| ←183 | Messages from the Universal House of Justice, 1986-2001 Availability of Electronic Versions of Sacred Writings |
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| 31 MAY 1994 |
To all National Spiritual Assemblies
Dear Bahá’í Friends,
184.1 On 7 April 1994, it was announced to various computer user groups that electronic versions of a number of the Sacred Writings were available for downloading from a computer at the Bahá’í World Center.
184.2 Within the first three days of operation, over one thousand copies of the books in electronic format were transferred to computers around the world.
184.3 The system being used is known as FTP (File Transfer Protocol). It allows those with the appropriate programs on their own computers to connect via the Internet directly to the FTP Server at the Bahá’í World Center. They can then see a list of the Bahá’í books available electronically from the World Center, and copy them into their own computers.
184.4 The text files have been reduced to their simplest form (known as ASCII, an international standard format recognized by most computers), then "compressed" to save computer space and transmission time. When copied to another computer they are uncompressed and become basic, readable files. Other computer programs owned by the users can then be used to conduct word searches and similar functions on the text. . . .
- With loving Bahá’í greetings,
- DEPARTMENT OF THE SECRETARIAT
