A Beginner's Guide to the Internet/INTERNET.ISO/text/faqs/wisdom.net

Text File | 1996-05-06 | 7.3 KB | 191 lines

Subject: Invitation to Join the WISDOM Network
Date:    22-May-94 at 22:52
From:    Ben Gilberti, 73164,3441


The Wisdom Society is starting a WISDOM network on Internet.

When you join, you will receive all the messages sent to the network, and
any message you send will in turn be sent to all the other subscribers.

Since the network is just beginning with this announcement, we expect the
initial volume of messages to be small.  When the volume builds later on,
we plan to offer different categories of subscription that will result in
different message volumes to suit individual preferences.

There is no charge for subscribing.

The procedure for joining is very simple.  Just send a message with the
following heading:

TO: WISDOM, INTERNET:[e-mail]
FROM: (you)
SUBJECT: WISDOM -- subscribe (your name)

Be sure to put the word "WISDOM" in the "Name" portion of the compuserve
address, followed by a comma, a space, and then INTERNET:[e-mail]
in the "address" portion of the compuserve address.

You may then type a response to the letter from Bruce Schuman that
follows.  Keep in mind, however, that anything you write will go to every
other individual who subscribes.  If you prefer not to write anything to
the network at this time, but just to subscribe, simply type something
like "just subscribing" in the text portion of the message for now.

In the future, when you reply to any message from the WISDOM network, you
would use this same address you used to subscribe, but the "subject"
format would be:

SUBJECT: WISDOM -- (any topic)

You may place the address of the WISDOM network in your address book in
this manner: WISDOM, INTERNET:[e-mail]

Mr. Bruce Schuman is working with The Wisdom Society on this project, and
his letter follows --

Sincerely,

Ben Gilberti
Executive Director
The Wisdom Society

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


                                         Bruce Schuman
                                         Santa Barbara, California
                                         May 21, 1994


Dear Wisdom Society Member --

Ben Gilberti and I are working to form an "integrated electronic network",
to help coordinate the activities of the Wisdom Society.

We have created a tentative and initial framework for this network, which
is presently a bit primitive, but which we soon expect will be running on
automated software through the RAIN (Regional Area Information Network)
here in Santa Barbara.  We are waiting for the RAIN administration to
finish installing our project into their system, and in the meantime we
are designing and building the initial stages of our network.

And we want to invite you to join us in this process, to lend your voice
to our dialog, and to help shape the direction of our project by
injecting your ideas and suggestions into this new medium.



As many of you know, electronic networking is extremely fast and powerful.
There are many things we can do with this technology, once we get
organized and more or less decide what "we" want to do.

But this may prove to be no simple matter, -- since the topic of "wisdom"
could not be more broadly defined, or be more prone to controversial and
divisive interpretation.

Thus, if this WISDOM network is going to be useful, one of its primary
objectives must be the development of some "technology of mediation and
reconciliation", that can bring these different facets together into "one
voice".

The fact is, people in the Wisdom Society are coming at this project from
a thousand different angles, -- all of them interesting, all of them "part
of the big picture".  But the problem is: how do we put this big picture
together, to make just *one* Wisdom Society, fused together from the many
different motives and purposes and "sub-visions" that different people are
bringing to our discussion?

If there's any initial task for this WISDOM network, this is it.



So, people, in this search for an effective unity, I have a question for
each of you, individually: What would YOU like to see this Wisdom Society
do?

In other words:

* What is YOUR vision of "wisdom", and how do you believe this vision,
  this idea, should be implemented in the real world?

* How do YOU think "wisdom" can become an effective and beneficial force
  in society today?

* Why did you join this Society, -- and where would you like to see us
  take this project?



We're conceiving this WISDOM network as a central channel for the broadest
possible approach to the empowerment of wisdom.  In order to do that, we
want to gather up all the hundreds of specific and diverse concepts of
wisdom, as defined at every level of thinking, -- whether religious or
secular, whether idealistic or practical, whether private and personal or
entirely global, -- and somehow add all of these up into a single
framework and into a single beneficial force.

We want to take this very real and passionate interest that motivates many
people to search for wisdom, -- that initially led them to join the
society, that makes them want to help us, -- and weld all that energy into
a unified force that can really do some good in the world.

Now, -- does that make sense?  Can this happen?  We think the answer is
"yes".  We think we can make it work.

And we want YOU to participate, -- by telling us how we can incorporate
your particular vision or theory or idea into our project, -- so that we
can genuinely say that it is OUR project, -- containing a little bit from
everybody, as shaped by everybody, incorporating the wisdom of everybody,
-- all melded together into one central multi-facted "river of wisdom"
that might really be able to do something meaningful and interesting and
beneficial.



Wisdom is arguably the most precious "natural resource" that humanity
possesses.  Considering that the "price of wisdom" is experience, there's
nothing more hard-won, or genuinely expensive than true insight and mature
wisdom.  And there's nothing the world needs more today than this kind of
insight, -- at every social level, from the local PTA to the White House
and the United Nations.

But if we're going to find some way that wisdom can "speak with one
voice", were going to have to find a way to weld 1,000 different voices
into unity, -- just the way a thousand streams feed a mighty river.

Each one of us is a small voice, with something private and personal and
precious to contribute.  And if each of us contributes something, some
precious insight that we have garnered as the fruit of our own personal
challenges in life, our own private victories, we will find ways to help
guide our entire society in directions shaped by what we have learned.



Ben and I think this is possible.

And we want your help.  We want your guidance.

So tell us, -- how can we incorporate your vision, your ideas?  How can
we weld your voice into ours, so that we can work together to shape the
joint human future?

We want to hear from you.  Let some of the "water" of your own personal
wisdom flow our way, and let's see if all of us, working together, can't
make a powerful and beautiful river.

Your truly, with respect and appreciation,


- Bruce Schuman
ORIGIN RESEARCH
[e-mail]
PO Box 23346, Santa Barbara, CA 93121
[phone]