‘Abdu’l-Bahá arrives in 34 days. Since January 1, we’ve shared stories that tell the sights and sounds of 1912. We chose them to provide some context for the kinds of subjects he will tackle when he gets here.

In 1912 British newspapers and magazines had already given Americans an idea of the kind of person he was and some of what he had to say, because he had visited London and Paris the previous autumn.

So, now that we’re in the final stretch to DAY 1,  we thought it’d be a good time to give you a sense of the conversations he was starting. He had a unique take on gender, race, justice, the role of religion in modern society, and on America’s place in the emerging global order. A century later, these subjects continue to shape our public conversation.

Now we want to start some conversations with you!

Gazalle Ardekani
Social Media Editor

About two years ago, I had dinner with a good friend and business colleague of mine, Jonathan Menon. He presented me with an intriguing idea for a project that would use Twitter to deliver “real time history.”

There’s one thing you need to know before I continue: I loathe Twitter. I was delighted when the satirical site The Onion published an article on the ‘Nadir Of Western Civilization’ which lists the following as the penultimate moment before the apocalypse: “Twitter will be used to communicate a series of ideas so banal they will instantaneously negate the three centuries of the Renaissance.”

But Jonathan’s a convincing guy. Besides, we did have a long track record of creating pioneering web projects. If there were any unorthodox things to be done with social media, we were the ones to do it.

The subject matter would be the 100th anniversary of an event close to our hearts: the visit of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá to America. As Bahá’ís, the occasion is of great consequence to us. It is a compelling and improbable story. In 1912, an aging Persian man, just released from 40 years of imprisonment at the hands of the Ottoman Empire, traveled across North America for 239 days, and confronted Americans with a vision of human nature, social unity, and the nation’s future that was 100 years ahead of its time.

Jonathan proposed we reconstruct this little-known period in history, essentially hour-by-hour, for the entire 239 days. Using Twitter, it would be delivered in real time, shifted precisely 100 years into the future. 

We would soon dub this little experiment a “Social Media Documentary.” For the first time, Twitter made sense to me. At least for this single, one-time, never-to-be-repeated use. I even got a Twitter account.

Rob Sockett
Producer

Stay tuned for Part 2: The project grows…and grows…and grows…

You may have noticed that at the top of each Daily Feature there is a greyed-out tab called “STORIFY.” It looks like this:

Storify is a new web app that enables people to “curate” social stories. That means that we can take all of the tweets that we have sent during each day, all your responses to them, and all your comments on Facebook and 239days.com and put them all together in one place at the end of each day. This way we can archive all the conversations we have and keep them forever. 

For example, here’s an image of the Storify we have completed for Day 60, when ‘Abdu’l-Bahá is in Philadelphia. Click here to go to the actual Storify page.

Storify has sharing buttons of its own along the top right of the Storify page. You can comment on the page directly to Twitter and Facebook, and you can share it, and you can even embed it in your own web pages if you like. Join Storify yourself to follow thousands of other social stories.

Every day we choose the best comments and tweets to include in our daily Storify feed. The more you comment on the social networks we use, the more you will show up in the feed. (But only if what you say is interesting enough!)

If you want to find out more about Storify go to: www.storify.com

Please let us know how you like it!