The W.I.S.E. Forum
W.I.S.E. is underway. Our intention is to build, over the next few months, the premier online library for forest, fire, and the environmental sciences, with emphasis on the New Paradigm.
The knowledge uncovered, displayed, and explained will be presented to the World At Large for the instruction of Mankind and for the benefit of all creatures and landscapes of this Our Shared Planet.
That’s all very good and promising, but our new schema is much more insidious and revolutionary than just that. The Deep Strategy involves multi-party communication.
It is desired that you and you and you begin to talk to each other in a fashion unmediated by me. You, the readers and contributors to SOS Forests, hold the Key to Change. You are the real experts, as you have displayed in your emails to me over the last two years.
Now, via the W.I.S.E. Forum, you are presented with the opportunity to interact and network with each other. The hope is that you will chat with each other, relate to each other, and build consensus and coalitions for furtherance of saving forests, landscapes, and wildlife, and thereby help to make this world a more habitable place for all.
The Forum will be a Web place to converse in semi-privacy with like-minded individuals. Forum participants will suggest content for the online Colloquia, discuss the finer points of those titles, suggest news items, and post bulletins and notices of upcoming publications, events, bills, hearings, trials, tribulations, etc.
Most enviro organizations take your dues and then provide the members with an exclusive magazine. Joining the club is akin to buying a subscription to the mag.
W.I.S.E. is the opposite. The members will create the “magazine” (the online Colloquia) for free distribution to the entire world. The Forum will be the nexus and canvas of those efforts, the engine that moves the bus.
W.I.S.E. does not seek everybody and anybody, only those with strong convictions about stewardship. To that end we have established a filter, a $50 buy-in that will cause casual and uncommitted visitors to self-exclude. Only the very serious forest aficionados with heartfelt concerns will pay the cover charge.
Donating is simple. Get your credit card out, go the Join W.I.S.E. Page [here], and click the DONATE button. A simple form will appear. Fill it out, push the button, and $50 will be transferred from your bank account to ours.
The money will be used to cover our start-up expenses. Nobody is going to get rich, in case you were worried about that. As we said, the dues are a filter.
Next, proceed to the Forum log-in page [here]. The next steps are a little bit complex, so please follow these instructions:
1. In the upper right corner of the Forum log-in page there should appear the word Register. Click on that.
2. First you will see an Agree To Terms statement. Click on the first I Agree line. That should take you to the Registration Page. It’s a form you have to fill out.
3. Create and type in your username. It could be your first name, with initials, or a nom-de-plume. Mine is “admin”.
4. Type in your email address. Use the same one you used on the Donation form. That will be how the W.I.S.E. administration confirms it is you.
5. Create a password. Write it down somewhere, BUT KEEP IT SECRET. The W.I.S.E. admin will not know what it is, nor can we access it. If you lose it, don’t panic. We can reset the system to a new password that you submit.
6. Confirm your password by typing it in again.
7. Type in the Confirmation code.
8. Fill in your Location, Occupation, and Interests. Don’t worry if you are unsure what to put here. You can alter it later if you wish.
9. Fill in your Signature. This can be added to your posts at your discretion. I use “Mike Dubrasich” but some people get creative and put in pithy quotes or aphorisms.
10. Select your Preferences. Leave the default settings, although you can choose to make your signature optional.
11. Then click Submit at the bottom of the page.
The W.I.S.E. admin will get an email here at World Headquarters indicating that you registered. We will enter the Forum admin shell, turn on your account, and send you an email indicating that you are in.
Finally, after all that (which is necessary to repel the unauthorized) you can return to the Forum log-in page and log in. The nice thing is we need to go through this rigmarole only once. In the future you need only log in (with your username and password).
Once you are finally in, click Western Institute for Study of the Environment Forum Index and then browse around. Click on FAQ and other links at the top. Fix up your Profile. Inspect the Memberlist. And then feel free to create Topics and reply to Topics. Participate. Network. Make some friends.
It all seems rather expensive, trivial, and troublesome, I know. But in time the multi-party communication will become a very powerful and effective tool for change. Trust me. A hundred expert, concerned voices, speaking in unison, are all that is required to change the world.
This is your opportunity to teach and to learn, and to make a real difference. We sincerely hope you will make the most it. Be patient but persevere, and good things will come of it.
Thank you.
