Bahá’í World/Volume 20/Use of Computers
8. USE OF COMPUTERS BY THE BAHÁ’Í 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 wondrous 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
Bahá’ís see the revolutionary changes in the fields of science and technology, during the past century, as expressions of the creative impulses released by the advent of two successive Manifestations of God, the Báb and Bahá’u’lláh. 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 Bahá’u’lláh, Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh (Wilmette: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1976), pp. 141—142.
the entire human race is able to benefit equitably from the advances now made possible.
As one consequence of this point of view, the Bahá’í community, from its inception, has tended to embrace technological developments as gifts of God and as entirely consonant with the spiritual mission of the Founder of their Faith. With respect to electronic 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 marvellous
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—frame” 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 membership records and financial information. As advances in technology throughout the 19808 produced ever smaller and more powerful computers and led to dramatic price reductions, Bahá’í 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 of Bahá’u’lláh: Selected Letters (1929-1936) (Wilmette: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1974), p. 203.
warmly encouraged by representatives of the Bahá’í International Community’s offices to give a high priority to equipping themselves with advanced information and communications technology.
1988 saw the appearance of V. Mitra Gopaul’s book Personal Computers and the Bahá’í Community1 which was widely disseminated among the growing band of Bahá’ís interested in information technology. This practical book demonstrated how computers could be used for a wide range of activities vital to the goals of local and national Bahá’í communities: record keeping, letter production, financial tracking, statistical analysis, publications, and the like.
At about this same time, another major development began quietly in the computer world—computers 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 average 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 truly fits Shoghi Effendi’s vision of “world inter—communication ... freed from national hindrances and restrictions...”
Use of Computer—Mediated Communications by Bahá’ís
In May 1982, Sheryl and Roger Coe formed an informal organization known as the Bahá’í Computer Users’ Association.2 Then, during the seventh Annual Conference for the Association for Bahá’í Studies held at Ottawa, Canada, in September 1982, Steven Caswell gave a presentation on “Telecommunications and the Baha’i Faith.”3 In this
1 Gopaul, V. Mitra. Personal Computers and the Bahá’í Community (Los Angeles: Kalimat Press, 1988).
2 Bahá’í Computer User’s Association Newsletter, [No. 1] 11 May 1982.
he traced the historic growth of telecommunications and compared it to the growth of the Faith, finding an almost perfect correlation in numeric terms.
These efforts were given further impetus at an historic Baha’i telecommunications conference held 17 to 19 December 1983 in San Fernando, California. Forty Bahá’ís from the United States and Canada attended the meeting and “formulated plans designed to help establish the new Bahá’í radio station in South Carolina [WLGI] and to research possible applications of existing computer technology to serve the Faith”.4
Among the fruits of this conference was the proposal to establish “a Bahá’í 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 Bahá’u’lláh. One such application might be setting up a computer network to link Bahá’ís across the country in an interactive conferencing system involving hundreds or even thousands of Bahá’ís”.5 Shortly after the conference, a Core Committee was appointed by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States to guide the operation of the Association.6
In 1985, a statement in the Bahá’í Computer and Telecommunications Committee Newsletter read: “One of the primary goals for the coming year... is already becoming a reality. Very shortly all of the Bahá’í administrative offices [in the United States] which have a computer and a telephone will have the capability to link—up to a nationwide Bahá’í computer network which is being set up on Dialcom.”7
3 Cassette No. RT—81, Association for Bahá’í Studies Annual Conference, 1982, Images International, 1982.
4 “San Fernando Host to Historic Telecommunications Conference,” The American Bahá’í, February 1983, p. 1.
5 ibid.
6 Bahá’í Computer and Telecommunications Association Newsletter, No. 4, October 1983.
7 Bahá’í Computer and Telecommunications Association Newsletter, No. 5, July 1985.
Students at the Tadong Bahá’í School in Sikkim, India, learning to use computers as part of their regular curriculum; 1991.
By the mid—198Os the term “Bahá’í—net”, which Steven Caswell had used in his talk in Ottawa in 1982, was being commonly used to describe Bahá’í use of computers in various 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 (registering the domain “bwc.org”) there already were more than one hundred members on the Bahai—Net mailing list and the number was steadily growing.
Bahá’í Discussion Groups and Bulletin Boards
The first computer bulletin board system created by a Bahá’í was set up by Frank Haendel of Colorado, USA. In the Bahá’í Computer and Telecommunications Association Newsletter, Roger Coe wrote: “The other night I hooked my modem to the telephone, 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 WITHIN THE MIDST OF AN INCREDIBLE
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 associate with a world—wide network of Bahá’ís and Bahá’í institutions via computer—exchanging information, working on problems, and shrinking the world into a loving neighborhood”2 was coming a step closer.
Mr. Coe went on to describe three other dreams:
- Having the entire body of the Writings of the Bahá’í Faith in computer—readable format.
- A computer—to-satellite-to-computer network that would link us all together so we could share information, libraries, programs, database management systems, 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 consultation on the repair of our computers!3
1 ibid.
2 Bahá’í Computer Users’ Association Newsletter, No. 1, 11 May 1982.
3 ibid.
By Riḍván 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. Likewise 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 Bahá’í World Centre
The first computer at the Bahá’í 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 Bahá’í International 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 requesting 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 service to the public. The Bahá’í World Centre asked to join the program. Mailboxes were acquired for the Bahá’í International Community 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 Bahá’í International Community representatives to gain passage of a resolution in the United Nations Commission on Human Rights condemning the persecution of Bahá’ís in Írán.
Conclusion
By Riḍván 1992—one hundred years after the Ascension of Bahá’u’lláh—the Bahá’í 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 Bahá’í 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 Bahá’í discussion groups were highly active and moving into areas of specialization.
This use of new technologies expanded the capacity of Bahá’ís, as individuals and as communities, to acquire, access, and organize knowledge—a capacity fundamentally necessary for a society such as that described in the Bahá’í Writings, based on universal participation both in decision—making and in contributing to the advancement of civilization.
Unification of the whole of mankind is
the hall-mark 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. Nation-building has come to an end. The anarchy inherent in state sovereignty is moving towards a climax. A world, growing to maturity, must abandon this fetish, recognize the oneness and wholeness of human relationships, and establish once for all the machinery that can best incarnate this fundamental principle
of its life.1
1 Shoghi Effendi, World Order, p. 202.