The Imagining the Internet Center and students in Elon University's Interactive Media master's program helped celebrate North Carolina's OneWebDay Sept. 22 during College Coffee at the Academic Village Plaza.
Interactive media students surveyed faculty, staff and students in attendance about Internet access worldwide, and they posted Tweets on Twitter and talked with people about the importance of protecting the World Wide Web. They will also be producing a video from the College Coffee event to post on OneWebDay’s Web site.
“What we were looking to do was bring the interactive part of our program to College Coffee,” said iMedia student David Parsons.
This year’s theme – One Web. For All – is all about digital inclusion. OneWebDay organizers called attention to efforts that will ensure that anyone who wants the Internet has open access to it. Students completed the surveys during the first 25 minutes of the event that touched on theme and revealed the results in a presentation toward the end of College Coffee. The results were:
- 47.4 percent of College Coffee respondents said the World Wide Web was proposed by Tim Berners-Lee in 1980. In actuality, it was proposed by Berners-Lee in 1990.
- 50.79 percent of College Coffee respondents said Internet security was the most important issue for the future of the Internet.
- 40.8 percent of College Coffee respondents said that 25 percent of the world has Internet access, which is an accurate figure.
- 35.5 percent of College Coffee respondents said that 61 percent of North Carolinians have Internet access in their homes, which is an accurate figure. North Carolina ranks 41st among all 50 states in home Internet access.
In addition to their work during College Coffee, the students have written essays and produced videos for OneWebDay, which are featured on the celebration’s Web site. See the Elon videos at: http://stories.onewebday.org/ and http://onewebday.org/read-our-blog/
“In the Interactive Media program, the Web is an important tool,” said iMedia student Colleen Callahan. “We wouldn’t be able to do most of what we do in the program without it, so it’s important to recognize OneWebDay. We want make people realize how lucky we are that (the Web) is open and free.”
The students’ work is for the Interactive Media’s “Audience Analysis in an Interactive Age” course, taught by Janna Quitney Anderson, associate professor of communications. She has written an opinion column on OneWebDay for the Burlington Times-News, which can be read at the link below:
http://www.thetimesnews.com/articles/web-28263-time-onewebday.html
Founded by Susan Crawford, who now advises President Barack Obama on science, technology and innovation policy, OneWebDay is an annual, global event which has been celebrated every September 22 since 2006. Much like Earth Day, which inspired it, OneWebDay provides an opportunity for communities to celebrate the power of Web for positive change, to take action to protect what is precious about it and to educate the public and policy-makers on key social, economic and political Web issues.
According to Crawford, “peoples’ lives now are as dependent on the Internet as they are on the basics like roads, energy supplies and running water. We can no longer take that for granted, and we must advocate for the Internet politically and support its vitality personally.”
