OneWebDay is an annual day of Internet celebration and awareness held on September 22. The stated goal of founder Susan P. Crawford is for OneWebDay to foster and make visible a global constituency that cares about the future of the Internet.

History

The first OneWebDay was held on September 22, 2006. The idea was created by Susan P. Crawford, who was an ICANN board member at the time, in association with other Internet figures such as

Doc Searls David "Doc" Searls (born July 29, 1947), is an American journalist, columnist, and a widely read blogger. He is the host of FLOSS Weekly, a free and open-source software (FLOSS) themed netcast from the TWiT Network, a co-author of '' The Cluetr ...

David Weinberger David Weinberger (born 1950) is an American author, technologist, and speaker. Trained as a philosopher, Weinberger's work focuses on how technology — particularly the internet and machine learning — is changing our ideas, with books about the ...

, David R. Johnson, Mary Hodder, and David Isenberg, who would all join the board of what would eventually become a

501(c)3 A 501(c)(3) organization is a United States corporation, trust, unincorporated association or other type of organization exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of Title 26 of the United States Code. It is one of the 29 types of 5 ...

corporation – OneWebDay Inc. A website was established and a global network of events promoted. The 2006 OneWebDay's anchor celebration featured speakers

Craig Newmark Craig Alexander Newmark (born December 6, 1952) is an American internet entrepreneur and philanthropist best known as the founder of the classifieds website Craigslist. Prior to founding Craigslist, he worked as a computer programmer for companie ...

Scott Heiferman Scott Heiferman is an American community organizer, businessperson and internet entrepreneur. Heiferman co-founded Meetup and is the company's Chairman. Early life Scott Heiferman was born in 1972 in Homewood, Illinois. Heiferman has four siblin ...

, and Drew Schutte in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

Battery Park The Battery, formerly known as Battery Park, is a public park located at the southern tip of Manhattan Island in New York City facing New York Harbor. It is bounded by Battery Place on the north, State Street on the east, New York Harbor to ...

. By 2008 OneWebDay had grown to more than 30 international events. In

Washington Square Park Washington Square Park is a public park in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Lower Manhattan, New York City. One of the best known of New York City's public parks, it is an icon as well as a meeting place and center for cultural activity. ...

, New York City, speakers included Crawford,

John Perry Barlow John Perry Barlow (October 3, 1947February 7, 2018) was an American poet, essayist, cattle rancher, and cyberlibertarian political activist who had been associated with both the Democratic and Republican parties. He was also a lyricist for th ...

Jonathan Zittrain Jonathan L. Zittrain (born December 24, 1969) is an American professor of Internet law and the George Bemis Professor of International Law at Harvard Law School. He is also a professor at the Harvard Kennedy School, a professor of computer sc ...

, and

Lawrence Lessig Lester Lawrence Lessig III (born June 3, 1961) is an American academic, attorney, and political activist. He is the Roy L. Furman Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and the former director of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard ...

. In May 2009, after founder Crawford had joined the Obama administration, Mitch Kapor took over chairmanship of OneWebDay. It was also announced that funding had been granted by the

Ford Foundation The Ford Foundation is an American private foundation with the stated goal of advancing human welfare. Created in 1936 by Edsel Ford and his father Henry Ford, it was originally funded by a US$25,000 gift from Edsel Ford. By 1947, after the death ...

. A

ning Ning may refer to: Places * Ning County, county in Gansu, China * Ning River, tributary of Mei River, originating and running through Xingning, China * Ningxia, abbreviated as Ning, Hui autonomous region of China * Nanjing, abbreviated as Ning, ca ...

-based organizing network was set up. In April 2010, it was announced that OneWebDay would "retire its brand" and be folded into a new

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year-round initiative called Drumbeat. In August 2010, a number of veterans took over organizing the 2010 event on a volunteer basis. A new website and network was established. Events took place in several cities including New York City,

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

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, and

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. In 2011, the main event was a presentation in New York City by

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– "Infrastructure commons – the future of connectivity". In 2012 the theme of OneWebDay was advancing local content. In 2013 the theme was accessibility, particularly in remembrance of web-accessibility advocate Cynthia Waddell, who died in April 2013. In 2014 the OneWebDay theme was ''Recognizing Core Internet Values'', and promoted the viewing of three videos: a

TEDx TED Conferences, LLC (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an American-Canadian non-profit media organization that posts international talks online for free distribution under the slogan "ideas worth spreading". TED was founded by Richard Sau ...

talk by Dave Moskowitz, "The Internet Belongs to Everyone" from the

United States State Department The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other nat ...

, and the Dynamic Coalition on Core Internet Values at the 2014

Internet Governance Forum The Internet Governance Forum (IGF) is a multistakeholder governance group for policy dialogue on issues of Internet governance. It brings together all stakeholders in the Internet governance debate, whether they represent governments, the priv ...

. In 2015 the theme is ''Connecting the Next Billion'', aligned with the current IGF Intersessional Program, and promotes the viewing of a speech by Catherine Novelli – 'Connecting The World' at the USA-IGF in July 2015. In 2016 the theme was again ''Connecting the Next Billion'', this time highlighting a speech by United States Under Secretary for Economic Growth, Energy and the Environment Catherine A. Novelli. In 2017 the theme was ''Open The Pipes'', about the need for connectivity for Community Networks, and highlights a speech by

Internet Society The Internet Society (ISOC) is an American nonprofit advocacy organization founded in 1992 with local chapters around the world. Its mission is "to promote the open development, evolution, and use of the Internet for the benefit of all people ...

CEO/President Kathy Brown at Mobile World Congress in Shanghai. In 2018 the theme is, in co-ordination with the Global People's Summit, "Reimagine Humanity: Changing the Status Quo" and promotes participation in a global conversation about ways of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.

References

{{reflist, 30em

External links

OneWebDay.org
– official site Web-related events Unofficial observances September observances