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Urantia Book Dissemination
joer1
This is a reposting of a David Kantor letter that he recently sent concerning dissemination of The Urantia Book.
Dear Friends;
There have been a number of posts on UBRON recently as well as elsewhere related to dissemination strategy.
I would like to assert that any reader of The Urantia Book whose life has been significantly enhanced as a result of reading The Urantia Book, any reader who has a sense of the magnitude of the difficulties through which our world is now passing, any reader who feels a sense of gratitude towards the revelators for what has been provided -- has a moral obligation to participate in dissemination in whatever manner he or she may deem appropriate.
Have you ever paused to consider the universe significance of the comment, "Of those to whom much has been given, much shall be required"? Having spent my entire adult life working relative to the formal organizations and having been deeply involved in their internal political workings, I must say that I don't have a lot of optimism about their ability to play an aggressive role in dissemination. These organizations have an essential role to play vis-a-vis the creation of translations, the publishing of books, the management of conferences, as well as marketing and distribution of the book -- but at present they are far from being up to taking on the challenges of aggressive dissemination.
Effective dissemination requires a strategy and a plan based on a fairly well-developed philosophy of dissemination combined with a good understanding of the environment into which the dissemination effort is to be applied. At present, Urantia Foundation and its subsidiary UAI, as well as the Fellowship, are characterized by deep internal conflicts related to the embrace of specific philosophies of dissemination and institutional development. The primary conflict within the Fellowship is the degree to which mention of Jesus should or should not be associated with dissemination efforts. Some readers say they are embarrassed to have their friends come to our website and see Jesus mentioned. Yet the topic of Jesus is what our statistics show to be the primary factor driving traffic to our website – to say nothing of the fact that Jesus is spirit gravity in our local universe and the spirit of truth is almost wholly dedicated to illuminating the meanings and values of his bestowal.
Over the past few years the struggle within the Fellowship to gain control of website content has eclipsed issues that are becoming increasingly critical, such as the development of a viable IT structure which does not depend on a single individual, backup procedures for assuring the long-term integrity of organizational data, procedures and policies for proper administrative management of IT processes, appropriate staffing for the management of growing IT tasks, and much more.
The situation boils down to whether we are going to design and manage our web presence relative to what a wide range of statistical analysis tells us people are looking for on the web, or design it to meet subjective ideological preferences. We have objective data, statistically significant information about what people are searching for on the Internet that relates to The Urantia Book. This information is further reinforced by actual market studies that Mo Siegel conducted. Shouldn’t we be willing to use this information to leverage our very limited dissemination resources in order to reach the greatest possible number of individuals with information about The Urantia Book? Are we willing to conceal the content of the book from the many in order to avoid disturbing a few? Is our objective the dissemination of The Urantia Book, or the use of the book to enhance our social identities?
Effective dissemination must be done within a context of information already familiar to the target audience.
But there is an alternative to institutional stalemate on aggressive dissemination: Multiple efforts must be encouraged with individuals or groups pursuing dissemination within contexts each might determine to be worth developing. Having the copyright in the public domain opens doors to an unlimited range of dissemination efforts. We should be opening those doors and walking through them rather than consuming valuable administrative time trying to restrict each other’s dissemination efforts.
The situation boils down to whether we are going to design and manage our web presence relative to what a wide range of statistical analysis tells us people are looking for on the web, or design it to meet subjective ideological preferences. We have objective data, statistically significant information about what people are searching for on the Internet that relates to The Urantia Book. This information is further reinforced by actual market studies that Mo Siegel conducted. Shouldn’t we be willing to use this information to leverage our very limited dissemination resources in order to reach the greatest possible number of individuals with information about The Urantia Book? Are we willing to conceal the content of the book from the many in order to avoid disturbing a few? Is our objective the dissemination of The Urantia Book, or the use of the book to enhance our social identities?
Effective dissemination must be done within a context of information already familiar to the target audience.
But there is an alternative to institutional stalemate on aggressive dissemination: Multiple efforts must be encouraged with individuals or groups pursuing dissemination within contexts each might determine to be worth developing. Having the copyright in the public domain opens doors to an unlimited range of dissemination efforts. We should be opening those doors and walking through them rather than consuming valuable administrative time trying to restrict each other’s dissemination efforts.
The reality of the situation is that each of us -- as individuals – must bear responsibility for dissemination. If we fail to assume this moral obligation, this cosmic duty, real dissemination is not going to happen. Dissemination is not book distribution – although book distribution is essential; dissemination is getting individuals interested in reading the book to the point where it makes a difference in how they relate to other individuals in their social environments.
So here’s the strategy: Diffuse the dissemination task throughout the reader community by encouraging the creation and evolution of websites devoted to single topics from The Urantia Book.
Create a website – not just another website about The Urantia Book, but a simple website about your favorite topic in The Urantia Book. And when you have created this site, learn how to optimize your pages so your site pops up on the first page of Google or Yahoo searches when someone is looking for information related to your topic. Provide a context within which individuals searching for information on a particular topic will find that information as it is presented in The Urantia Book.
How about a site focused on the Garden of Eden? John the Baptist? The twelve Apostles? Mary Magdalene? The Sermon on the Mount? The post-resurrection appearances? What about sites making the book relevant to each of the world’s religions? The list of possibilities is almost endless. If you can provide good information relative to inquiries sought through search engines, you can reach a lot of people. Provide Urantia Book perspectives on specific topics combined with links to other resources dealing with the same topic. Make your website a portal for information about your chosen topic. There are at present a limited number of people putting the word "Urantia" into Internet search engines. There are far more entering terms such as "The Lord is my shepherd" or "forgiveness of sins" or "eternal life" or “Moses” or “age of the earth” or “evolution”. Google has free webmaster tools that let you check the traffic over the past month for any given word or phrase.
What is needed are hundreds of websites devoted to specific, narrowly focused topics that have parallels in The Urantia Book. Simple websites are easy and inexpensive to create and publish. If each reader could create one based on his or her favorite topic in the book (and learn how to optimize the site for search engine recognition), we could evolve a huge dissemination net that would capture a wide range of human beings searching the Internet for information about their personal needs or interests.
This strategy skirts the creative gridlock vis-a-vis dissemination which occurs when groups of diverse readers idealistically attempt to combine their various ideals into a unified effort. It leaves the high-cost but necessary tasks of book publication, business management, translation, sales, and distribution to the more formal organizations.
So here’s the strategy: Diffuse the dissemination task throughout the reader community by encouraging the creation and evolution of websites devoted to single topics from The Urantia Book.
Create a website – not just another website about The Urantia Book, but a simple website about your favorite topic in The Urantia Book. And when you have created this site, learn how to optimize your pages so your site pops up on the first page of Google or Yahoo searches when someone is looking for information related to your topic. Provide a context within which individuals searching for information on a particular topic will find that information as it is presented in The Urantia Book.
How about a site focused on the Garden of Eden? John the Baptist? The twelve Apostles? Mary Magdalene? The Sermon on the Mount? The post-resurrection appearances? What about sites making the book relevant to each of the world’s religions? The list of possibilities is almost endless. If you can provide good information relative to inquiries sought through search engines, you can reach a lot of people. Provide Urantia Book perspectives on specific topics combined with links to other resources dealing with the same topic. Make your website a portal for information about your chosen topic. There are at present a limited number of people putting the word "Urantia" into Internet search engines. There are far more entering terms such as "The Lord is my shepherd" or "forgiveness of sins" or "eternal life" or “Moses” or “age of the earth” or “evolution”. Google has free webmaster tools that let you check the traffic over the past month for any given word or phrase.
What is needed are hundreds of websites devoted to specific, narrowly focused topics that have parallels in The Urantia Book. Simple websites are easy and inexpensive to create and publish. If each reader could create one based on his or her favorite topic in the book (and learn how to optimize the site for search engine recognition), we could evolve a huge dissemination net that would capture a wide range of human beings searching the Internet for information about their personal needs or interests.
This strategy skirts the creative gridlock vis-a-vis dissemination which occurs when groups of diverse readers idealistically attempt to combine their various ideals into a unified effort. It leaves the high-cost but necessary tasks of book publication, business management, translation, sales, and distribution to the more formal organizations.
This strategy decentralizes the dissemination effort and frees it from political constraints and religious prejudices. No matter what happens economically or politically in the world, no matter if our fledgling organizations mature or fail to grow, if the emerging international readership culture can coalesce around a sense of personal responsibility and personal involvement in grass-roots dissemination efforts rather than relying on institutions to do this work, nothing will be able to stop the rapid promulgation of the fifth epochal revelation.
Lastly, this strategy makes it impossible for anyone to identify a cult or a religion associated with the book. If this strategy is implemented, anyone looking for information about the book will only find a wide range of individuals seeking to create interest in specific topics contained in the revelation. If this strategy could be implemented, the world might see a grass-roots movement the likes of which has never before existed -- coming simultaneously from the grass roots globally, in every culture and language group for which a translation exists.
The readership itself --- individual readers -- must become mobilized to stimulate real dissemination; the spread of the information contained in the physical book into the intellectual and spiritual lives of those spirit-born souls who, we are told, will "quickly supply the leadership and inspiration requisite for the social, moral, economic, and political reorganization of the world."
Let's create some interesting, narrowly focused websites! Let's get busy constructing the readership's spiritual stimulus package! Let us more fully devote our life energies to the dissemination of the great gift which we have been privileged to receive!
David Kantor
workman34 |
Latest page update: made by workman34
, Feb 19 2009, 12:41 AM EST
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| Started By | Thread Subject | Replies | Last Post | ||
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| workman34 | Dissemination of The Urantia Book (page: 1 2 3) | 42 | May 19 2009, 2:37 AM EDT by joer1 | ||
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Thread started: Feb 14 2009, 5:37 AM EST
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Hi joer, I agree with what you have posted on the "Urantia Book Dissemination" page written by Dave Kantor. "What is needed are hundreds of websites devoted to specific, narrowly focused topics that have parallels in The Urantia Book. Simple websites are easy and inexpensive to create and publish. If each reader could create one based on his or her favorite topic in the book (and learn how to optimize the site for search engine recognition), we could evolve a huge dissemination net that would capture a wide range of human beings searching the Internet for information about their personal needs or interests. " So, I have started building a site on the subject of "Jesus". . |
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| cosmic_citizen | making the Revelation relevant | 15 | Apr 21 2009, 8:01 PM EDT by cosmic_citizen | ||
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Thread started: Feb 9 2009, 4:20 AM EST
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in the 20 plus years I've been living with the UB I've always tried to impart its teachings and especially its cosmology to any and all who might be willing to listen . . . as long as no mention is made of a "revelatory text" it's truly gratifying to see how people usually take to many of the ideas expressed so eloquently in the book. The better I integrate and live these teachings the more opportunities I get to share the revitalized gospel of Jesus and as my understanding grows so does my compassion and tolerance for others. Jesus seemed to employ the parable and narratives in order to share with the seekers he met in a way that engaged them to think for themselves rather than giving out fully cooked answers. I wonder if we, the readership could continue in this vein and come up with new parables for our epoch and cultures on the planet at present. Please share with me some of your success stories in outreach efforts,
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| cosmic_citizen | revealing the Revelation's relevancy | 4 | Mar 3 2009, 9:41 PM EST by cosmic_citizen | ||
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Thread started: Feb 21 2009, 8:13 AM EST
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so just how has the fifth epochal impacted your life in a discernible way, better be-attitudes, less reactionary behaviour, increased insight and discernment , more peace of mind and a reassuring faith that all is truly as it should/could be at present and only the exercise of my free will can change my perspective and call my future, more spiritual self gradually forth from the chaos and habitual confusion of my all-too-human estate. May I be evermore conscious of the deity particle within yearning to blossom through me as I practice my faith to the best of my abilities with those I engage. Love is all.
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