OneWebDay

Our 36th Ambassador is Jerry Michalski of sociate.com.  You can read his post in its original context here.

Susan Crawford started OneWebDay back in 2006 to help remind us how valuable this Web thingie is. She hoped to inspire us to help it stay special and to evolve in more special ways, rather than become just another marketing channel or a walled-off network of the kind Jonathan Zittrain has recently described.

OneWebDay is held on September 22 every year. That’s less than two months from today.

One way I can really amplify the value that I perceive in things is through mindfulness practice. For example, you can absentmindedly scratch your cat or you can sit with her, listen to her, look into her eyes with love as you scratch her. (Years ago, I described this to my friend Iz, whose immediate reply was: “Jerry, you need a girlfriend!”) You can grudgingly do the dishes, or you can sense the different textures as you move from sticky honey with embedded muffin bits, to slippery soap, to squeaky clean — all while you appreciate that these dishes just helped nourish you and your family. You can go to the corner store, or you can walk. While. Feeling. Your. Weight. Shift. And. See. New. Things. Along. The. Way.

So as your next Web page paints in your browser, as you move your mouse or pointer or thumb around to point and click for the page after that, as you think about how to refine your search query to find exactly what you want, as you “friend” for the 1,023rd time on Facebook and as you marvel at the way too funny video someone just forwarded to you — pay attention. Check in. Don’t take it for granted.

And if you feel so moved, do something about keeping the Net special.