Bahá’í World/Volume 20/Use of Computers
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INTERNATIONAL SURVEY OF CURRENT BAHA’l ACTIVITIES
8. USE OF COMPUTERS BY THE BAHA’t COMMUNITY DURING THE SIX YEAR PLAN
adapted from an article by BRYN DEAMER AND STEVEN KOLIN
Introduction
When a new Dispensation begins, God endows humanity With the means through which civilization can give effect to the teachings of the Revelation, by the Divine Messenger of God.
Every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God is endowed with such potency as can instill new life into every human frame, if ye be of them that comprehend this truth. All the wondrous works ye behold in this world have been manifested through the operation of His supreme and most exalted Will, His won— drous and inflexible Purpose No sooner is this resplendent word uttered, than its animating energies, stirring within all created things, give birth to the means and instruments whereby such arts can be produced and perfected. All the wondrous achievements ye now witness are the direct consequences of the Revelation of this Name. In the days to come, ye will, verily, behold things of which ye have never heard before. 1
Baha’is see the revolutionary changes in the fields of science and technology, during the past century, as expressions of the cre— ative impulses released by the advent of two successive Manifestations of God, the Bab and Baha’u’llah. The full impact of these immense new resources will be felt only as society responds to the social and spiritual principles which lie at the heart of the new Revelation and reorganizes its affairs so that
1 Bahé’u’lléh, Gleanz‘ngs from the Writings of Bahd ’u ’Ildh (Wilmette: Baha’i Publishing Trust, 1976), pp. 141—142.
the entire human race is able to benefit equi— tably from the advances now made possible.
As one consequence of this point of View, the Baha’i community, from its inception, has tended to embrace technological devel— opments as gifts of God and as entirely consonant with the spiritual mission of the Founder of their Faith. With respect to elec— tronic information technology, Shoghi Effendi envisioned the day when:
A mechanism of world inter—connection will be devised, embracing the whole planet, freed from national hindrances and restrictions, and functioning With marvel- lous swiftness and perfect regularity.2
Initially, computer technology was available only to very large organizations who could afford and could make use of the massive “main—frarne” installations which began to appear in the 1950s. By the 1970s, the situation had changed dramatically, so that older Baha’i communities such as those in the United States and Canada could begin to employ computers to maintain member- ship records and financial information. As advances in technology throughout the 19808 produced ever smaller and more pow- erful computers and led to dramatic price reductions, Baha’i communities throughout the world increasingly embraced “personal” computers as a means of meeting the needs of their ever-expanding operations.
In a meeting in Langenhain, Germany in 1987, the assembled representatives of the European National Spiritual Assemblies were
2 Shoghi Effendi, The World Order ofBahd ’u ’lldh: Selected Letters (1929—1936) (Wilmette: Baha’i Publishing Trust, 1974), p. 203.
[Page 482]
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warmly encouraged by representatives of the Baha’i International Community’s offices to give a high priority to equipping themselves with advanced information and communica— tions technology.
1988 saw the appearance of V. Mitra Gopaul’s book Personal Computers and the Bahd’z’ C'on'zmunily1 which was wide1y disseminated among the growing band of Baha’is interested in information technol— ogy. This practical book demonstrated how computers could be used for a Wide range of activities Vital to the goals of 1oca1 and national Baha’i communities: record keeping, 1etter production, financia1 tracking, statisti- cal analysis, publications, and the like.
At about this same time, another major development began quietly in the computer world—wcomputers began to be programed to communicate With each other without human intervention. This advancement in technology, including the ability to send computer messages through telephone lines, was the birth of electronic mail (email) which has begun to have a far—reaching impact on mankind. The ability of an aver— age person to send a document or message instantly from one computer to another computer anywhere in the world has opened entire new fields of human communication. Email tmly fits Shoghi Effendi’s Vision of “w0r1d inter—communication freed from national hindrances and restrictions...”
Use of Computer—Mediated Communica- tions by Baha’is
In May 1982, Sheryl and Roger Coe formed an informal organization known as the Baha’i Computer Users’ Association.2 Then, during the seventh Annual Conference for the Association for Baha’i Studies he1d at Ottawa, Canada, in September 1982, Steven Caswell gave a presentation on “Telecom- munications and the Baha’i Faith.”3 In this
1 Gopaul, V. Mitra. Personal Computers and the Bahd ’1' Community (Los Angeles: Kalimat Press, 1988).
2 Bahd’z’ Computer User’s Association Newsletter, [No. 1] 11 May 1982.
THE BAHA’i WORLD
he traced the historic growth of telecommu— nications and compared it to the growth of the Faith, finding an ahnost perfect correla- tion in numeric terms.
These efforts were given fuither impetus at an historic Baha’i telecommunications conference held 17 to 19 December 1983 in San Fernando, California. Forty Baha’is from the United States and Canada attended the meeting and “formulated plans designed to help establish the new Baha’i radio station in South Carolina [WLGI] and to research possible applications of existing computer technology to serve the Faith”.4
Among the finits of this conference was the proposal to establish “a Baha’i Computer and Telecommunications Association to monitor developments... and to serve as a “clearing-house” for evaluating the potential for application of new technology in service to the Cause of Baha’u’llah. One such ap- plication might be setting up a computer network to link Baha’is across the country in an interactive conferencing system involving hundreds or even thousands of Baha’is”.5 Shortly after the conference, a Core Commit— tee was appointed by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of the United States to guide the operation of the Association.6
In 1985, a statement in the Bahd’z’ Com— purer and T elecommunications Committee Newsletter read: “One of the primary goals for the coming year... is already becoming a reality. Very shortly all of the Baha’i admin- istrative offices [in the United States] which have a computer and a telephone will have the capability to link—up to a nationwide Baha’i computer network Which is being set up on Dia1com.”7
3 Cassette N0. RT—81, Association for Baha’i Studies Annual Conference, 1982, Images Intemational, 1982.
4 “San Fernando Host to Historic Telecomunications
Conference,” The American Balzd ’1', February 1983,
p. 1.
ibid.
Bahd ’1' Computer and T elecommunz‘cations Associa-
tion Newsletter, No. 4, October 1983.
Bahd ’1' Computer and T elecommzmicatz’ons Associa-
tion Newsletter, No. 5, July 1985.
GNU!
INTERNATIONAL SURVEY OF CURRENT BAHA’I ACTIVITIES
By the mid—l98OS the term “Baha’i—net”, which Steven Caswell had used in his talk in Ottawa in 1982, was being commonly used to describe Baha’i use of computers in vari- ous forms to communicate with each other. More formally, Jennifer Tidwell started the Bahai—Net mailing list on a computer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology sometime during 1987 or 1988. When the World Centre acquired Internet email access Via UUCP to the first commercial Internet service provider (UUnet) in 1989 (register- ing the domain “bwe.org”) there already were more than one hundred members on the Bahai—Net mailing list and the number was steadily growing.
Baha’i Discussion Groups and Bulletin Boards
The first computer bulletin board system created by a Baha’i was set up by Frank Haendel of Colorado, USA. In the Bahd’z’ Computer and T elecommunications Associ— ation Newsletter, Roger Coe wrote: “The other night I hooked my modem to the tele— phone, dialed a number, . watched my computer screen and here is what I saw ......
WELCOME TO A UNIQUE BULLETIN BOARD FOR THINKERS, SEEKERS AND EVERYONE ELSE WHO CAN REALIZE THAT WE EXIST WITHlN THE MIDST OF AN INCREDIBLE
483
Students at the
T adong Bahd ’1' School in Sikkim, India, learning to use computers as part of their regular curricu— lum; 1991.
WORKSHOP FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF OUR HIGHER NATURE. YOU HAVE JUST CONNECTED WITH...
- THE BAHA’I BULLETIN BOARD ***”1
Mr. Coe’s dream of being “able to associ- ate With a world—wide network of Baha’is and Baha’i institutions Via eomputer—ex- changing information, working on problems, and shrinking the world into a loving neigh- borhood”2 was coming a step closer.
Mr. Coe went on to describe three other dreams:
- Having the entire body of the Writings of the Baha’i Faith in computer—read— able format.
' A computer—to-satellite-to-eomputer net- work that would link us all together so we could share information, libraries, programs, database management sys- tems, etc., no matter how remote we might be from each other in physical terms.
A possibility of “on—line” consultation for
scholarly and other practical research
and investigations—including consulta— tion on the repair of our computers!3
1 ibid.
2 Balm ’1' Computer Users’Associaiion Newsletter, No. 1, 11 May 1982.
3 ibid.
484 THE BAHA’i WORLD
By Ridvan 1992, a large body of Writings had been typed into computers at the World Centre and elsewhere, but total public access to many of these was not yet possible. Like— wise Mr. Coe’s Visions of shared libraries, databases, and the possibility of “on—line” consultation were not possible during the Six Year Plan.
Computers at the Baha’i World Centre
The first computer at the Baha’i World Centre arrived as a kit brought to the Holy Land by Robert Gregory in 1977. The first “official” World Centre computer began operation in 1981. This was a DEC (Digital Equipment Corporation) PDP 11/34 acquired to run the first computerized financial accounting system for the Baha’i Interna— tional Fund. At the same time a word processing system called Lex was purchased.
When the Seat of the Universal House of Justice was constructed, it was wired with computers in mind. When the building was occupied in 1983, Virtually all staff had terminals at their desks linked to a central computer system. Electronic mail first became possible at the World Centre in 1984 with the purchase of a VaX computer. It was known as “Vaxmail” and quickly gained acceptance as a way of sending and request- ing information without the interruptions caused by telephone calls.
In 1985, a company called Goldnet began operation in Israel, testing With selected clients for one year before offering its ser— Vice to the public. The Baha’i World Centre asked to join the program. Mailboxes were acquired for the Baha’i International Com- munity offices in New York and Geneva, and software developed at the World Centre was installed to utilize the Dialcom service in a very cost—effective manner. Email was first used to coordinate the activities of the Baha’i International Community representatives to gain passage of a resolution in the United Nations Commission on Human Rights con- demning the persecution of Baha’is in Tran.
Conclusion
By Ridvan 1992—0ne hundred years after the Ascension of Baha’u’llah—the Baha’i community everywhere had discovered the value of the rapid developments in the field of computer-mediated communications and information—provision that had seemingly burst upon the world. Personal computers had become a regular feature of Baha’i life: their use was helping communities and Assemblies raise their level of operations to a higher, more “professional” plane, and produce newsletters, statistical and financial reports that were both more comprehensive and easier to understand. Electronic mail was being rapidly developed and pursued, and networks of Baha’i discussion groups were highly active and moving into areas of specialization.
This use of new technologies expanded the capacity of Baha’is, as individuals and as communities, to acquire, access, and organize knowledge—a capacity fundamen- tally necessary for a society such as that described in the Baha’i Writings, based on universal participation both in decision— making and in contributing to the advance- ment of civilization.
Unification of the whole of mankind is the ha11-rnark of the stage which human society is now approaching. Unity of family, of tribe, of city—state, and nation have been successively attempted and fully established. World unity is the goal towards which a harassed humanity is striving. Naticn~bui1ding has come to an end. The anarchy inherent in state sover- eignty is moving towards a climax. A world, growing to maturity, must aban- don this fetish, recognize the oneness and wholeness of human relationships, and establish once for all the machinery that can best incarnate this fundamental prin- ciple of its life.1
1 ShoghiEffendi, World Order, p. 202.