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The Op-Ed quoted below, in yesterday's Burlington (NC) Times-News, by Janna Quitney Anderson, hits the very core of the spirit of OneWebDay.

This is a hot time for the World Wide Web in North Carolina, and this week as we celebrate OneWebDay (an Earth Day for the Web each Sept. 22) it is a great time to look at where we are and where we are going.

[snip]

Just like its inspiration Earth Day, OneWebDay is aimed at enlisting everyone in the protection of a key human network — the communications network — a vital social, political and economic ecosystem on planet Earth.

The annual OneWebDay is a time to express our thanks and support for the builders of and contributors to the amazing, ever-changing Web while also encouraging them and all of our leaders to be cognizant of rapid change, be vigilant about coming challenges and to ensure that the Web continues to evolve to serve the greater good.

This fall we are celebrating the 40th anniversary of the first Internet connection. The initial computer-to-computer chat was a brief information exchange between two nodes — one at UCLA and the other at Stanford Research Institute — on Sept. 2, 1969. It is difficult now to remember the days when computers were not networked.

[snip]

OneWebDay also serves as an annual wake-up call that helps us to focus our attention on key issues tied to the Web. We want to assure that anyone who desires it has open and fair access to sharing of information on the Web and the Internet.

It is difficult to overstate how much we have come to depend on the hyperconnected human network known as the WorldWideWeb. Most folks in developed nations count on it directly or indirectly every day, and growing numbers of people in our region of the world make their living working as the engineers, researchers, teachers, inventors, administrators and creative people who are helping it evolve.

We are blessed to have amazing new capabilities thanks to our communications networks. With these blessings come responsibilities. The Web presents new opportunities for upholding and advancing human rights, for example through enhancing access to knowledge and resources. It is vital that we build on and extend these opportunities while keeping the network of networks secure and open.

h/t to Nathaniel James, Executive Director of OneWebDay.
I'm proud to be a Member of the Board of OneWebDay!

Technorati Tags: Internet, OWD, OWD09, OneWebDay