OCEANIA ORACLE

PASSPORTS

Also let me know if you have any ideas on what should be in the Oceania Pioneer Journal. (I will use the same mailing list for the passport design and newsletter idea.) Currently I am planning on having the topics 1) A day in the life of an Oceanian 2) Questions and Answers about Oceania. I need about two more topics.

Thanks to input from Brian E. Travis, it has been decided to change the fugitive clause to:

"I certify that all the information included with this passport application is true and that I am not a wanted fugitive for an action that is a crime under Oceania law."

This would cover the problem of whether Oceania would consider the "crime" serious and whether or not you were a fugitive in any country, not just considering the one that you are in. Any comments on this decision would be appreciated.

David Kovar, your passport application has been received.

For those of you who send passport applications through the mail, please include your e-mail address with them, thanks.

PUBLICITY

We have started a lot of mutual links recently and if Bob has caught up on that by the next issue, I will list all the new mutual links. Poor Bob is so overworked...

Here's an idea from Robyn King-Nitschke which I have followed up on:

Subject: Fwd: WWW Milkcap Hunt Site Countdown

Eric,

Got an Oceania milkcap? Want one? This might be a good way
to publicize the Web site...

--Robyn


----- Begin Included Message -----

>The GREAT HAWAIIAN MILKCAP HUNT is looking for your home page!  If you 
>have one and would like to be a site to sponsor a Milkcap, then URL to:
>
>http://aloha.com/~irwins/pog/pog.html
>
>Hypertext to Milkcap hunt and read the instructions.  Actually very 
>simple.  Just say yes.  I'll send you the HTML and GIF to link to your 
>page.  Plus if you do that, you get a milkcap starters kit, in exchange 
>for you humble time. :-)
>
>
>Business...
>
>So, since you are already there, might as well check out the rest of the 
>page...actually blatant advertising.
Command: 
>
>As of 12/04/94 we are up to 8 sites, and we need 42 more by 12/09/94.  
>
>
>Become a part of history, or in fact have people go hunt for your home 
>page...stick a milkcap in there :-)
>
>--
>Aloha,
>
>Irwin
>
>ISLE Computer Consulting       e-mail          irwins@aloha.com
>1250 Wanaka Street             Home Page       http://aloha.com/~irwins/
>Honolulu, HI  96818-1132
Command: 
>Phone/FAX (808) 422-8681
>Contact: Irwin P.K. Santos

USENET GROUP

Input I received from one reader:

"Hi, Eric, I just wanted to let you know that I sympathize.  I had
similar problems when creating the newsgroup ..., and eventually I
decided to just lie down, let them do things on their own time and on
their own decisions, and the group got created; admittedly under a
bad name, but what's important is that the group exists.

Does an alt. group exist?  I haven't heard of it, and they're
extremely easy to create.

Anyway, good luck!  'tale' can be a jerk, and Una Smith is the same
or worse (she seems to get a power trip out of it; David Lawrence is
just lazy, which is fine 'cause he's not getting paid for it), but
it's important that you get a newsgroup created so you can have more
commentary on the country.

Let me know if you need any technical help with getting the newsgroup
created.  I'm in much worse stead with the group-advice people than
you are, I'm sure, but I *have* gone through the process."

"At one point, one irate "usenet gang" member (whose name I have long
since forgotten and erased) sent me nasty email for not going through
some secret rite of passage to create a news group, despite the fact
that the alt.  groups have ALWAYS been uncontrolled in any way and
this fact is advertised in the various news.* stuff.

I ignored this idiot..."

The gang is located at group-advice@uunet.uu.net. I spoke with David C. Lawrence/tale@uunet.uu.net and Una Smith/una@minerva.cis.yale.edu in this gang.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

>From Dr. Gay E. Canough:

Eric,

In one of the latest posts, there was a comment about how people seem
un-able to dream big and then work toward that dream.  I think part
of the problem is that it is very difficult to get enough people to
agree on the *same* dream. If a person thinks up something so big
that it takes a large team of people and a big pile of money, then
there will be much time invested in collecting a team together that
can all agree on the vision and then go for it.

One way to partially beat this problem is to split the dream up into
steps that can be carried out by just a few people and a small amount
of money. As each step succeeds, more people and money will "accrete"
to the project. This is how the International Space University was
started.

Is there a way to do this with Oceania? Well, here are some thoughts
on small steps. This is just a few notions I have, but maybe other
people have better ideas...

Don't spend a ton of money on trying to sell a concept to enough
people so that we can build a full fledged ocean city. The space
people (i.e. NASA and space enthusiasts) have tried this tack for
decades with absolutely no success!

Do design and build a small housing development in the ocean. This
could be just 2 or 3 houses which are out there and self sufficient.
Or if there are a dozen people willing to buy houses in the "tadpole"
of a city, then build a dozen. Call it an oceanic co-housing
development or something.

[Co-housing developments are already being erected on land, usually
by a dozen people who want to form a community instead of being so
isolated from their neighbors like most Americans are. These people
meet and plan the layout of the community and the design of the
houses. They all have their own houses.  They shop together for a
spot of land to build on. They have a commons building where they eat
dinner together a couple days a week. They have an outdoor common
area as well. It is not a commune; the people all have different jobs
outside of the community, they don't farm, or any of that stuff.]

The point is, if this little town starts up and it is a success,
people will want to move in. Heck, sometimes new towns are so
successful, they soon have to try and limit the influx of people so
that city services can keep up with the change! And there is nothing
more convincing to people about a concept, than seeing its
implementation, no matter how modest.

Going one step at a time is sometimes called "terracing". A neat
feature of terracing is that the nature of the steps after number one
take on a very do-able look once you are standing on step 1. In fact
trying to plan something really huge and then doing it all at once
can lead to massive cost over runs and being stuck with old
technology by the time the thing is finished. Just look at the space
shuttle and the Hubble telescope.

---Gay
"Stepping Up to Space Solar Power"

Gay, do you want to advertise your products in the Oceania Mall?

Anyway, Gay is making some strong points here.  I do agree that the
idea of incremently creating Oceania will be done as is necessary.
This is why, for example, that I have made it my highest priority to
develop the business plan for a tiny company called Sea Structures
Inc.  This company could at the very least start building a
mini-Oceania just a couple months down the road...

I know that the new country concept will seem more valid when we have
"something" flying a flag in the Caribbean.

ERIC'S PERSONAL LIFE

CONTACT INFO

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