Intellectual Property Law

Forty days left

By Susan Crawford

It’s really fun to work on OneWebDay.  This is the crucial buildup time, because t’s only 40 days away.  A couple of new kinds of OWD projects are bubbling up - I wish I could announce the details, but it’s too soon to do that.

So consider this a cross-promotion post:  What would you like to do to help the Internet of the future?  For ideas, go to OneWebDay In A Box.  Many thanks to Matthew Burton for thinking hard about Ten Ways To Help the Web.

1. Use Firefox as your Web browser. It’s free, faster, and more protective of your privacy. Plus, it conforms to Web development standards, which makes things easier for people who make Web sites.

2. Edit a Wikipedia article. Teach people what you know, and in so doing, help create free universal knowledge.

3. Learn about an internet policy issue from the Center for Democracy and Technology, and teach five other people about it. There are real legal threats that could drastically change the way the Internet works. We should all be aware of them.

4. Take steps to ensure that your computer can’t be treated like a zombie. Computer viruses can steal your personal information. They can also cause major network outages on the Web, slowing things down and making sites inaccessible. Vint Cerf estimates that more than 150 million PCs have already been zombified, and are now awaiting their next order. To learn more about the threat of zombie computers, read this article.

5. Join an Internet rights advocacy group:

• Become a member of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The EFF has championed the public interest in every critical battle affecting digital rights, from privacy to free speech to Internet service.
• Join the Internet Society. ISOC is dedicated to ensuring the open development, evolution and use of the Internet for the benefit of people throughout the world, particularly by establishing Internet infrastructure standards.
• Support Creative Commons by donating and by using their licenses to copyright your work. If you’re outside the U.S., help support their counterpart, iCommons.

6. Help set up a wireless access point that’s open to everyone. If you live in a city, there is likely an organization dedicated to providing free wireless access in public spaces. Or if you want to share your Internet access with your neighbors and feel like doing it yourself, there are multiple tutorials online to help you.

7. Donate to the Wikimedia Foundation. The Wikimedia Foundation supports not only Wikipedia, but several other projects to create free knowledge: textbooks, news, learning tools, and more.

8. Donate a computer. You can donate a new $100 laptop to children in impoverished countries, or donate your used computer to Goodwill or a school.

9. Write your OneWebDay story. Talk about what the Internet means to you and why One WebDay matters at http://onewebday.org/stories

10. If your city is hosting a OneWebDay event, show up on September 22 and participate.

Full post as published by Susan Crawford Blog on August 12, 2008 (boomark / email).