by Katharine Daniels
Executive Editor, The WIP
– USA –
It is one of the greatest joys of my life to see the dream of The WIP coming true this year – a dream for real news stories as they affect real people; a dream for news that is unencumbered by the agendas of advertising and the corporate world; a dream for a platform where everyday people from all walks of life, in all corners of the world, can come together in conversation about the issues as we see them, through our own eyes and our own unique perspectives and experiences.
It is, however, breathtaking and frightening to look back on the stories we published in 2008. Wars raged on with very little respite. Natural disasters ravaged innocent victims from Burma to the Caribbean. The world participated in and protested one of the most anticipated Olympics in recent history. The USA elected its first African American President. Food is inaccessible for many around the world, and a global financial crisis is upon us like nothing we have witnessed since The Great Depression. And all this barely scratches the surface.
As we prepare to close a year’s worth of coverage, The WIP’s editors will be taking a week off to rest, spend time with our families and friends, and reflect on this incredible year. Our hope is to start the New Year fresh so we can do an even better job delivering quality news from the unique perspectives of women in 2009.
For many of the stories on our pages, a positive ending is yet to be written. And this is where you, the reader, come in. We hope you will take the break in our publication schedule to revisit the stories we’ve posted in the last year and use this opportunity to voice your thoughts and ideas through comments and Talk blog posts. To help guide you in our absence, we’ve created a guide that outlines “How to Use The WIP.”
How to Use The WIP
The WIP is a community for everyone – our site is not associated with any particular political party, religion, or cultural affiliation. Rather, we strive to bring together divergent cultures, opinions and ideas with the belief that through communities like ours, solution-based dialog will follow.
Please register and join our global conversation.
Register: By registering you are able to comment on The WIP Contributors’ articles, Byline Portal entries, Current Headlines, and Talk Blog posts. All registered community members can also post Talk Blogs and participate in our live global community chats. Please visit our Terms of Use page for posting parameters.
Complete Your Profile: When you register, you have an opportunity to share a little about yourself with the rest of the community. We invite you to share your name, picture (or an avatar of your choice), your location, and a short bio. Remember, this page is public. Please protect your privacy and do not share anything you do not want on the internet. Once logged in, you will always have the opportunity to edit your profile or change your password by clicking on your name at the top of the page where it says, HELLO, USER!
Read Stories and Start Talking: The WIP encourages your comments in:
The WIP Contributors. Our global collective of women writers submit articles that are edited and fact-checked by our editorial team. As editors, we are committed to publishing compelling stories that are relevant and of high journalistic standards.
Byline Portal. Our news editor links to articles written by women around the world, affording the opportunity to read in-depth coverage and analysis of stories by female journalists, activists, and concerned citizens “on the ground.”
Current Headlines. Our news editor culls stories by men and women from various international news agencies to offer WIP readers a balanced, international review of current events.
The WIP Talk. Our community members, both women and men, post blog entries and invite dialog from other readers. The WIP Talk is where we host live Community Chats with featured experts and guests on a variety of global news topics.
Subscribe: Subscribe to The WIP Weekly, our newsletter delivered to your inbox every Friday. The WIP Weekly is a roundup of The WIP Contributor stories and international headlines we don’t want you to miss.
We hope you’ll take this time to explore The WIP, join our community by creating a profile and help create solutions for change with other community members. The WIP wants to know what you think about the stories and topics we address. So, please comment often in all our sections and post to The WIP Talk. We know that together, we can make a better tomorrow.
Happy New Year to everyone from The WIP!
After reading this article I went back and reviewed the comments and blogs the WIP allowed me to post this year looking for a sense of closure about what it has meant to me.
The WIP broke me out of my American provincialism –an odd and erroneous Ptolemaic perspective that the center of the universe is the USA. It exploded that perspective by bringing global journalism into my daily awareness.
On the 7th of this month the WIP also brought me into an international dialogue that compelled me to spontaneously formulate my contributions with a sense of excitement and awe that such a conversation was taking place. The WIP proved that conversational opportunities like that one have huge potentials for deconstructing the mutual demonization that keeps wars, terrorism, and clashes of civilization alive.
Thank you for all that.
Thank you Kate! And happy new year !!!!
I want to thank the WIP for all that they have contributed
this year. I am looking forward to a New Year filled with quality news from your great writers.
Thank You Again and the best of luck for the New Year….
LPR