MANILA, Philippines - The Philippines joins 50 countries worldwide on Sept. 22 for the global celebration of OneWebDay, the Internet counterpart of Earth Day, to be held at the SM Mall of Asia in Pasay City. An earlier celebration was held last Friday in SM Baliuag.
Hosting the celebration is the Philippine Internet Users’ Society (PIUS) with Event Philippines Inc. as co-organizer.
PIUS head Michael Alunan explained that “the annual OneWebDay celebration was started in 2004 by Susan Crawford, now an adviser of President Obama on science and technological innovation, to highlight the importance of the Internet in terms of empowering the individual, enhancing social networking, and contributing to economic growth and development through e-commerce and better access to information.”
“And because PIUS is run like a movement on the strength of volunteerism, anyone can celebrate OneWebDay by, for instance, teaching a non-user how to use the Internet and joining PIUS through its website www.piusonline.com,” Alunan said, adding that “such initiatives can be emailed to us so we can consolidate them along with the unusual stories of how the Internet has helped individuals and businesses.”
Imee de Maiztagni of Event Philippines said the Sept. 22 event will feature a mini exhibit, free computer tutorials and computer repair, a symposium on various Internet issues, a grand eye-ball meeting and sharing to be called Online Pinoy Entrepreneurs Networking (OPEN), caricature sketches, historic mass wall signing, symbolic depositing of public messages in time capsule, and a concert with South Border, Alamid, Version 4.0, Luke Mijares and others.
There will also be free Wi-Fi access, free training on blogging to earn, photoshop sessions and an essay-writing contest for students.
Alunan stressed that the overall long-term mission of PIUS is to bring computers and Internet access to every home by mobilizing stakeholder participation: legislators can push for a magna carta; wholesale and retail financing institutions can develop financing schemes in tie-ups with schools that will integrate computer financing amortizations into tuition fees; corporations can re-direct portions of their CSR budgets to provide computer access to marginalized sectors, particularly out-of-school youth, and local government units can provide free Wi-Fi zones and computer extension programs.