OneWebDay

You can now see the Pacific Islands Chapter of ISOC (PICISOC) on the OneWebDay Google Map. Interesting note about Google Maps – if you try to draw a shaded area that crosses the International Date Line or the Equator, a strange bug occurs (but only once you zoom in to about the 4th farthest out tick) – the shape redraws to wrap around the opposite side of the map. So, PICISOC is represented on the map by 4 different areas that should include all of the islands that are part of PICISOC.

Also, ISOC Israel will be celebrating OneWebDay one month later (October 22) this year because September 22 is Yom Kippur. You can read about their planned events on the OneWebDay wiki’s ISOC Israel page. They include many educational events, a collaborative photo database, volunteer website development, and more.

Well, as you know, blip.tv, youtube.com, and dotsub.com are all hosting videos related to OneWebDay. There’s one more site involved in hosting OneWebDay material: the Internet Archive.

The Internet Archive is the organization that created the Wayback Machine, which lets visitors see what a website looked like years ago. Take a look – you might find something you had forgotten about.

Anyway, Internet Archive is helping celebrate OneWebDay by collecting videos. Go visit their Computers and Tech Videos section, and click on the OneWebDay link. We’d love Internet users to start help us by posting videos related to OneWebDay at the Archive.

If this is the first time you’ve visited OneWebDay.org, welcome! (and you’re also very welcome if you’ve been here before). We’re working on making this site more streamlined and social, but please accept this post as a first step.

It’s easy to take the internet for granted. OneWebDay is a day to reflect about how important the internet can be to human lives, innovation, and the free flow of information. It’s also a day to shed light on obstructions to internet access, use, and flourishing around the world.

If you visit the wiki (there’s a link above called “project proposal wiki”) you’ll see the various physical, offline events we know about. Please add your own! Also, take a few minutes to upload your own video or blog post about how the web has changed your life, and tag it “onewebday2007.” If you upload videos to dotSUB.com, people will be able to transcribe and translate the words you say.

Thanks, and welcome again.

Two recent news items go together to show the importance of anonymity on the Internet. Governments that want to suppress free speech know the importance of anonymity. China recently managed to force many blog service providers to agree to a “self-discipline” pact. The service providers will be gathering information about bloggers and will be forced to give it to government authorities as part of censorship efforts.

What will the government do with that information? If the blogger posts ideas the government views as “dissident,” the blogger can be thrown in jail. Such was the case for Chen Shuqing, who was sentenced to 4 years in prison for posting essays “that advocated democracy and constitutional rule.” His lawyer, Li Jianqiang, has had his license to practice law suspended for a year, seemingly because he “has defended many press freedom cases.”

It is oppressive actions like this that points to the need for anonymity. No one knows that better than governments that persecute people for speaking out against their wrong behavior.

Read more:

• China: Government gets blog service providers to sign “self-discipline” pact to end anonymous blogging
• Chinese cyber-dissident jailed for four years

That’s the title of a post yesterday on idealist.org, and we think it’s a good way to present OneWebDay.

Welcome to OneWebDay.org! We’re working hard on overhauling this web site, cleaning up its design and making it easier to use.

For now, here’s a set of suggestions for OneWebDay activities. Take a look at the project wiki for announcements of physical and virtual OneWebDay events, and add your own.

Beth Kanter of blogher asks: “Are you participating?”

OneWebDay gives us a chance to reflect about the ways in which the internet has changed the world, and to shed light on information-flow blockades around the globe.

Many Internet Society (ISOC) chapters have decided to hold events to celebrate OneWebDay, and the details are beginning to become available. For example, ISOC Colombia will be providing free Internet access kiosks to enable those who have never used the internet to learn about it. They are also advocating for the government and private sector to work together to bridge the technological gap that exists. The theme for their event is “The day of the fair access to internet.”

That’s a perfect way to both celebrate what the Internet has to offer and to also try to make changes that bring those benefits to more people.

Welcome to OneWebDay.

OneWebDay, Sept. 22, is an Earth Day for the internet.

Here’s a very short overview video that will give you the idea: watch here. The first OneWebDay took place in 2006, and there was strong press coverage in Newsweek, BBC online, OhmyNews, RedHerring, CNET, The Register, and many many blog posts from around the world.

The essence of OneWebDay is to create a global constituency that thinks of itself as responsible for the future of the internet, so that when negative things happen (censorship, restricted access, heavy-handed law enforcement control) people will act.

It’s easy to take the web for granted. For the last twelve years, ever since Netscape launched the first commercial browser, we’ve been simultaneously entranced and irritated by the the online world. The web has changed all of our lives, and several generations already can’t imagine going for a day without it. We complain about email overload, we shop and wander online, and it’s as if it has always been there, an electronic river flowing around us. But it’s worth taking a moment to reflect on what the web could mean to humankind in the future. That’s the purpose of OneWebDay, held each September 22.

There are substantial threats to the free flow of information online, all over the world. Many governments censor online content. (see opennet.net). Many people in developing nations can’t get online at all. We need to ensure that the internet used by future generations will be open and empowering — access to the internet is central to the future of humanity.

The idea behind OneWebDay is to encourage people to think of themselves as responsible for the internet, and to take good and visible actions on Sept. 22 that (1) celebrate the positive impact of the internet on the world and (2) shed light on the problems of access and information flow.

OneWebDay is a global, decentralized event. We’re encouraging people around the world to meet up on Sept. 22 to talk about how the web could change lives around the world in the future. We’re aiming for at least fifty of these events, and we’ve already heard from Poland, Italy, Colombia, the Philippines, Bulgaria, Kenya, Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Belgium, Ethiopia, Tunisia, and other countries. In the US, there will be events in Los Angeles, Boston, and New York.

These events can range from sponsoring a teaching event (how to edit a wiki, how to post a photo online etc) to helping a school or town set up internet connections, to having a panel of speakers talk about the ways the world has been/will be changed by the internet. We’re working with the Internet Society and the Internet Archive to encourage these offline events, but anyone not affiliated with these groups is more than welcome to get involved. In the US, the American Libraries Association, the Sunlight Foundation, and other groups are working on OneWebDay-related announcements and events.

If readers would like to stage an offline OneWebDay event, let us know at dan@onewebday.org what you’re thinking of, and we’ll make sure there’s a wiki page for you on onewebday.org to help your planning.

*Online,* we’re encouraging people to make their own short videos and post them on blip.tv or youtube or dotsub.com tagged “onewebday2007″. Suggested topics:

+ how the web has changed your life

+ how you’d like the web to change the world in the future

+ highlights of what you’ve seen online the day you make the video

+ your favorite online event ever

+ something you’ve done online with other people in other countries

The internet is made of people, not just machines. It’s up to us to protect it. We can use OneWebDay around the world to raise awareness of the threats to the internet — including censorship, inadequate access, control of various kinds — and to celebrate the positive impact of the internet on human lives.

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Specifics for NY:

New York City, 3-4pm, Washington Square Park Speakers to include Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia; Andrew Baron, founder of Rocketboom; Gale Brewer, NY City Council; Dana Spiegel, NYCWireless; Birju Pandya, charityfocus.org; a representative of One Laptop Per Child. (others coming soon!)

Sept. 22, Noon to 2:30pm, free public classes in honor of OneWebDay at NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program, 721 Broadway, 4th Floor (cross street Waverly Place), *must rsvp at itp@onewebday.org to attend.*

Subjects to include:
-how to build a router antenna and turn your home into a neighborhood hotspot
-how to live stream video online
-how to set up a blog and podcast
-all about Creative Commons

Who should attend: Anyone who likes the internet and its transformative effect on human lives

Why you should attend: The internet is under threat around the world, and it’s up to us to celebrate and protect it.

The Ethical Society Without Walls provides education and community to individuals interested in the Ethical Culture Movement. The Ethical Society Without Walls is creating a community of people who join together to assist each other in developing ethical ideas and ideals, celebrating life’s joys and supporting each other through life’s crises, and working together on ethical and social action programs to improve our world and the world of our children.

Before the Internet, people without access to an Ethical Society with walls had no means of being part of a community seeking to live more ethical lives. Now, with ESWoW, we are able to support each other on this important journey. We’d love for you to visit us at www.eswow.org.