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Frequently
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Below is a list of frequently
asked questions regarding the Bahá’í Contact
Online network. If you
have any questions that are not answered here please let us know.
You can send us your questions or comments from the Contact
Us page.
Is the Bahá’í Contact
Online network sponsored by a Spiritual Assembly?
Did the Live Oak Spiritual Assembly create the site?
Is the site contracted out?
Does Dawn Breakers Systems own the site?
Where is the Bahá’í Contact
Online hosted?
What data does Bahá’í Contact
Online hold and why?
How does Bahá’í Contact
Online help individuals?
How is this data secure from being accessed by unauthorized individuals?
Is there any allowance for individual believers to opt-in or opt-out?
What are the values of this site, as opposed to the National Center Web
administrative site?
Does the site provide any benefits to the non Bahá’í community?
Can anyone request custom changes?
Can this site serve as a community's public website?
Is the Bahá’í Contact Online network sponsored by a Spiritual Assembly?
Yes, the Local Spiritual Assembly of Live Oak – Santa Cruz, California located in Santa Cruz County.
Did the Live Oak Spiritual Assembly create the site?
No, the Assembly recognized the need to improve
the collaboration of teaching plans and resources between neighboring
communities and organized several consultative meetings with all the
surrounding Spiritual Assemblies. From those consultations, a small
task force was formed to explore possible solutions and use of the
internet soon became the first choice. When an “off the shelf” solution
could not be found, a decision to build a site from the ground up was
approved by the Live Oak Spiritual Assembly.
No, as it turned out, a Bahá’í in
another community 50 miles south of Live Oak, with the resources to
create a website, had begun a web based application for Seeker Follow-Up.
After a few conversations, the two projects were merged. Ivan Prueitt
owns Dawn Breakers Systems, LLC, a custom database development company.
This allows him to provide space on a server and the skills of a professional
programmer, Nickolai Nickolov. He is a Bahá’í living
and working from Bulgaria under contract with Dawn Breaker Systems,
LLC.
Does Dawn Breakers Systems own the site?
Technically yes. Bahá’í Contact Online is provided as a service and Dawn Breakers Systems currently absorbs the cost of hosting the site. If the site can provide the correct features to communities and grows to become used by the National Bahá’í Community, the costs of maintaining and developing the site will be deferred to the communities using the site. However, the data contained in the site is the property of each Local Spiritual Assembly.
Where is the Bahá’í Contact Online hosted?
The site is hosted by Monterey Network Center.
What data does Bahá’í Contact Online hold and why?
The core feature of Bahá’í Contact Online is community management via communication of information. Currently the site communicates by email primarily, so the minimal data required for an individual is their name and email address. With future developments, the site will also provided mailing lists and phone lists. The site does have the ability to hold Title, First Name, Last Name, MI, Gender, Birth date, Mailing Address, Mailing City, Mailing Zip, Home Phone, Cell Phone, Work Phone, Email, and Declaration Date. The site also holds information on who is eligible for LSA, who are Mentors (for seeker follow-up), who are PI Officers and who wants email Notifications. Some information can be flagged as private by the individual.
How does Bahá’í Contact Online help individuals?
Each member of the site can indicate their Skills, Interests and Languages. These criteria can be used to create a search. This becomes valuable when you increase the search beyond your own community.
How is this data secure from being accessed by unauthorized individuals?
Access into Bahá’í Contact
Online is password protected. In the password protected area the site
has three levels of access: admin, community admin, and user.
1. Admin is the highest level and affords access to all information with
the ability to edit and delete. Only a few people have this level of access
based on their involvement with the site development.
2. The community admin level is assigned to a person approved by the LSA
to work with the community members and maintain the institution lists, answer
or refer questions, assign user names and password, and generally assist
with the use of the site for the community. The community admin can edit
and delete information but is limited to their community.
3. The user level of access is the most common and is assigned to the community
members. At this level of access, people can edit and delete only the data
that belongs to them. This would include their contact information, events
they post in the calendar, and any seekers they mentor.
Is there any allowance for individual believers to opt-in or opt-out?
Yes, once the Local Spiritual Assembly decides to implement the site for their community, the community members can elect to participate or pass. Naturally, the site will serve the community better with more individuals participating.
What are the values of this site, as opposed to the National Center Web administrative site?
This site in no way attempts to replace the National Center administrative Web site. However, when it comes to communicating directly with the friends in the community and cluster, the National Center's site provides only the address of the corresponding secretary of each community. While this is sufficient for formal communication between LSA's, it is not sufficient for more grass-root activities. Consider when organizing a study circle, time and flexibility are important. Bahá’í Contact Online helps everyone to be more efficient by enabling the friends to make contact directly with those who might share their interests (i.e. give me a list of study circle facilitators.). Bahá’í Contact Online helps everyone to be more efficient.
In addition to communication, the Bahá’í Contact Online website enables every member of the community to post any events they organize without the having to rely on a single person such as a webmaster, who often becomes a bottleneck to communication.
Does the site provide any benefits to the non Bahá’í community?
Yes, many events are appropriate for the general public and Bahá’í Contact Online is intended to support these events too. Events are categorized into two types, Bahá’í and public. When a public event is posted in the calendar, it is automatically listed on the public page outside of the password protected area. By publishing your local site address on handout in in the media community, Bahá’í Contact Online becomes a valuable portal for people to contact the community and to get involved in the core activities.
Can anyone request custom changes?
The Bahá’í Contact Online network is in a pilot stage in its development and suggestions are welcome. Suggested changes will be considered individually with to regard to their imapct on the complete network and how they affect all the communities using Bahá’í Contact Online. Customization for individual communities can not be supported.
Can this site serve as a community's public website?
Bahá’í Contact Online is invisioned to be an all encompassing site. Currently the Bahá’í only (password protected) portion is built and offered for use. A second half is under development but not yet available that will act as the portal for human contact. It will display calendar events from the database and serve as a community's public website with out a members area or visible connection to the Bahá’í only entrance. The current public page can be used by a community as a place for non-Bahá’ís to check the schedule of public events but it is not designed as a true public portal.