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One Web Day sans...The Web?

One Web Day sans...The Web?

"I was recently asked to help celebrate “One Web Day” an event I admit I had never heard of. So I googled it, naturally, and discovered that it was roughly “earth day for the internet,” an opportunity to celebrate what the world wide web means to humanity. How could I not be tickled pink? Much of my waking life is guided by the faint glow of the internet, and when not actively “participating” in web culture, I am often studying its dynamics like an anthropologist (a la danah boyd) who can never fully disengaged from the culture s/he studies.

But how might I celebrate such an expansive, and therefore abstracted “thing” like the internet? I could elect to glorify a set space, an individual website, community, trend, activity or use for the internet, or perhaps I could make a weblog of the web, a meta manifesto to all things wonderful about the internet on the internet for the internet. A fine way to celebrate the web indeed. Even considering these two broadstrokes option led me to a larger question: what is that the internet means to me? Or conversely, what would I do without the internet?

I didn’t know..."

So began the planning for Berkman intern Zack McCune's 24 hour internet blackout.  When asked to be an ambassador for One Web Day, he realized that blank paper computer monitors left to be filled were not on par with Thanksgiving's hand turkeys.  No, it would take more: with discipline and interest to counter the temptation and relentless teasing, Zack embargoed himself from the internet for a full work day.

"...

:: 9:23...I don’t want to get up. I never really want to get up but this is different, this is like a rainday; getting up will only mean confronting the cold reality of my pledge to not use the internet. For 24 full hours...

But today, I walk by the computer without opening it, and go downstairs to the kitchen. I cast a long gaze out the window, trying to decode the clouds. Is it gonna rain? What are the chance of thunderstorms? It’s looked like this beautiful in the morning yesterday, and the day before. Both days ended with torrential downpours and violent thunderstorms.

I would check the weather, on weather.com or weatherunderground.com or even on my weather widget, but all three are out of bounds.

No internet, I remind myself. Seek alternatives...

:: 12:17...I peek over a co-worker’s shoulder to see “what’s going on on the internet.”...

:: 1:20...I decide to sit on the “Creativity and Media Literacy Forum” sponsored by the Digital Natives project. Immediately, I am informed that a good half of the forum will be the web-based discussions, operating as the back channel conversation space for the forum’s five primary presentations...

Despite my personal eagerness to be on the web, just seeing the internet feels like seeing a promotional poster instead of the movie. It’s just a thumbnail, a snapshot, a sketch of all that is going on right now in cyberspace.

More importantly, I realize that without a form of agency, without a personal ability for me to control the navigation of the internet it doesn’t really feel like the internet. The web is not simply a mass of global information available to be consumed, or merely the structures linking that data, but the opportunity to negotiate an individual journey through that information. I begin to realize that the internet shapes my sense of self, in that I may be directed by ads, emails, stumbles, or traditional hyperlinks, but I am still an arbiter of what I consume...

 :: 4:04...Spontaneous desire to open an internet browser, just because...

:: 8:32...In that moment I realize that my shiny (I daresay “sparkly”) trek bicycle helmet really is due for an update. If I got a cool new helmet, I would likely feel… cooler.  And so, another google query (“bomber bicycle helmet”) goes unsubmitted..."

The full "Noe Web Day" chronicles are over on Zack's blog, where you can also find "Noe Web Day" videos and poke around in his other animations and ruminations.

What does the internet mean in your daily life?  Share your stories for One Web Day on September 22 this year.  If you'd like start the celebration early, you can sign up to be a One Web Day ambassador - email volunteer@onewebday.org.