26 November 2008: Launch of new War Resisters' International website

7pm, Housmans Bookshop, 5 Caledonian Road, London N1 9DX

(A map is available here)



On 26 November 2008, War Resisters' International will be launching its
new website, after more than six months of development work. The new
site will include a new online Conscientious Objection
Information System (COBIS), which will combine WRI's co-alert system in cases of imprisoned conscientious objectors, a conscientious objector and activist database, the co-update e-newsletter, and the world survey on conscientious objection and recruitment. The system will also include a permanent Prisoners for Peace list, which will strengthen our
support for imprisoned conscientious objectors and peace activists.

War Resisters' International's use of email and the internet goes back
to the mid-1980s. In 1987, War Resisters' International started to use
email to communicate with groups all over the world, and from 1989
until about 1996 WRI had its own online conference on the href="http://www.apc.org">APC network, called wri.news. This
proved important especially in the former Soviet Union and during the
break-up of the then Yugoslavia, and the wars that accompanied this.



War Resisters' International's website goes back to 1997, when it
started as an online brochure for the 1998 Triennial Conference in
Croatia. After the conference, the site was transformed into a
comprehensive resource on War Resisters' International.



In March 2001, War Resisters' International launched its own domain
wri-irg.org, which was accompanied by a redesign of the website. The
WRI publication "Refusing
to bear arms", the world-wide survey on conscription and
conscientious objection published originally in 1998, was added to the
site in July 2001, originally as a password-protected sub-site.
CO-alerts have later been added to it.



The following years so more additions, and more e-newsletters to be
archived on the WRI website. A Wiki was added too.

The new website, which has been developed by href="http://netuxo.co.uk">Netuxo Ltd, a workers cooperative, and
themed by Simo Hellsten, now brings all these elements together, and
integrates them.



On 26 November, we will be launching our new website with a live
presentation, accompanied by drinks and snacks. We hope you will join
us for this event.