Saturday was One Web Day, and I wanted to get this posted on the actual day, but time got away from me. Even though designating a day is great, it occurred to me that what it begins shouldn’t end the day after, deferred for another year until the next one.
The purpose of One Web Day is:
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 celebrate the positive impact of the internet on the world.
Toward that end, the organizers encourage bloggers to post about the top 10 amazing ways the web has changed the world, the ways the web has changed my individual world, or ways I’d like to see the web change the world. The organizers also encourage one web-related action that helps someone else.
There are so many different ways the web has changed me and the world I live in. I originally went online in 1992 via Compuserve to research the 1971 murder of my grandfather. In the process, I met people along the way who I would not have had the opportunity to meet, much less have a conversation. Judge Ray Cunningham helped me navigate the legal system; others helped me to really form goals and objectives for my research, and ultimately, that small group helped me accept the fact that for some things, there just aren’t going to be answers. Not one to give up easily, I hit the Internet in 1994 on a very slow dialup connection through a local university in the hopes that I would discover answers. I didn’t, but I discovered a world I never imagined.
I discovered a world where people openly shared their lives in the hopes of helping others. Blogs about raising bipolar children, about racism in today’s times, about injustice and justice, about art and photography, about how other families manage ADHD, about friends who I’ve never met but consider a friend, and about friends I have met and learn something new from every day. I discovered writers who challenge my thinking and writers who teach me.
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.
The web changes all of us, sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse. Julie Amero‘s life was changed for the worst through no fault of her own by the Internet, and yet, it was also the Internet that came to her rescue. Even though she remains in a suspended limbo until the prosecutor makes a decision as to the disposition of her overturned verdict and refreshed charges pending, at least she is free and not sitting in prison for a crime she never committed. Out of that rescue effort, The Julie Group was born to help others who are the victims of the darker side of the Internet. I’m glad that I have a small voice as a blogger there, and gladder still that there was such an overwhelming response to what I and others wrote about her case. In my time blogging, I would say that Julie Amero’s plight and the small contribution I made alongside the much larger contribution that a small group of computer forensic experts and others made is one of the Internet’s finest hours, and a shining example of how we can all make a difference for the good.
I’m looking forward to more of that in the coming year and years following. As wonderful an idea as One Web Day is, the lasting value comes from the actions of ordinary people, connected by fiber, phone and cable, speaking their minds, offering their expertise, calling for injustices to be made right, and teaching us all something simply by taking the time to be a small part of this whole organism called “the Web”.
Technorati Tags: OneWebDay