OneWebDay

We took a little rest here yesterday at OneWebDay.org, but other bloggers didn’t. Here’s a snippet from just one of many blog posts in honor of OneWebDay:

If I were to name one way that I’ve been changed by the web, it would be this: It has given me the freedom and permission to discover my creative self without fear of rejection. It silenced my internal editor because it is so easy to share my photos, my writing, and my thoughts. Not only is it easy, but it invites me to step into the world of global sharing, to open myself not only to sharing my own photography but also to enjoy others’ work from home and around the world. My Flickr contacts are global — there are no barriers, not even language. Zooomr is similar, especially as it grows and welcomes the global communities. Once those artificial self-created barriers were torn away, I was freed to indulge the creative me screaming to get out. And I’ve only touched the tip of that long-frozen iceberg. Along those lines, it also brings golden nuggets like Thomas Hawk’s Principles and Guides for Photowalking, one of the most inspiring and encouraging posts about the art of photography that I’ve seen.

Any pictures uploaded to Flickr and tagged “onewebday” will show up on this site – right now, we can see pictures of Jimmy Wales in Washington Square Park, NYC.

PCWorld article here.

There’s a great Berkman video about the Future of the Net (in honor of OneWebDay) here:

In the spirit of One Web Day, a celebration of global online life taking place on September 22nd, as well as Berkman’s 10th anniversary, we dedicated today’s luncheon series to a discussion on “The Future of the Net.”

On OneWebDay United States Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards said:

“Elizabeth and I are proud to salute OneWebDay 2007.

“Thanks to the Web, millions of people around the world have the opportunity to effect change and make profound differences for good in their communities.

“That is why it is vital that we overcome the digital divide which prevents many of our rural and African-American citizens from the same empowerment that others enjoy. All citizens, regardless of their economic status, must be able to access the Web and to use its power to transform their own lives.

“I am proud to have outlined an agenda to build a universal, affordable Internet with a starting place goal of giving all U.S. homes and businesses access to real high-speed Internet by 2010.

“It is also critical that the Web remain free and unfettered of government interference. We must continue to preserve the uniquely democratic nature of the Internet, which allows all of us to contribute on equal footing with big businesses and political institutions. My commitment, as president, will be to ensure that the FCC preserves free expression and competition on the Internet by continuing to enforce net neutrality, ensuring no degradation or blocking of access to Web sites.

“Elizabeth and I congratulate and commend the organizers of OneWebDay for raising awareness of importance of Internet access for all.”

The Edwards campaign also celebrated OneWebDay 2007 on the John Edwards blog with a post highlighting the role of the web in their campaign.

Today in Berlin: 

BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU!

This is the internal affair minister of germany, in the great movie 1984!

here is my flickr-set

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) and a Rocketboom interview about OneWebDay (here). For recommendations about actions to take on OneWebDay, and electronic versions of all the logos and buttons we use, go to the action page. The first OneWebDay took place in 2006.

It’s easy to take the web for granted. 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. To see a list of the events we know about, click here.

Local OWD celebrations include a “Day of fair access to the Internet” in Colombia, where public kiosks and workshops on basic internet access will be delivered to people of all ages and economic status to introduce them to the internet.

In Africa, ISOC Benin will offer free public access to the internet and participate in an open debate about developing access to the Internet on a national television show. In Ethiopia, cybercafés in Addis Ababa will make available connected computers to the public at a discounted rate on 22 and 23 September 2007. Volunteers will help people who are new to the internet in creating their accounts and show them how to use the web. And lots more.

There will be an OWD event in Washington Square Park from 3pm to 4pm on 9/22. Jimmy Wales (founder of Wikipedia), Andrew Baron (Rocketboom), Dana Spiegel (NYCWireless) and others will be speaking.

Tim Berners-Lee made a video in honor of OWD which is here. It’s been translated into many languages.

*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.

Here from the OneWebDay blog we can see that there are a lot of links coming into this site from sites all over the world.

People often ask “what should I do for OneWebDay?” Here’s the one thing: Leave your mark online, directly or indirectly. Do a blog post, or a video, about the most interesting thing you’ve seen online recently. Teach someone how to edit a wiki or send a link to a digital photo. Find a way to help more people get online. The internet is made up of all of these individual contributions – it’s a social world, and much more than just a collection of machines.

The central goal of OneWebDay is to encourage people not to take the internet for granted. It’s under threat around the world from a variety of directions, and it’s up to people (just like you) to recognize that these threats exist, that we have a shared responsibility for the future of the internet, and that a global, interoperable internet is important to all of us.

News stories are starting to appear about OneWebDay 2007.

Mike Wendland, Convergence Editor and Technology Columnist of the The Detroit Free Press has an article about OneWebDay. His article describes some of the history of OneWebDay. He also has an audio interview with OneWebDay founder, Susan Crawford, and links to the Tim Berners-Lee video mentioned in a previous post.

In another article, ComputerWorld urges readers to celebrate OneWebDay. The article also describes the main themes of OneWebDay: recognizing all ways the Internet has made life better, while also realizing that we all need to pay attention to changes proposed to how the internet works. Make sure you know what is going on, and make sure your voice is heard.

Media Minutes: September 21 also includes a message from Susan Crawford about OneWebDay.

We got a question from a journalist earlier today saying: “Who is funding/organizing all the [OneWebDay] events and how?”

This is a completely decentralized event. There is a corporate entity, a nonprofit 501c3 called OneWebDay, Inc. that is based in the U.S. It has a Board. It received this year a $10,000 check from the Internet Society (which we used to upgrade this web site), some nominal donations through Facebook individuals, and indirect support from Cardozo Law School, the institution Susan Crawford works for, who gave her access to a research assistant for a few hours a week. That’s it. We were also helped by donations of PSAs, or ads, from blip.tv, AOL, and Youtube.com. No other direct or indirect monetary donations.

The organization of each event around the world is up to whoever wants to get involved. The Internet Society was enormously helpful in getting the word out to its global chapters, and other people heard about this online. The wiki makes it easy to announce things. What we’re doing is providing a platform for other people to use in whatever way they want.

Next year, we’d really like to hire a fulltime Executive Director who could work every day on coordination and publicity and encouragement. So we’re looking for support for that. We’d also like to translate everything into many languages – it’s ridiculous to have all of this in English on this site. And we’d like to help teachers build projects for their students. Oh, we have a million plans. But we don’t have a million dollars, or even any dollars at all – so we’ll be working on this for next year.

The journalist’s question made us think that other people might be wondering, so that’s the reason for this post.

This is the main Event against Kommunikation Surveillance

 (more datails also in english here)

5-minute information: Data retention

According to plans of the German parties CDU, CSU and SPD, from 2008 onwards it will be possible to trace who has contacted whom via either telephone, mobile phone or e-mail for a period of six months. In the case of mobile calls or text messages via mobile phone the user’s location will also be logged. Anonymising services will be prohibited.

The data that will be collected about the entire population will allow our movements to be traced, any calls or communications with business contacts to be monitored and will remove privacy in our personal relationships. It also allows the the content of communications to be analysed such as personal interests and the individual life circumstances of the person communicating. Access to the data is to be granted to the police, public prosecutors, secret services and foreign states which hope for better prosecution of crimes.

At present, telecommunications providers may retain only data required for billing purposes. This is not the case with location data and information regarding e-mails, for example. Customers can request the deletion of billing data as soon as the monthly invoice has been sent out. By using a flat rate, one can prevent the collection of traffic data altogether, which can be important for journalists, counsellors and others. Where is the Problem?

The current plans regarding the collection of information about citizens’ communication, movements and use of media constitute the greatest threat yet to our right to an independent and private life.

We would all suffer from data retention:

• Data retention constitutes an excessive invasion into our personal privacy.
• Data retention disrupts professional activities (e.g. in the fields of medicine, law, clergy, journalism) as well as political and business activities that rely on discretion. It ultimately harms our free society itself.
• Data retention doesn’t prevent terrorism or crime. It is unnecessary and can easily be circumvented by criminals.
• Data retention violates the human right to privacy and informational self-determination.
• Data retention puts a financial strain both on businesses and consumers.
• Data retention discriminates against users of telephone, mobile phone and internet services in comparison to other means of communication.

Current situation

The German Federal Minister of Justice, Brigitte Zypries, is currently pushing a draft bill concerning the introduction of data retention in Germany. The Bundestag (German parliament) is to vote on the bill in autumn. The plans are supported by the governing parties CDU, CSU and SPD. But there is an increasing tendency, also in politics, to at least delay data retention until the European Court has ruled on its legality.

The web opens up politics all over the world.

Micah Sifry of TechPresident issues this challenge:

Given how much the presidential campaigns are relying on the internet to get their message out, raise money and rally supporters, I wonder if any of them are planning to mark OneWebDay this Saturday.

There are physical events happening all over the world, including several cities in the U.S., where they could have a presence. Or they could just post a video, as our friends at the Sunlight Foundation (which Andrew and I consult for) are doing (see below), explaining how their work expanding access to government information relates to the larger spirit of OWD. They could even issue a press release (although that wouldn’t be all that webby, would it?). C’mon Trippi, Rospars, Daou, Finn, Turk, Tagaris, Carbone, Guerra, Ruszkowski, Phong, Wolf, Harbath, Fedewa, Tabor, Ferry, Lam, Lowen, and Jewell. Whaddya got?

Here’s the Sunlight Foundation’s video in honor of OneWebDay: