were intentionally open-ended. We wanted the person interviewed to feel free to take it wherever they wanted… tho sometime it led to a puzzled look.

After asking the subject to introduce themselves, we went into our questions, the first one tailored to a topical local issue:

* Are you familiar with plans to build a city-wide Wireless Internet system?
* Where do you get your news?
* How would you describe the Internet?
* How is technology integrated into your daily life?
* How do you use the Internet? Are there ways that you make use of the Internet that you think would surprise others?
* How is your use of technology or the Internet different from that of other members in your family?
* How could the (local) media do a better job?

After reviewing the first batch that we completed I was convinced of the importance of the project. Many of us are inspired by the phrase “be the media” … and here we were taking this power into our own hands. The core group involved consider ourselves moderately tech savvy. What surprised us – tho it shouldn’t – is the variety of ways in which people are making use of the technology. This proves the adage: content is king. It’s the variety of interests people have come together around on the Internet that is part of it’s power. I could only imagine policy makers or others who haven’t turned on yet to this medium viewing some of these interviews and saying “I didn’t know you could do that on the Internet.”

And that’s the point.

Like the Internet, this project is taking on a life of it’s own. Whenever I get a chance I try to interview more people and ask them some of the questions. “Describing the Internet” is one of my favorite.

Here’s a taste of the Interviews:

As noted in an earlier post, these are all posted in a “One Web Day” group on YouTube – owd.

OneWebDay 2006 garnered very strong press coverage:

Newsweek here, BBC here; OhmyNews here, RedHerring here, CNET here, The Register here.

What kinds of news stories will there be next year? We’re working on encouraging celebrations across the globe, with a particular focus on countries we didn’t reach in 2006 and people who didn’t hear about it last year. And schools.

It really depends on you — you “own” OneWebDay as much as anyone else does. What would you like to do? Let us know at volunteer at onewebday so that we can link to what you’re up to.

We’re starting work again on OneWebDay 2007, next Sept. 22. Some of the first steps we’ve already mentioned here — fundraising, hiring a fulltime person who is meticulous at followup, great at public speaking, and ready to go around the world to talk about OneWebDay. And we’d like to get going on large online, collaborative, visual projects that will be great for schools. Plus we’re interested in making everything available in many different languages.

It’s a tall order, and the year is marching on. If you’d like to help out, write to volunteer at onewebday.

We hope that in addition to the physical celebrations around the world next year we’ll do more online collaborative work. We have a feeling that there will be more tools next year that allow people to work together easily on video, pictures, and text. And in virtual worlds.

Part of the message behind OneWebDay is urging people to feel part of the net – responsible for it. We’re hoping that no matter where you live, you have connectivity. We’d like to increase that connectivity. And we’d like to make the idea that “the net is made of people” something commonly accepted. The net speaks, every day, in a multitude of voices and languages. We’re all responsible for it and we’re all empowered by it.

For OneWebDay 2007, we’d like to make this site part of a collection of multilingual, useful places for people who want to celebrate OneWebDay all over the world.

We need help.

If you’re reading this and have ideas about how to restructure this site to make it into more of a global platform for OneWebDay, let us know at volunteer at onewebday dot org.

We’d like to have a OneWebDay planning session in Sao Paulo between December 3 and December 8 of this year — if you’re going to be there then, let us know at volunteer at onewebday dot org and we’ll set something up. Also there will be a session on October 27, Sunday morning, in Sofia Bulgaria. Keep in constant contact.

We’re looking for an Executive Director who can handle all the many many emails, keep in touch with people and organizations around the world, drive forward with school contacts, prepare packages of materials for people to use in celebrating OneWebDay, brainstorm about new directions and new ideas, help with fundraising (including help get materials together for funders), and keep all the trains running on time. Salary will be modest but payoff in terms of fun and human contact will be great. New York City, NY, USA area resident preferred. To apply, send a resume to volunteer at onewebday dot org.

Please get the word out about this position – thanks.

We’ve been thinking about how to get OneWebDay into secondary schools and colleges for next year. This is a very big job, but it can be done if we can tap into the right networks and develop lesson plans/packages that make it easy for overburdened teachers. If you out there, any of you, have any ideas about this, write to us at volunteer at onewebday dot org.

thanks!

Here’s a nice thing that GE did on their site on Sept. 22 and for the weekend following — they put this picture up.

There’s a nice story about OWD by Steven Levy in this week’s Newsweek magazine. It’s online here.