[From Robert Gilman, editor of IN CONTEXT]

Dear Friend of IN CONTEXT,

It's good to finally be communicating with you directly! A lot has happened during the past nine months. One part is the long conflict over Context Institute and its assets that Ann describes in her accompanying letter. Yet the more lastingly important part is what we've done to regroup, get our new office functioning in Langley, and, best of all make sure that...

IN CONTEXT Continues!

At the end of 1995 we decided to move IN CONTEXT to the Internet's World Wide Web. Now, nine months later, we've crossed that bridge, and I'm happy to report that the Web is an even better medium for IN CONTEXT than we expected - including being more accessible than we first thought. (Even if you don't have direct access to the Web, please keep reading. Later in this letter I tell you how you can still get new IC material without direct access.)

This move is important fundamentally because it means we can now bring the best of IN CONTEXT, both old and new, to a much wider audience, worldwide - a world both more open to and more in need of that material than even a few years ago. This move is not about technology; it is about communications. For me it is also about remembering the larger goal (a humane and sustainable world) and being willing to change as fresh means become available, however fond we may have become of the old means, so that we can be as effective in this work as possible. The needs of the times are simply too urgent to do less.

Here's some of what we've done so far:

• Posted 6 back issues, including IC #1! We plan, over the coming months, to post all 43 back issues, including all of the long out-of-print early issues. We see this as a profound shift from IC as a printed periodical to IC as a growing, living, electronic sustainability resource library.
  
• Started IC #44, the first purely on-line issue, including some wonderful material by one of the early pioneers of the sustainability movement, Tom Bender. I say "started" because our publishing on the Web is an organic and participatory process. As a reader you get to watch each issue grow and, if you like, to contribute over the three months the issue is forming.
  
• Begun "The Global Context," a section on our site, to provide state-of-the-art summary information on trends and alternatives in the broad areas of Nature (earth, air, life, water); Humankind (education, health, demographics, population); Society & Culture (from families to economics); and Hardware (buildings, transportation, etc.). It's an electronic "global situation room" with an IN CONTEXT perspective; a place where you can keep track of what is making history, rather than just news; where you can go smoothly from the largest vision to the most directly practical.
  
• Started a free email newsletter, called 'ci-news', that lets people know about new additions to the Web site as well as other Context Institute news.

So far we've done little to publicize the site since we want this letter to be the official "going public." Nevertheless, in the last 3 months we've had over 26,000 "hits" (requests for pages) from 45 countries!

This is very much just the beginning. One of the additional possibilities that we're particularly excited about is translating IN CONTEXT into other languages. This would have been prohibitively expensive in print, but on the Web it is just a matter of finding the right translators - and they can be from anywhere in the world! (If you could translate even one article, or know someone who might be interested in helping us, please get in touch.)

We're excited! I feel like the spirit of IN CONTEXT is singing as it spreads it wings in this new medium. And I also feel this spirit is especially happy that...

Now It's Free

People often ask me, "If IN CONTEXT was failing financially in print, how can you offer it for free on the Web?" The answer is simply that publishing via the Web (an option that has only become seriously available in the last year or so) is so enormously less expensive than publishing in print that, if we can continue the level of donations that IC was getting while in print, we won't need to charge for subscriptions.

Publishing on the Web eliminates all the cost of printing and postage (plus saving lots of trees!). Doing away with subscriptions eliminates all the cost of processing subscriptions, sending renewal notices, etc. These cost savings eliminate the need for costly advertising, further reducing expenses (and junk mail!). All of these reductions also mean that there is much less to manage, so I can again turn my attention to editing. The end result is a much simpler, less costly process that focuses our efforts on the essence of what IN CONTEXT is all about. We figure we can now do for about $35,000 per year what used to cost us more than $200,000 per year.

Yet it is even better. By offering the whole IN CONTEXT library plus the new Global Context section on the Web we can:

• Reach millions - and soon-to-be tens and hundreds of millions - of people. Current estimates have 200 million people using the Internet by 2000, just four years from now! We never reached more than 9,000 subscribers in print and by the end of last year we were down to under 6,000. Our Web site, without publicity, is already getting more hits than that every month!
  
• Be more useful to professionals, business people, government officials, and other decision-makers who need practical, quality information immediately.
  
• Better reach those future decision-makers called students (who are one of the larger Web user-groups).
  
• Reach people all over the world with equal ease and speed. We recently got the following: "I used to be a subscriber in Caracas, Venezuela but now it is too expensive to have a PO Box in USA and our mail is not secure. I am very happy to find you in the Web so I can keep in touch with your excellent journal and organization." ... and this is just the beginning!
  
• Provide journalist/media people with a quickly-accessible, reliable source of quality material on sustainability, and through them reach additional hundreds of millions of people who don't have access to the Web.

Clearly, we now have the opportunity to take IN CONTEXT to a whole new level of effectiveness while staying true to our fundamental vision and roots. IN CONTEXT has never been about making money; it has always been about encouraging a humane and sustainable future ... with vision and integrity. Being able to offer it freely, without subscription, feels very right and fitting to the needs of the times. We just hope there will be enough people who share this vision and value this work so that we can get the support we need.

If you don't have access to the Web...

... how can you still get IN CONTEXT? Through networking and community. Here is what we suggest:

• Find someone who has access to the Web. It is quite likely that you have a friend or a relative (or a friend of a friend) who does.
  
• Get them to subscribe to the free email newsletter, 'ci-news'. They can do this through the Web site or by sending the email message:
        subscribe ci-news
        end
  to 'majordomo@whidbey.net'.
  
• When ci-news informs them about new IC material on the Web site, get them to print it out for you.

This is a wonderful way to introduce that friend to IN CONTEXT at the same time you are continuing your own connection. I think of it as "freeing two birds with one key."

Other alternatives are local libraries and schools which increasingly have Web access. In fact, Web access is growing rapidly, is coming soon to TVs, and will likely be as widespread as VCRs in a few years. We want to be fully ready to greet all those people when then go looking for meaningful alternatives.

If none of these options work for you, write or call us and we'll help. We don't want anyone to miss out on IN CONTEXT simply because they don't have direct Web access.

How can you help?

If you care about IN CONTEXT and want to see it become an even more effective catalyst for a humane and sustainable world, please find some way to help. This is absolutely a time when we need your support.

Here are some possible ways:

• Send Context Institute a tax-deductible donation. Remember, IN CONTEXT is now primarily supported by donations. Please help to show that people still care about IN CONTEXT and are willing to continue their support. In whatever amount, please do what you can. Send it to:

Context Institute
PO Box 946
Langley, WA 98260 USA

• Send us material for IN CONTEXT. We are just as interested as always in articles, publications, leads, and ideas. Use any of the addresses or numbers at the bottom of the first page.
  
• Sign up for 'ci-news'. Use the instructions earlier in the letter or just send us your email address on the enclosed support card and we'll do it for you.
  
• Sign-up for CI's Affinity long-distance phone service. This 1st class phone service is great for you and great for CI. Fill in and sign the form on the back of the enclosed support card now or call us at 360/221-6044 if you have any questions. (More info is also on our Web site at 'www.context.org/AFFINITY/affntext.htm'.)
  
• Buy back issues directly from us. Complete your collection or give them as gifts while they are still available. Again, you can use the enclosed support card.
  
• Let others know that IN CONTEXT is alive, well, and now available for free on the Web. Encourage them to subscribe to our free email newsletter, 'ci-news'.

Whatever you do, please stay in touch - via the Internet, through the mails, and over the phone. Your support, is, as it always has been, very valuable and nourishing to us.

We look forward to hearing from you!

With Appreciation,
Robert Gilman