A new video website now joins the family of websites developed by the Baha’i Community of Canada. The site is called “Transforming Neighbourhoods” and is located at: www.transformingneighbourhoods.org. The other sites of the Baha’i Community of Canada are www.ca.bahai.org, the main site, and the Canadian Baha’i News Service site: www.bahainews.ca.
Developed by the Department of External Affairs, Transforming Neighbourhoods is a public information site answering the question: “What do Baha’is do?”. Using short, simple video interviews of those engaged in four Baha’i-initiated activities - children’s classes, junior youth groups, devotional gatherings, and study circles - the website explores how these activities are influencing the life of neighbourhoods across Canada.
“Through regularly updated interview videos as well as submitted videos we hope that the Transforming Neighbourhoods website will inspire more Canadians to take part in our community building efforts,” says Gerald Filson, Director of the Department of External Affairs, the agency maintaining the site.
Similar to the Canadian Baha’i News Service, the Transforming Neighbourhoods site takes advantage of social bookmarking tools and RSS (Really Simple Syndication) electronic feed to allow visitors to share and receive videos by e-mail. Mirroring popular innovations of YouTube and Google Video, visitors of Transforming Neighbourhoods are able to copy video tags for easy posting of videos on their own website or blog.
As well, visitors are encouraged to submit videos of their own experience with children’s classes, junior youth groups, devotional gatherings, or study circles for possible posting on the “Your videos” section of the site.