Below is the letter that a few short months ago caused Baha'i bloggers hunched over computer keyboards from Baltimore to Beijing to experience mysterious bouts of bodily tingling, especially in the tips of their fingers. -gw
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11 December 2007
Transmitted by email
To selected National Spiritual Assemblies
Dear Bahá’í Friends,
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With the emergence of the Internet as a primary information resource for growing numbers of people worldwide, and more recently as a means of facilitating social networking and novel
forms of collaboration, new ways of sharing Bahá’í precepts, perspectives and experiences with a range of audiences have become possible. It has become evident that to take full advantage of these opportunities a concerted thrust to foster individual initiative on the Internet is necessary.
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In a recent communication to the Bahá’í Internet Agency, the International Teaching Centre ndicates that
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the essential aim of this new thrust would be to produce a groundswell of information about the Faith on the Internet through the flourishing of Web sites, blogs, podcasts, and other appropriate formats, in a range of key languages.Although this focus will undoubtedly incorporate developments under the auspices of Bahá’í institutions, including the establishment of a much greater number of national Web sites, the major and most dynamic thrust is envisaged through the stimulation and support of individual initiatives, particularly amongst the youth. This will necessitate an orientation that fosters creativity and a spirit of enterprise within a broad set of guidelines and recognizes that learning through mistakes will be an inevitable part of the process.
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The Teaching Centre also notes that an increased presence of the Faith on the Internet can serve "as both an effective form of defence and a means of exploiting opportunities afforded by growing media exposure."
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Toward this end of generating an expanding range of quality content about the Faith, we have attached background material and suggestions about new modalities of Internet participation such as blogging and podcasting. This information can be freely shared with the members of your communities. We especially encourage you to cultivate the involvement of youth in this arena of action. Sessions or workshops at youth conferences might well offer useful venues to create awareness and capacity in this regard. To promote learning about promising approaches, we hope to establish an ongoing exchange with you concerning innovative ideas carried out by individuals that increase the visibility of the Faith on the Internet or draw inquirers into Bahá’í community activity.
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Internet initiatives should of course be carried out within the framework of institutional guidance and in light of cardinal Bahá’í principles such as moderation, courtesy, probity, fairness, dignity and wisdom. Individual and institutional undertakings on the Internet are complementary in nature—activities to be pursued in consonance with the overall objectives of the current global Plan. In this respect, the International Teaching Centre emphasizes that "the presentation of the Faith on the Internet, and through other media, will undoubtedly prove an important area of experience and learning in advancing the process of entry by troops—the singular aim of the Five Year Plan."
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With loving greetings,
Bahá’í Internet Agency+
"My Hmong girls at the internet café,"
Uganda's Bahá'í Temple
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