Caroline Wise, AU, and Steve Wilson, AU, both of London, UK, received authorization to create the First Official Central FOI Website in 1995. The website was published to the internet in early 1996. (*) This entry gives an idea of the general excitement about the FOI going online, and an idea of what the world was like for most people in 1996, before many of us had home computers, or heard of html code and netscape!
Announcement of the First Central FOI Website
Isian News, Issue Number 79, Brigantia 1996
Editorial
“…information about the FOI is now spreading via the World Wide Web, the graphical area within the Internet. FOI information including the Manifesto is currently available on 2 sites, that of Lady Starsheen’s Lyceum of Isis of the Stars, and a new site we have set up. We would like to thank Lady Starsheen for this magnificent effort, which we were unaware of until we began searching for other www sites to link with. This means that Steve Wilson, who has set up the site, could have copied her version of the Manifesto instead of spending 2 hours typing it himself, but never mind! Too much is better than not enough! This new FOI site is available at the following address, (which will look like a lot of gobbledygook to anyone not on the Web). Note that with ‘Netscape 2’ software, only the bit after ‘www.’ is needed: http://www.cerbernet.co.uk/isis/ E-mail is at isis@styx.cerbernet.co.uk
This site is not for us alone. When you log on to the Home Page you will see Judith Page’s beautiful picture of Isis next to a very basic statement about the FOI with ‘links’ to other pages. These give information about the nature of the FOI, its daughter groups and some current events, and they too have links to other pages (links, for the uninitiated, are words that, when you point the mouse at them and click, take you to another page). The site is still being developed, but under ‘Iseums,’ 'Lyceums,’ ‘Priories,’ and ‘Groves’ we will happily give a page to every existing group, plus information on training courses and FOI events.
What is more, members running commercial operations may advertise with us for 5 pounds per year. Other groups doing voluntary work with FOI members involved may also have free pages, Dragon will have an entire network soon (most Dragon members are in the FOI, it is an ecological campaign group for Pagans) and the newsletter of the Campaign Against Live Exports, and animal rights group, is already up.
In the next few weeks people will be able to fill in an on-screen form and join the FOI directly through the computer. Please note that the FOI got onto the Web before the Church of England, showing just who is ready for the future. We will also be creating links to other sites, such as the Pagan Federation and the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids, who will return the favour.
The site is already listed for all major ‘search engines’ (programs that search the Web for subjects) under ISIS, GODDESS, PAGAN, WICCA, DRUID, RELIGION and some other references. Paid for initially by John Merron of the Lyceum of Elen of the Greenways, it is sponsored by Atlantis Bookshop and will hopefully pay for itself through these cheap advertisements.
Isian News is produced by the Lyceum of Isis of Time and Space for the Fellowship of Isis. Editor in Chief - The Hon. Olivia Robertson, Huntington Castle, Clonegal, NR. Enniscorthy, Eire.
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* Note, as of October, 2009, both Caroline Wise and Steve Wilson were made founding members of the two new FOI Foundation Unions, the ArchDruid Union and the Grand Commander Union. These two unions join the ArchPriesthood Union to form the FOI Foundation Union Triad. All three unions are equal and share custodianship of the legacy of the Fellowship of Isis.