The Cormorant Baker

Go Team Lotus!

Marc Benioff, an IT guy, is using an acronym, SOCIAL, to describe how organisations should operate in the new, hyperconnected world:

Marc Benioff, the founder of Salesforce.com, a cloud-based software provider, describes this phase of the I.T. revolution with the acronym SOCIAL.

S, he says, is for speed — everything is now happening faster.

O, he says, stands for open. If you don’t have an open environment inside your company or country, these new tools will blow you wide open.

C is for collaboration because this revolution enables people to organize themselves within companies and societies into loosely coupled teams to take on any kind of challenges — from designing a new product to taking down a government.

I is for individuals, who are able to reach around the globe to start something or collaborate on something farther, faster, deeper, cheaper than ever before — as individuals.

A is for alignment. “There has never been a more important time to have all your ships sailing in the same direction,” said Benioff. “The power of social media is that it is easier than ever to both articulate, and reinforce, the vision and values that create and inspire alignment.”

And L is for the leadership that does that.

Leadership in a SOCIAL world has to be a mix of bottom-up and top-down. Leaders need to inspire, enable and empower everything coming up from below in a company or a social movement and then edit and sculpt it with a vision from above into a final product.
Thomas L. Friedman – ‘One Country, Two Revolutions’

CharityMatrix, which assists non-profits, has picked up on the article and offers its own summary of the acronym:

S – Speed: Everything is faster.
O – Open environment: There is nothing to hide, so don’t.
C – Collaboration: Enable people to “organize” into “loosely coupled teams”
I – Individuals: That’s the target audience
A – Alignment: Engage the community with your “vision and values”
L – Leadership: Shape your “top-down” product or service to match the
        “bottom-up” need
CharityMatrix – ‘The Meaning of SOCIAL’

“There’s nothing to hide, so don’t” – I like that.

Every year, the world and its system have a day set aside (October 31st) to celebrate ungodly images and evil characters while Christians all over the world participate, hide or just stay quiet on Halloween day. Being a day that is widely acceptable to solicit and knock on doors, God inspired us to encourage Christians to use this day as an opportunity to spread the gospel. The days of hiding are over and we choose to take a stand for Jesus. “Evil prevails when good people do nothing”. JesusWeen is expected to become the most effective Christian outreach day ever and that is why we also call it “World Evangelism Day”.

Source: Jesus Ween!

Only 15 more sleeps until Jesus Ween (aka Halloween). What a perfect occasion for an Intensive Programme of Growth Ween. The JesusWeeners are so right – this is the one day of the year when it is perfectly acceptable to go door-to-door. I can’t wait to go out trick-or-treating, armed only with Anna’s Presentation!

The booths, designed by Andreas Rimkus using materials from ThyssenKrupp Nirosta, are being used in a pilot project in Hanover:

Outwardly, [the booth's] appearance is shaped by the six symbols of the major world religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and Baha’i). People can stand in the middle of the stainless steel sculpture and by touching various sensors immerse themselves in an unknown world. Similar to an audio book, visitors can hear about the most important teachings of the individual religions and discover that all religions pursue the same basic goal: peace. The texts were written by the Council of Religions in Hanover. They provide a brief introduction to the various religions and are available in different languages.

Neemia Tialata, All-Black

Just when I’ve got used to next year being the apocalypse, along comes something that’ll take a whole year off my life!

Yes, I’m referring to Judgement Day. So far, I’ve worked out that May 21, 2011 is the Rapture – and it’s only for the saved, who get taken up to heaven or whatever. Those ‘left below’ have five months of torment before the end of the world.

I get the picture. The Rugby World Cup final is 23 October 2011. I’m picking another loss to France, only this time it’ll be in the final. And where will this happen? Eden Park. Coincidence, I think not.

Renovation work on the Shrine of the Bab has been completed and the tourists are flocking to see it in all its glory.

Amazing 1981 footage of the completion of the Seat of the Universal House of Justice. It’s made me realise just how much of that building is safely underground.

I was given a pair of gloves. They were too small for me, despite being XL. I checked the label:

Usang Elucidation

Material:Pure sheepskin

1. This product is 100% pure sheepskin
2. this product meet snow, rain to use to fuck the towel to lightly, and dry by air,avoid thesunlight to directly bask in the cool place.
3. This product the surface meet to have the filth,and use the rubber to lightly wipe,and can’t use the water to directly roll to wash,and the in order to prevent transform.
4. This product can’t leave the fire too the near in order toprevent transform aging

I hate it when writers split infinitives.

So much fuss over the annual Ridvan message! Surely, it’s just a Christmas card? The House should try to keep the message within the space provided on the card, even if it has to write real small. And if a study guide is needed, then there’s something wrong. I’d like to see a Ridvan message like this:

Hello everyone,

We’re fine and still living in Haifa. The wisteria is looking particularly good this year. We’ve had lots of visitors, some staying three days and some staying nine. We haven’t done any more building on our big property, but we are renovating Bob’s place. We still aren’t allowed to sell door-to-door here in Israel (pesky regulations) so we’re relying on you to keep our downline profitable. Will post your presents soon. You’ll love Book 9 – there’s colouring-in, join-the dots, mazes, guess-the-word and everything.

Love, Auntie J.

Date: Fri, 12 Apr 1996
To: National Spiritual Assembly
From: Steve Marshall
Subject: Review of living works of art

Dear friends,

I’ve just read the item in New Zealand Baha’i News – “All Baha’i art works need approval from the national body”. I’ve been an artist and a Baha’i for many years but have only just realised that my art work needs to be reviewed.

I am a living work of art, engaged in a continuous performance with an ever-changing audience. I do, at times, mention and depict the Baha’i Faith as an integral part of my creative output, and this is why I can now see that I do need to seek a letter of approval from you. The main difficulty I have is that my artistry is not adequately represented by a cassette recording, a photocopy or a manuscript. My artistic efforts are largely situational, and are very reliant on spontaneous interaction with people who can be drawn into being co-creators of artistic experiences.

I’m sure a solution can be negotiated and that it can be done in quite a creative way. I look forward to interacting with you over this conundrum.

ka kite ano,
Steve

National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of New Zealand

24 October 1996

Steve Marshall
90 Blacks Road
Opoho Dunedin 9001

Dear Baha’i Friend

Review Process for Artistic Works

The National Spiritual assembly was very interested to receive your email dated 14 April and must apologise for not getting back to you sooner.

In order to give you constructive feedback the National Spiritual Assembly would need to know a little more about what you actually do and how you depict the Faith. At this stage your art work seems more along the lines of a personal teaching activity rather than something which needs review or approval. the approval mentioned in the National Newsletter relates more to the mass produced/commodity type of art rather than to one-off experiences.

If you need more help with this matter please tell us if this is the case and give us some more detail about your particular art work.

Warmest Baha’i love
National Spiritual Assembly
Suzanne Mahon
Secretary