Ismaili.NET - Heritage F.I.E.L.D.

Boston Globe. The Aga Khan, spiritual leader of the Ismaili Muslims, spoke at MIT's Media Laboratory with the presidents of Harvard and MIT at the debut of ArchNet. With just a personal computer and Internet connection, scholars, students and professionals in the developing world will have access to a Web site with more than 600,000 images, and 6,000 members in 110 countries. ''Historically, the Islamic world has stood out in the area of design, but if you look at higher education in the Islamic world,'' there are problems, the Aga Khan said. ''This is a historically powerful tool usable on a global scale, a living encyclopedia of knowledge and ideas, of peoples and cultures.'' .

Version 2.0 of Archnet, developed in 2013 and launched in 2014, is a partnership between the Aga Khan Trust for Culture and the Aga Khan Documentation Center at MIT Libraries. Together, these two institutions established over three decades ago, share an integral education mission to generate and disseminate knowledge and resources; provide fora for debate and discussion; showcase best practices and lessons learned; and, present Muslim visual and material culture with historic, cultural, and geographic specificity.

Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, 27 September 2002 – While the world remains focused on conflict and destruction amidst Muslim societies, a collaborative venture in technology shows how the East and the West can together construct a world that recognises shared heritage.

His Highness the Aga Khan, Imam (spiritual leader) of the Ismaili Muslims; Charles M. Vest, President of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); and Lawrence H. Summers, President of Harvard University 13 years to this day, launched ArchNet – a global electronic resource designed to bridge cultural, civilisational and digital divides. The development of ArchNet is sponsored by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture.

The ambition of Archnet 2.0 is to be the authority in the field of architecture and the built environment in Muslim societies today by providing an unparalleled resource featuring vetted and refereed articles, data, and research. Through contributions from the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at Harvard and MIT, and donated collections of historic archives and documentation on contemporary building trends shaping the built environment today, Archnet continues to grow and is well positioned to realize this ambition.

“Not only is ArchNet a means by which we share information on architecture and design, it is also a very real attempt to build an architecture of understanding between those regions of the world that might benefit from a better understanding of each other.

I think there is a consensus that we need that now more than ever.

ArchNet’s particular importance lies in the way it informs the debate on what sort of world we seek to build.”

– His Highness Prince Karim Aga Khan, 49th Hereditary Imam of the Ismaili Muslims