Mission

To expand public awareness of the implication of the ocean for the future of human survival.

To serve as a central place of exchange for ocean information, education and public discourse. To serve as an independent forum and focus for ocean affairs.

To advocate for the ocean through an open, worldwide network of communication. To provide a window on the future of the ocean for the general public and decision-makers around the world.

Premises

The ocean is an inter-connected global eco-system that integrates natural process, habitat and species with human intervention and impacts.

The ocean is a comprehensive social system that integrates human need for fresh water, food, energy, health, transport, and recreation.

The ocean is a complex political system that integrates nations and connects peoples through economic interests, cultural traditions, and cooperative governance.

The ocean evinces today a critical shift, from abundance to scarcity and from accommodation to conflict.

The ocean is viewed today as a place apart, its significance fundamentally misunderstood and critically ignored at most levels of society.

The ocean demands a new information service that meets the needs of an inquisitive public and transcends the limits and biases of governments, research organizations, national interest groups, and non-governmental organizations with more narrowly defined environmental agendas.

Goals

To create www.W2O.net, an easily accessed Web-based interactive site in four parts: The Physical Ocean, an encylopedic survey incorporating our existing contractual relationship with the United Nations "Atlas of the Oceans"; The World Ocean Directory, a theme-indexed organizational data-base and linked communication system; The World Ocean Classroom, an international environmental education center and outreach program; and The World Ocean Forum, a bi-annual conference, electronic newsletter and other publications, discussions, and broadcasts addressing critical issues and distributed worldwide.

To build The World Ocean Observatory, a virtual educational initiative incorporating ocean information into exhibits, educational innovations, public programs, and informational services, and to share these resources through partnerships with existing museums, science centers, aquaria, libraries, NGOs, schools and other educational institutions, thereby reaching audiences around the world with the greatest effect and economy of scale.

Strategies

To be both virtual and physical.
To be both reactive and proactive.
To be both retrospective and prospective.
To communicate globally from a US center.
To exploit the efficiency of partnerships and existing structures.
To reach a differentiated audience, locally and worldwide.
To affect the inter-generational transfer of knowledge.
To be science-based and humanities-driven.
To be non-litigious, independent and apolitical.
To advocate through information and education.
To promote civil discourse, peace and security on the ocean.
To be optimally economical in service, personnel, and overhead.
To be financially self-sustaining through grants and endowment.