Posts from — May 2007

The Welwyn Baha’i community celebrated the anniversary of the Declaration of the B

It’s time for a

…groundswell of information about the [Baha'i] Faith on the Internet through the flourishing of Web sites, blogs, podcasts, and other appropriate formats…

and

…the major and most dynamic thrust is envisaged through the stimulation and support of individual initiatives, particularly amongst the youth. [From a communication from the International Teaching Centre to the Baha'i Internet Agency]

Getting started is reasonably easy, but I’ve sweated some stuff and spent many late night hours getting to grips with the finer points of blogging. So I had the temerity to believe that I could share some of that learning with others, particularly those who are less confident with the internet or who would like some face-to-face assistance.

I’m running an introduction to blogging for Baha’is at the Liverpool Baha’i Centre, 1-3 June. The aim is to support Baha’is who are responding to the call of the International Teaching Centre to increase individual initiative in sharing Baha’u'llah’s healing message on the internet through blogs, podcasts, etc.

We’ll be looking at the spiritual principles around communication and blogging, thinking about why we want to write blogs, who we’re writing for and what we want to write about.

And then those who don’t already have blogs will be helped to set up a blog and post their first entries.

If it goes well, I’ll consider running the course again elsewhere.

Technorati Tags: Baha’i, Bahai, blogging, training

I’ve been really touched by the many loving comments and emails I’ve received following my Life Changes post on 1 May. (Most of the comments came as emails as I had turned off the comments while I was at Convention and hadn’t turned them back on.)

I feel that a brief update is in order. At its first full meeting after Convention our National Spiritual Assembly decided that I should continue to serve in one particular area of external affairs (probably the one that best suits my skills and temperament) so as to ensure necessary continuity in the work.

Meantime our new Secretary for External Affairs is hatching some very exciting external affairs plans to extend our ability to influence processes in the UK towards world peace and to bring Baha’u'llah’s principles to bear on the needs of humankind in areas such as human rights, the status of women, global prosperity and moral development.

I’m looking forward to the coming year.

Technorati Tags: Baha’i, Bahai, external affairs, world peace, human rights

Well, according to Foreign Policy’s article The List: The World’s Fastest Growing Religions, the Baha’i Faith is the second fastest growing religion after Islam.

From Muslims in Europe to evangelical Christians in Africa, it is religious believers who are shaping the early 21st Century. Charismatic movements are sweeping throughout the Southern Hemisphere, while high birth rates among immigrants are provoking soul-seeking in the historically Christian West. For this week’s List, FP looks at the fast-growing faiths that are upending the old world order.

Bahaism

Growth rate: 1.70 percent

Adherents: 7.7 million

Behind the trend: High birthrates in India

Areas to watch: Bahais are spread throughout the world, but a good chunk

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Baha’i bloggers, podcasters and other internet users in England had a series of excellent meetings with Thane Terrill, a member of the Baha’i Internet Agency, this weekend. Thane flew in from New York on Friday and immediately set to work. He met with National Assembly representatives on Friday afternoon, with young Baha’i bloggers/podcasters or wannabes on Friday evening. Saturday he travelled up to Birmingham and met with Baha’is there. This morning he returned to London.

Erica Leith (George Ronald), Paddy Vickers (Warwick Baha’i Bookshop), Alfred Sharpe (Baha’i Books UK)

Thane met with Baha’i publishers this morning, including Erica Leith from George Ronald, Paddy Vickers from Warwick Baha’i Bookshop (famous for the Warwick series of leaflets about different aspects of the Baha’i Faith), and Alfred Sharpe from Baha’i Books UK. He also met with the UK Baha’i Service for the Visually Impaired, and with quite a large group of Baha’is interested in using the internet for Baha’i purposes.

Fidelma Meehan (NSA), Oliver Christopherson (Services for the Visually Impaired), Rob Weinberg (NSA)

The Baha’i Internet Agency was appointed by the Universal House of Justice to advise Baha’i institutions and individuals about the use of the internet and has put out some very useful materials. There are extracts from the Baha’i scriptures highlighting the spiritual principles that apply to blogging, podcasting and use of the internet generally. The BIA also have some very useful technical advice about podcasting, search engine optimization and so on.

Thane made five key points for all Baha’i bloggers and podcasters:

1. The “killer app” on the internet is people - that’s all of us. The internet is about creating new kinds of relationships between people.

2. Good content is king. Internet users will forgive a lot of faults provided the content (written, audio or visual) is good.

3. The “power of crowds” is the great new model of knowledge development and sharing on the internet. Anyone can help generate and add to the content on the internet; many eyes will see what’s up on the internet and inaccuracies can quickly be corrected.The internet itself connects up people and knowledge in ways that were impossible pre-internet.

4. The internet creates a level playing field for all content generators. The Baha’i community has as much power on the internet as the Vatican. Anyone can put content up on the internet at relatively low cost and it will be as accessible to readers as content put up by large corporations or other organizations. We may not be able to afford to make satellite TV broadcasts, but almost anyone can make a short video and put it on YouTube or create a podcast for people to download.

5. We can, will and should make mistakes. The internet allows us to make mistakes and correct them without costing millions.

Technorati Tags: Baha’i, internet, blogging, podcasting, publishing

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Thanks to the wonders of the Internet and a webcam I can watch my astronomer daughter, Angharad (aka Hari) at work at the James Clark Maxwell Telescope, 13,000 feet up Mauna Kea, in Hawaii.

James Clark Maxwell Telescope

According to the telescope’s website:

With a diameter of 15m the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) is the largest astronomical telescope in the world designed specifically to operate in the submillimeter wavelength region of the spectrum. The JCMT is used to study our Solar System, interstellar dust and gas, and distant galaxies. It is situated close to the summit of Mauna Kea, Hawaii, at an altitude of 4092m.

Angharad’s there for a week’s observation as part of her PhD research into the formation of high mass stars.

This webcam sequence was taken at around 4.30 a.m. in Hawaii (which was around 3.30 p.m. in the UK). As you can see, Hari is suffering from sleep deprivation (astronomers on observation are necessarily night workers) and lack of oxygen - well, you would lack oxygen at 13,000 feet. According to her posts on Facebook, she felt really stupid and sluggish at first. And the work can be pretty boring through the long hours of the night.

Being an astrophysicist is not all Brian May and glamour!

Technorati Tags: Baha’i, astrophysics, astronomy, Hawaii, Mauna Kea, James Clark Maxwell, Brian May

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News outlets in New Zealand have reported that Samoa’s Head of State, his Majesty Malietoa Tanumafili II, has died in hospital aged 95. He was the oldest serving head of state in the world.

Malietoa was a Baha’i and dedicated the

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