May 15-17
Baha’i Participation on the Internet
With Greg Fullmer, National Office of Communications, and staff from the Baha’i Internet Agency
A weekend for webmasters, bloggers, Public Information Officers, or just individuals interested in Communications and the Internet. Led by the staff of the Baha’i National Center’s Office of Communications, this session will review recent guidance from the Bahá’í World Center pertaining to Bahá’í activity on the Internet and examine case studies and best practices for local community websites; teaching online; and blogs, social networking and other forms of individual initiative online.

Catch Glen Fullmer at Bosch in a little over a month.  BTW, this image looks like a blogger mandala, don’t ya think?  Below is another mandala worthy of meditation, evocative of microbial life, surely as mysterious as the Internet. And please note that it is 9-sided. -gw 

This mandala was generated from my anthropomorphic colored-ink drawing “vase”. The decorative squiggles in the lower part of that drawing have here morphed into what looks like an overhead view of a petri dish where various opague and transparent microbes are replicating. (In the center circle one can see mitosis taking place — single cells splitting into two. It occurs here because splitting one element into two is a normal part of the process I use to generate these kaleidoscopes.) … Mandalas imply meditation and microbes may, on first thought, seem an inappropriate subject for meditation. On further thought, however, meditating on microbial life has much to be said for it.

Image: Uploaded on October 7, 2006 by omnos on flickr, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 2.0 Generic

According to Alexa, 14% of current visitors to Baha’i.org come from Egypt. That’s a big percentage, it seems to me. Am I correct in assuming that the large number of visitors from Egypt to the official website of the International Baha’i Community is the result of publicity around the recent attacks on Baha’is there? The opponents of the Faith don’t seem to realize that by attacking it, they are only increasing the visibility of the Faith that much more. -gw

Bahai.org users come from these countries:

• 26.2% United States
• 14.0% Egypt
• 10.1% China
• 5.7% Iran
• 4.0% India
• 3.3% Australia
• 3.2% Canada
• 2.1% United Kingdom
• 2.0% Germany
• 1.9% Turkey
• 1.6% Panama
• 1.1% Italy
• 1.1% Poland
• 1.0% Morocco
• 0.9% Slovenia
• 0.8% United Arab Emirates
• 0.8% Malaysia
• 0.7% Kuwait
• 0.5% France
• 0.5% Portugal
• 18.4% OTHER

http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/http%3A%2F%2Fnews.bahai.org%2F

findingbibi Bita  What ‘girl empowering’ music or videos would you put on the Queen’s new iPod if you were royal DJ for a day?http://tinyurl.com/bibiqueenabout 4 hours ago from web

See: http://findingbibi.com/

Here are mine, for starters. Some are by Baha’is.  -gw

African Woman, Burning Spear, Chant Down Babylon

Average Woman, Heidi Muller, Cassiopeia

Daughters of the Kingdom, Eric Dozier and Friends, To the Glory of God 

Diamond Girl, Seals and Crofts, Greatest Hits

I’m Sensitive, Jewel, Pieces of You

Inion/Daughter, Afro Celt Sound System, Sound Magic, Vol. 1

Isn’t She Lovely, Keb ‘Mo, Big Wide Grin

Little Bird, Annie Lennox, Diva

Mangbetu Girl, Pangea, Pangea

Perfect Mother, Basia, The Sweetest Illusion

Project Princess, Tracie Morris, The United States of Poetry

Que Sera, Sera, Doris Day, Pop Music: The Golden Years

Ruby Jean and Billie Lee, Seals & Crofts, Greatest Hits

This Woman’s Work, Kate Bush, Felicity

Where Is It Written? Barbra Streisand, Yentl

Woman’s Work, Tracy Chapman, Matters of the Heart

Woman Awake, The Pearl Divers, Destiny

Woman in Chains, Tears for Fears, The Seeds of Love

 barmak9 You know that feeling where your day/hour is incomplete if you haven’t regularly Tweeted? A most unpleasant side effect of being a newTweet. about 3 hours ago from TwitterFon  

Barmak is on Twitter as in a whole lot of other Baha’is, more by the minute. Amazing! What happened to Facebook?

Also amazing. Click on Twitter Browser. Put in the name of your username on Twitter. Then click on any one of those friends you follow. -gw

http://www.neuroproductions.be/twitter_friends_network_browser/

A kind person offered me the following, which I have taken immediate advantage of. -gw

It just occurred to me that other people may wish to make use of the feed aggregator that we set up for use in Baha’i Explorer. It uses Yahoo Pipes so anyone can take the same feed and edit it for their own use. Currently it has nearly 30 different blogs and truncates the list at the 30 most recent entries:

http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.run?_id=HpukIklh3RGP3xxurLQIDg&_render=rss

The respect the Baha’i Faith engenders for the indigenous peoples of the world and their culture is enormous. -gw

Wildfire: Reflections on Music, Drama & Dance

An e-book by Istvan Dely

Istvan Dely, born in Hungary, is a percussionist, writer, linguist, and one-time pop music star who hails from the Caribbean Coast of Colombia. …

About the Book

Wildfire is the product of the author’s experiences and reflections in the field with a great number of national communities and institutes, raising sensitive issues of the arts and artists in the present stage of our collective learning process and trying to find answers in the Writings and the authoritative Guidance of the Bahá’í Faith.

http://www.divinenotes.com/books/wildfire/

WILDFIRE AUDIO SONGLIST CREDITS

1. Opening prayer. Instrumental prayer by Istvan, Leonor, David and Shangó Dely
Live recording at the Embrace the World Spring Tour concert in Denver, 2004
Music genre: AfriCaribbean and Native American sacred music

2. Tabla de Ahmad. Music: Leonor Dely; Words: Bahá’u'lláh
From the album Leonor Dely: Ámame, Insignia Records 2001
Music genre: Afro Colombian Porro

3. O que o Senhor ordenou. Music: Collective composition by a group of Institute trainees at the ALBASE
Regional Institute in Salvador de Bahia, Brazil; Words: Bahá’u'lláh
Field recording, 2003
Music genre: Rap Bahiano

4. Adunde Hebana Bungiu. Music: Brenda Colon; Words: Bahá’u'lláh
From the album Buiti Iarugadun, Uyanu Garifunoutiñ Bahai, 2002
Music genre: Garifuna Punta

5. Gaan Gadu tyami (seketi)
Music: collective composition by Saamaka Bush Negro cluster youth, Wagi Pasi,
Western French Guyana; Words: Children’s prayer by Abdu’l-Bahá
Field recording, 2002
Music genre: Saamaka Seketi

6. Escribe con la tinta. Music: Leonor Dely; Words: Bahá’u'lláh
From the album Leonor Dely: Ámame, Insignia Records 2001
Music genre: Afro Cuban Santeria

7. Kisa Senyè a te komande. Music: Sanba Zao; Words: Bahá’u'lláh
Field recording in Titanyen, Haiti, 2003
Music genre: Haitian Petro Rara

8. Alláh’u-Abhá. Music and lyrics: Anis Santiago
Field recording in Salvador de Bahia, Brazil, 2003
Music genre: Brazilian Capoeira

9. Ki lòt moun. Music: Tony Philippe; Words: the Bab’s prayer in difficulties
From the album Leonor Dely & Millero Congo: Talisman, Insignia Records, 2004
Music genre: Haitian Nago

10. Gaan Gadu. Music: collective composition by Saamaka Bush Negro cluster women, Wagi Pasi,
Western French Guyana; Words: Abdu’l-Bahá
Field recording, 2002

http://www.divinenotes.com/books/wildfire/wildfire_audio.pdf

The Associated Press

NPR - ‎Mar 13, 2009‎

There’s been another newspaper casualty, the 146-year-old Seattle Post-Intelligencer. The last edition is expected to hit newsstands next. …

In The World Order of Baha’u'llah, Shoghi Effendi writes,

Why should these, in a world subject to the immutable law of change and decay, be exempt from the deterioration that must needs overtake every human institution?

In enunciating the Baha’i perspective, Shoghi Effendi was writing about “long-cherished ideals and time-honored institutions [and] certain social assumptions and religious formulae” with this quote, and not libraries or newspapers, but his words could be applied to these institutions of knowledge and communication, too, in the Internet age.

I went to the library 3 times just on Saturday alone, and then went again on Monday. Why? Because I am refilling my iPod with the Songs of My Life, and the library is where I found the songs in the first place. Tacoma has a collection of CDs that numbers in the many thousands.

But my library experience is not the same as it was for me back in the early 90′s. I remember lines then. Where the libraries are packed now is around the Internet computers for use by those with a Tacoma library card (and who, presumably, don’t have a computer at home). Also noted: the downtown library fills with the homeless in the hour or so before the shelters open up for the night, especially when the temperature is cold.

Community libraries continue  to adapt. They are still meeting important needs. I doubt they will die altogether. Newspapers, at least the newsprint kind, are having perhaps an even tougher time than libraries.

Our family gets a newspaper delivered, and I read the paper most mornings before I begin my day. The Tacoma paper is shrinking in size, however. Up in Seattle one of the two daily newspapers gave up the ghost altogether just this week, going to online only.

I’ve written a little bit already about how change is affecting blogs. I would argue that blogs aren’t dying at all, but evolving. They are, after all, Internet-based, and the Internet isn’t going away. 

What is one of the most vibrant examples of a blog today? Soul Pancake. A higher order kind of blog, ready-made for your higher nature. And it’s a uniquely collective effort. Despite Rainn’s name on the project and actual personal involvement, you can be sure he has a team of creative people with a common vision working with him on this. And it is in the 100′s of responses that just one posed question can get that the synergy between blog and blog-reader is clearly evident. -gw

Encyclopedias: Eat Your Dusty Old Hearts Out

[SEE. THINK. TALK.]

Confession time: I don’t remember the last time I went inside a library—mostly because Google is my new card catalog. And the last time I bought a CD? I think it was The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, circa 1998. (In fact, I had to use Google to confirm that that was the right year.) Yes, I loves me the Internet. And information. And technology. And information technology.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009 – FEATURES

http://www.soulpancake.com/view_post/212915/encyclopedias-eat-your-dusty-old-hearts-out.html

Mitko’s mention on his blog Befriended Stranger of the Wilmette Institute course he is taking reminded me to check to see what courses are just underway (above) and soon to start (below).  I am so impressed with the calibre of the faculty. Just google their names to find out how accomplished they are. -gw

WOB: Zaid Lundberg & Sandra Hutchison

Interfaith Dialogue: Susan Maneck & Theresa Zingery

http://www.wilmetteinstitute.us.bahai.org/CourseDetails.aspx?Cid=32

Photo: Uploaded on July 13, 2007 by delayed gratification on flickr, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 Generic

Shimmer by ~Jericha on deviantART

Above, the Baha’i ringstone symbol which illustrates the concept of progressive revelation, Baha’u'llah being the most recent Manifestation of God, whose revelation was not just for his Persian countryman, but for all of humanity. Below,
an email from a friend. -gw

Dear Friends,
 
You can find “Oprah and Rainn Wilson Discuss Spirituality” at: http://www.teachingandprojects.com/efforts.htm
 
Since we might not have a chance to write you again before Naw Rúz, have a happy one and for a few Naw-Rúz programs please go to: http://www.teachingandprojects.com/artandmusic.htm and for now “Why Fast” and prayer for Fast see: http://www.teachingandprojects.com/healthandhealing.htm
 
Bahá’í and Interfaith Research Explorer can help most European languages as well as English, Persian, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese also Bahá’í world can be explored with “Bahá’í explorer” at: http://www.teachingandprojects.com/othersites.htm
 
For the following, mostly in Persian, please go to http://www.teachingandprojects.com/ArabicandPersian.htm  

• “Ya Malek Al Asma” a prayer of Bahaullah for Persian friends to be released from  the prison
• An “Open Letter” from India
• A letter from a non-Bahá’í Persian group in defense of Baha’is
• To read a historic statement by the Kurdish writers and journalists in support of the Baha’is
• The UK’s Channel 4 News interviewed Nobel Peace Prize laureate Dr. Shirin Ebadi lawyer about defense of Baha’i leaders
• Former President Mr. Bani-Sader on the rights of the Bahá’ís
• “Hamsedaeem”  a Letter from Bahá’ís in Persia
• Letter of Naeem Tavakoli about his father in Ivin prison “Thinking about my father in prison”
• A poem in response to “We are Ashamed” letter
• Senior analyst of IranVNC reports that Persia moving to eradicate Bahá’í Faith
• Bahá’í Youth group of Persia’s last message after the group was dissolved in March 2009
• Vargá website created by the Bahá’ís of Persia
•  Scholars and Specialists Press Release
• The most Holy Book, in Persian, Arabic, and English. Verses are read in Arabic.
• Letter of Bahá’í International Community to Ayatollah Qorban-Ali Dorri-Najafabadi Prosecutor General of Islamic Republic
• “Ehteram and Emkanat” an answer of a Persian Bahá’í woman to Ayatollah Qorban-Ali Dorri-Najafabadi
• Prosecutor General’s letter claiming that the government is fair to the Bahá’ís.
   
  Best Regards,
  Vahid Hedayati

The focus of The Covenant of Baha’u'llah constitutes the bedrock of Baha’i belief. I felt immediately grateful to the individual believer responsible for putting this site up on the web about a year ago, as the comprehensive nature of the sources it draws upon makes it a go-to place for anyone with questions on how the Baha’i Faith maintains its unity in a world terribly splintered and divided. -gw

The goal of this Web site is to provide a place to study the Writings of the Bahá’í Faith on the subject of the Covenant of Bahá’u’lláh. An outline of the material is presented here:

Understanding the Covenant

1. What is the Covenant?
2. What is the “Greater Covenant”?
3. What is the “Lesser Covenant”?
4. What are the powers and blessings manifested through the Covenant?
5. Why is it important to study the Covenant?
6. What does it mean to be firm in the Covenant?
7. What should we do when we are faced with a Baha’i law or teaching that we do not understand?
8. What is the role of freedom in relation to the Covenant?
9. What should we do if we disagree with a decision that has been made by a Baha’i Institution?
10. What is the role of questioning and criticism in the Baha’i community?
11. What is the difference between individual and authoritative interpretation?

The History of the Baha’i Covenant

1. Where did ‘Abdu’l-Bahá derive His authority as the Center of Bahá’u’lláh’s Covenant?
2. What is the station of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá?
3. Where did Shoghi Effendi derive his authority as Guardian of the Bahá’í Faith?
4. Where does the Universal House of Justice derive its authority as head of the Baha’i Faith?
5. What is the role of the Institution of the Hands of the Cause of God?
6. What were the conditions set by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá for the appointment of a Guardian after Shoghi Effendi?
7. Did Shoghi Effendi write a Will and Testament?
8. Can the Universal House of Justice function properly without a living Guardian?

Challenges to the Covenant

1. Has the Covenant faced challenges in the history of the Baha’i Faith?
2. What purposes do challenges to the Covenant serve?
3. How should we respond to challenges to the Covenant?
4. What does the term “Covenant-breaking” mean?
5. What were some of the challenges to the Covenant after the passing of Baha’u’llah?
   • Mizra Muhammad-Ali
   • Mirza Badi’u’llah
   • Mirza Majdi’d-Din
   • Mirza Diya‘u’llah
   • Mirza Aqa Jan
   • Ibrahim Khayru’llah
6. What were some of the challenges to the Covenant after the passing of ‘Abdu’l-Baha?
   • Ahmad Sohrab
   • Avarih
   • Ruth White
7. What challenge to the Covenant occurred after the passing of Shoghi Effendi?
   • The claim of Mason Remey
8. What kinds of challenges will the Covenant face in the future?

http://covenantstudy.org/

Photo: “Light and Glory,” uploaded on May 17, 2008 by Man United on flickr, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 Generic