Baha'i Resources on the Internet

From: kalantar@cs.cornell.edu (Michael H Kalantar) Newsgroups: soc.religion.bahai,soc.answers,news.answers Subject: Baha'i Resources on the Internet Supersedes: <3t2h8n$afv@gemini.cs.cornell.edu> Followup-To: soc.religion.bahai Date: 4 Aug 1995 14:04:00 -0400 Organization: Moderators of soc.religion.bahai Expires: 30 Dec 1995 23:59:59 GMT Message-ID: <3vtneg$fpp@gemini.cs.cornell.edu> Summary: Baha'i Faith, List of Internet Resources Archive-name: bahai-faith/resources Last-Modified: 3-August-1995 INTRODUCTION "Baha'i Resources on the Internet" is a summary of Baha'i related resources available to those connected to the Internet. Included in this listing are locations of Introdutory material, the Baha'i Writings, information about interactive "IRC firesides", various Baha'i mailing lists and newsgroups, and information about Baha'i Organizations connected to the Internet. Suggestions, corrections, pointers to additional information, or questions should all be addressed to: Michael Kalantar <kalantar@cs.cornell.edu> OUTLINE Changes from the last version I. Introductory Material II. Sacred Scriptures and Other Texts III. Baha'i Related Images IV. Regular Net Events V. Newsgroups/Mailing Lists VI. Baha'i Organizations VII. Anonymous "FTP" and "FTPMAIL" Note: Throughout, locations of resources are supplied as Universal Resource Locators, or "URL"s. For those already familiar with the "World Wide Web" or "WWW" (using programs like Mosaic or Netscape), they will be understandable. For those unfamiliar with WWW, some of the resources may still be available by "FTP" or by "FTPMAIL". For more information about these see the last section of this document. Finally, a copy of this resource guide is archived at: ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/soc.religion.bahai/Baha_i_Resources_on_the_Internet And an HTML version of this resource guide can be found at: http://www.cs.cornell.edu/Info/People/kalantar/Bahai/resources.html CHANGES FROM LAST VERSION -- A page with information about the upcoming Baha'i International Peace Relay and on the Baha'i Faith's ideas on peace can be found at: http://jms09.jeton.or.jp/users/bruce/relay1j.html -- An Internet based search engine for the Baha'i Writings can be found at (see Section II): http://sunsite.unc.edu/Bahai/TrueSeeker -- A new introduction to the Baha'i Faith, including a Web version of "The Baha'i Faith -- Basic Facts", an introductory pamphlet is available at (see Section I): http://www.ibmpcug.co.uk/~jherbert/bahai/bahahome.html -- A new collection of the daily readings, Reciting the Verses of God: Spiritual Virtues and Practices editted by Dwight Allen and Shahin Vafai has been made available on the Web at (see Section II): http://www.infi.net/~brianf/verses/titlep.html -- The location of the home page for the Baha'i community of Danville, CA has moved to (see Section VI): http://www.ccnet.com/~nep/bahai/danville/ -- The maintainer of the home page of the Baha'i community of Danville, CA is providing space for other Baha'i communities to set up their own home pages. For information see (Section VI): http://www.ccnet.com/~nep/bahai/services/ I. Introductory Material ------------------------ An introduction to the Baha'i Faith, appropriately titled "Baha'i Faith Introduction" is a part of the monthly postings in the USENET newgroup soc.religion.bahai. It can also be obtained from: ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/soc.religion.bahai/Baha_i_Faith_Introduction The Baha'i entry in the "Virtual Library" can be found at: http://www.biologie.uni-freiburg.de/~amueller/religion/bahaifaith.html The magazine _The Baha'is_, by the Baha'i International Community, presents both an overview and brief history of the Baha'i Faith. An electronic version can be found at: http://oneworld.wa.com/bahai/magazine/cover.html The pamplet _The Baha'i Faith -- Basic Facts provides a short (9 page) overview of the Baha'i Faith. At: http://www.ibmpcug.co.uk/~jherbert/bahai/basic1.html Glen Little's Baha'i page contains a list of Baha'i resources that is organized differently than this one. It can be found at: http://www.bcca.org/glittle/ A number of individuals have set up WWW introductions to the Baha'i Faith. Some of these are: http://www.usask.ca/~maton/bahai.html http://oneworld.wa.com/bahai/ http://sunsite.unc.edu/Bahai http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/con/com/fac/bahai.html http://www.biologie.uni-freiburg.de/~amueller/bahai/ (German) http://www.infi.net/~brianf/baha'i.html http://aloha.net/hol/home/lizhm/bahaiyou.htm http://www.juxta.com/juxta/docs/bahai.html http://www.ibmpcug.co.uk/~jherbert/bahai/bahahome.html A paper entitled "Baha'i Pilgrimage to Israel" by G.M. Viswanathan reviews the concept of pilgrimage in the Baha'i Faith and briefly introduces the holy sites visited on a Baha'i pilgrimage. As well it contains some beautiful pictures of the Baha'i Holy Places taken by Ron and Liz Hahn-Morin. It is available at: http://sunsite.unc.edu:80/Bahai/Pilgrimage/pilgrimage.html Finally, an annotated bibliography of books about the Baha'i Faith is posted monthly in soc.religion.bahai. It is also available at: ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/soc.religion.bahai/Baha_i_Faith_Annotated_Bibliography II. Sacred Scripture and Other Texts ------------------------------------ The Baha'i World Centre has a large set of the Baha'i Writings in a plain text format. Within the limits of the copyright notice (ftp://ftp.bwc.org/bahai/README.COPYRIGHT), these files are available to everyone. They are available at: ftp://ftp.bwc.org/bahai This collection is mirrored at: ftp://oneworld.wa.com/pub/bwc A subset of this collection has been converted to "HTML" format. It is available at: http://www.cs.cornell.edu/Info/People/kalantar/Writings/Bahai_INDEX.html Other formated versions of the Baha'i Writings include: _The Hidden Words_ at: http://www.bcca.org/glittle/docs/hidden.htm _Baha'i Prayers_ at: http://www.bcca.org/glittle/pb/prayers.html The True Seeker home page allows you to do key word searches of the Baha'i Writings. You can either search all texts or a specific subset. Found at: http://sunsite.unc.edu/Bahai/TrueSeeker Compilations of the Baha'i Writings developed by Bill Huitt on character development, perseverance, courage, patience, and confidence can be found at: http://www.valdosta.peachnet.edu/~whuitt/religion/bahai.html A new collection of the daily readings, Reciting the Verses of God: Spiritual Virtues and Practices editted by Dwight Allen and Shahin Vafai will soon be published by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of India. It has been made available on the Web at: http://www.infi.net/~brianf/verses/titlep.html Other available texts are: _The Vision of Race Unity_ a statement by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of the United States. Available at: http://oneworld.wa.com/bahai/tvru.html http://sunsite.unc.edu/Bahai/Texts/The-Vision-Of-Race-Unity.html A page of Resources of Baha'i Librarians can be found at: http://www.uwm.edu/People/mrowe/bahailib.html III. Baha'i Related Images -------------------------- The magazine _The Baha'is_ (see Sections 1 and 6) contains a number of pictures. Available at: http://oneworld.wa.com/bahai/magazine/cover.html The paper _Baha'i Pilgrimage to Israel_ (see Section 1) contains some beautiful pictures of the Baha'i Holy Places taken by Ron and Liz Hahn-Morin. It is available at: http://sunsite.unc.edu:80/Bahai/Pilgrimage/pilgrimage.html Several Baha'i related GIFs can be found at: http://aloha.net/hol/home/lizhm/bahaiyou.htm Some pictures taken by Laurence Lundblade of Baha'i Holy Sites in `Akka are at: http://www.bcca.org/akka IV. Regular Net Events ---------------------- IRC Firesides ------------- "In just over 100 years, the Baha'i Faith [Founded by Baha'u'llah (1817 - 1892)] has grown from an obscure movement in the Middle East to the second-most widespread of the independent world religions. Embracing people from more than 2,100 ethnic, racial and tribal groups, it is quite likely the most diverse organized body of people on the planet. Its unity challenges prevailing theories about human nature and the prospects for our common future. The main theme of Baha'u'llah's message is unity. He taught that there is only one God, that all the world's religions represent one changeless and eternal Faith of God, and that all humanity is one race, destined to live in peace and harmony." --- Excerpted from _The Baha'is_, a publication of the Baha'i International Community. Who: Anyone interested in the Baha'i Faith. What: A fireside is a Baha'i term for when Baha'is invite their friends into their homes to ask questions and learn more about the Baha'i Faith. We try to follow this definition as well as we can on IRC. Where: On Internet Relay Chat (IRC) channel '#bahai'. When: Every Monday at 8:30pm EST (equivalently, 5:30pm PST, 6:30pm MST, 7:30pm CST, 9:30pm AST, and 1:30am Tuesday GMT/UTC). For more information please contact the Baha'i IRC Fireside coordinator Justin I. Nevill at: jinevill@cybernetics.net An up-to-date schedule can be obtained at: http://www.cybernetics.net/users/jinevill/bircfa.txt V. Newsgroups/Mailing Lists --------------------------- SOC.RELIGION.BAHAI usenet newsgroup on the Baha'i Faith A non-threatening forum for discussing and sharing information about the tenets, history, and texts of the Baha'i Faith. Examples of posts that fall within the group's scope are: * The Baha'i Faith's relation to other religions * Relevance of Baha'i principles to current world events/problems * Analysis of particular scriptural passages or themes * General Q & A For more information see the monthly posting "Welcome to soc.religion.bahai" available at: ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/soc.religion.bahai/Welcome_to_soc.religion.bahai An archive of all past postings to the newsgroup is now available on the soc.religion.bahai homepage at: http://www.bcca.org/srb BAHAI-FAITH Baha'i Faith Mailing list bahai-faith@oneworld.wa.com is a mirror of the newsgroup soc.religion.bahai for those unable to read the newsgroup directly. Send subscription (and unsubscription) requests to: "bahai-faith-request@oneworld.wa.com" Note that it is preferable to read the newsgroup directly; Bahai-Faith is provided for those without direct access to newsgroups. NOBLE-CREATION Baha'i Development Forum Mailing list The Development Forum (noble-creation@bcca.org) focuses on social and economic development issues, ideas and projects. It is open to all and especially oriented for professionals working in the field. Send subscription (and unsubscription) requests to: "noble-creation-request@bcca.org". The name, "noble-creation" was chosen to set the tone of the discussion, where the basic noble and spiritual nature of humanity will be recognized. BAHAI-READINGS Daily readings from the Baha'i Writings Subscribers to this mailing list receive a "quote of the day" roughly once a day. Send subscription (or unsubscription) requests to: "bahai-readings-request@bcca.org" VI. Baha'i Organizations ------------------------ Baha'i World Centre ------------------- The Baha'i World Centre is the international spiritual and administrative center of the Baha'i Community. Located at Haifa, Israel, it is comprised of Holy Places in the Haifa-`Akka area and of administrative institutions located on Mount Carmel. Baha'i Writings FTP site The Baha'i World Centre maintains a large collection of Baha'i Writings in a plain text format. Within the limits of the copyright notice (ftp://ftp.bwc.org/bahai/README.COPYRIGHT), these files are available to everyone. They are available at: ftp://ftp.bwc.org/bahai and are mirrored at: ftp://oneworld.wa.com/pub/bwc Baha'i International Community ------------------------------ The Baha'i International Community is an international non-governmental organization that represents and encompasses the worldwide Baha'i community. _The Baha'is_ An overview and history of the Baha'i Faith. Available at: http://oneworld.wa.com/bahai/magazine/cover.html _The Prosperity of Humankind_ A statement of the Baha'i International Community. Available at: http://sunsite.unc.edu/Bahai/Texts/The-Prosperity-Of-Humankind.html Local Baha'i Communities ------------------------ _Space for Baha'i Community Home Pages_ The maintainer of the home page of the Baha'i community of Danville, CA is providing space for other Baha'i communities to set up their own home pages. For information see: http://www.ccnet.com/~nep/bahai/services/ _Baha'i Community of Danville, California_ Information about the Danville, California Baha'i community. Includes community service projects, classes, religious observances, and bookstores. Available at: http://www.ccnet.com/~nep/bahai/danville/ University Baha'i Clubs ----------------------- _Association for Baha'i Studies at McGill University_ http://www.facl.mcgill.ca/VUB/clubs/bahais _Baha'i Club at University of Virginia_ http://poe.acc.Virginia.EDU:80/~jll9w/ _Baha'i Club at Yale University_ A site to "complement" material elsewhere; specifically (though not exclusively) devoted to the themes "Youth Can Move the World" and "the persecution of the Baha'is of Iran". Available at: http://www.cis.yale.edu/~sobhani Baha'i Schools -------------- _Maxwell Baha'i School_ Contains information about the school and examples of some of the work of the students. Available at: http://www.islandnet.com/~ianvink/maxwell.html VII. Anonymous "FTP" and "FTPMAIL" ----------------------------------- Resources listed above at addreses that start with "ftp://" may be available to you via a program called "FTP", an acronym for "File Transfer Protocol." FTP allows you to transfer files between your computer (called the "local" host) and another one on the Internet (called the "remote" host). If you don't have access to FTP, you may be able to obtain files using "FTPMAIL". See below for information about FTPMAIL. FTP --- In general you execute the "ftp" command to connect to the remote host of interest. The remote host's file system is a hierarchy (a tree structure). It can be "navigated" to find the files you are interested in. Once they have been located the files you are interested in, you can retrieve them (transfer them to your computer). The following is an example on a UNIX based computer. Your local ftp program may behave differently. If what is here doesn't work, check with a computer "system administrator".) Comments are enclosed in square brackets. The "%" is the prompt on my computer. A whole document of additional information about FTP can be found at: ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/ftp-list/faq To obtain it, I need to identify the remote machine. It is immediately following the "ftp://" part of the location. In this case, it is "rtfm.mit.edu" So I would go: % ftp rtfm.mit.edu [I type "ftp rtfm.mit.edu"] Connected to rtfm.mit.edu. [this is the response] Name (leo:kalantar): [I would type "anonymous" here] Password: [I would type in my email address here] ftp> cd pub [cd stands for "change directory". A directory is a collection of files and/or other directories. The "pub" part is the first part of the address after the machine.] ftp> cd usenet/news.answers/ftp-list [Here I change several directories at once. They are separated by "/". Notice that I am following the order of the directories in the "address". I can go up to the previous directory by going "cd .."] ftp> dir ["dir" lists the files in the "current" directory. "ls" produces a less detailed list] ftp> get faq ["get" retrieves the file (transfers it to my computer) If the file is "compressed" it may have a ".Z", ".gz", or ".zip" on the end of the filename (like faq.Z). Executing "get faq" retrieves an uncompressed version. Executing "get faq.Z" retrieves the compressed version. (In this case, since the file is NOT a text file; you would have to tell ftp so before executing the get command. You do this by using the "binary" command, as below] ftp> binary 200 Type set to I. [just showing how to use the binary command; the second line is the response you may see; it may not be the same.] ftp> quit % [the file "faq" is now on my own computer] NOTE: In this case, the address pointed to a specific document. In many cases it will only point to a directory. You must look at the directory (using "dir" or "ls") to find out what is there and what you might be interested in retrieving. FTPMAIL ------- FTPMAIL is a way of using email to retrieve documents. You put FTP commands into a piece of email. The results (the files) are then emailed back to you. You must send your mail to a "FTPMAIL server". Some are: ftpmail@cs.uow.edu.au ftpmail@ftp-gw-1.pa.dec.com bitftp@pucc.princeton.edu ftpmail@lth.se bitftp@dearn bitftp@vm.gmd.de (Europe only) ftpmail@grasp.insa-lyon.fr ftpmail@ieunet.ie bitftp@plearn.edu.pl bitftp@plearn (Europe) ftpmail@doc.ic.ac.uk ftpmail@sunsite.unc.edu ftpmail@ftp.uni-stuttgart.de ftpmail@decwrl.dec.com You can get help from any of them by sending a piece of mail with just the word "help" in the body of the message. Example #1 [gets a list of the images available at ---------- ftp://oneworld.wa.com/pub/graphics] To:ftpmail@ftp-gw-1.pa.dec.com Subject: ------------ reply kalantar@cs.cornell.edu <----- [put your email address here...] connect oneworld.wa.com anonymous kalantar@cs.cornell.edu <----[ tells which machine to connect to and the login name and password] cd /pub/graphics <----[ tells it to change directories to /pub/graphics] ls <---- [gets a listing of that directory ] quit <---- [quits the script] Example #2 [gets a list of the root directory of the FTP server at the ---------- Baha'i World Centre (ftp://ftp.bwc.org)] To: ftpmail@ftp-gw-1.pa.dec.com subject: ----------------- reply kalantar@cs.cornell.edu <--- [put your OWN email address here] connect ftp.bwc.org anonymous kalantar@cs.cornell.edu [use your own email address here] ls quit Example #3 [gets the FTP faq described above] ---------- To: ftpmail@ftp-gw-1.pa.dec.com subject: ----------------- reply kalantar@cs.cornell.edu <--- [put your OWN email address here] connect rtfm.mit.edu anonymous kalantar@cs.cornell.edu [use your own email address here] cd pub/usenet/news.answers/ftp-list get faq quit

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