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Archive-name: bahai-faith/resources
Last-Modified: 16-January-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 <kala...@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 HTML version of this resource guide can also be found at:
http://www.cs.cornell.edu/Info/People/kalantar/Bahai/resources.html

CHANGES FROM LAST VERSION

Added information about _The Baha'is_, a magazine about the Baha'i Faith
published by the Baha'i International Community and converted to HTML
by Bernal Schooley (see sections I and VI)

Added another site with an introduction to the Baha'i Faith to section I:
http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/con/com/fac/bahai.html

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://www.industry.net/bernal/cover.html

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.fic.gov.bc.ca/users/glittle/bahai.htm
http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/con/com/fac/bahai.html
http://www.biologie.uni-freiburg.de/~amueller/bahai/ (German)

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 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

III. Baha'i Related Images
--------------------------

A few Baha'i related GIFs can be found at:
ftp://oneworld.wa.com/pub/graphics

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: jine...@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:



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

BAHAI-FAITH Baha'i Faith Mailing list
bahai...@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-fai...@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 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-creat...@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-readi...@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.

One Country Newsletter
One Country is the international quarterly newsletter of the Baha'i
International Community. It carries articles on international development
and world peace. It is available on the internet gopher server
"gopher.together.uvm.edu" under the "Organizations" menu; that is:
gopher://gopher.together.uvm.edu/11/orgs/bahai

_The Baha'is_
An overview and history of the Baha'i Faith. Available at:
http://www.industry.net/bernal/cover.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.]
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:

ftp...@decwrl.dec.com ftp...@cs.uow.edu.au
bit...@pucc.princeton.edu ftp...@lth.se
bitftp@dearn bit...@vm.gmd.de (Europe only)
ftp...@grasp.insa-lyon.fr ftp...@ieunet.ie
bit...@plearn.edu.pl bitftp@plearn (Europe)
ftp...@doc.ic.ac.uk ftp...@sunsite.unc.edu
ftp...@ftp.uni-stuttgart.de ftp...@ftp-gw-1.pa.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:ftp...@ftp-gw-1.pa.dec.com
Subject:
------------
reply kala...@cs.cornell.edu <----- [put your email address here...]
connect oneworld.wa.com anonymous kala...@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: ftp...@ftp-gw-1.pa.dec.com
subject:
-----------------
reply kala...@cs.cornell.edu <--- [put your OWN email address here]
connect ftp.bwc.org anonymous kala...@cs.cornell.edu [use your own email
address here]
ls
quit

Example #3 [gets the FTP faq described above]
----------

To: ftp...@ftp-gw-1.pa.dec.com
subject:
-----------------
reply kala...@cs.cornell.edu <--- [put your OWN email address here]
connect rtfm.mit.edu anonymous kala...@cs.cornell.edu [use your own email
address here]
cd pub/usenet/news.answers/ftp-list
get faq
quit