Oct
21
2008
Featured Movable Type Site: The WIP
A New Model for Global News
March 8, 2007 was an auspicious day for two reasons: it marked the annual celebration of International Women’s Day and the launch of The WIP - The Women’s International Perspective, an ambitious news site that publishes unique and timely views from women around the globe.
The WIP was founded by Katharine Daniels, a passionate educator and world traveler with an ear for a good story. With a Masters in Applied Linguistics and a history of working on social causes, Katharine began to notice a void in mainstream media. “Through my travels over the years, I started to realize that the stories people shared with me weren’t the ones I read about in the news. These stories were personal and experiential; I could connect with them, and they meant so much more to me than an official news item from a large publication.”
Even more urgent than the lack of personal stories was the dearth of stories written by women. “Our natural instinct as women is to find solutions that directly benefit the communities where we live,” says Katharine. She began to form a vision for a site written exclusively by women writers, filled with powerful, compelling stories about real lives and tangible issues.
Katharine was a TypePad blogger, and was familiar with Six Apart’s other products, including Movable Type. She added Movable Type to her list of possible software options, but wasn’t initially sure that it was the right platform for her project.
“One of my biggest concerns in choosing software was that I didn’t want my site to look
like a blog,” says Katharine. “I wanted it to look like a news website.” She created a development brief of everything she wanted to accomplish with the site, and began to search for developers. “The first few people I talked to weren’t a fit,” she recalls. “So I decided to contact Six Apart directly.”
She met with David Jacobs of Apperceptive, now part of Six Apart Services, and explained her vision. “David 'got it' in one shot,” she enthuses. “It was brilliant - they took my brief and created the site exactly as I imagined it to be. It was a marriage made in heaven.”
The WIP was built entirely in Movable Type in about six weeks. Six Apart Services provided the complete site design, configured and customized the Movable Type installation, and made it easy for site members to create their own profiles. WIP site members can even subscribe to an email newsletter that's fully integrated with the site's publishing system. The finished site launched just in time for the International Women’s Day celebration on March 8.
Brave Voices, Real Issues
Today, The WIP is read around the world, and covers a broad range of issues, from poverty to global warming to the political landscape, using personal stories from over 100 writers in 35 countries. “We’re giving women the opportunity to write about what matters to them,” says Katharine. “In the process, we’re helping to create change.”
Katharine makes it clear that though the articles are written by women, the issues matter to everyone: “When we talk about a woman’s perspective, we aren’t simply talking about ‘women’s issues’ - but rather a whole range of complex topics from diverse women around the world.”
The WIP is headquartered in Monterey, and works closely with the Monterey Institute of International Studies, which assists with fact checking. News Editor Aralena Malone-LeRoy is located in Paris, while Features and Photo Editor Sarah McGowan works out of Los Angeles.
The stories on The WIP are as diverse as they are hard-hitting: from Julie Chowdhury of Sweden on the global water crisis to Cheery Zahau of Burma on the rape of ethnic women by Burmese soldiers, the site courageously addresses a range of difficult, complex and painful topics.
The WIP is now hosting offline events, such as a public talk at Columbia University featuring an accomplished panel of women well-versed on issues such as human rights, the economy and education.
In the future, The WIP will continue to expand both online and offline with a clear mission: “Our goal in gathering these stories is to listen and learn so that we can find solutions together,” says Katharine.
March 8, 2007 was an auspicious day for two reasons: it marked the annual celebration of International Women’s Day and the launch of The WIP - The Women’s International Perspective, an ambitious news site that publishes unique and timely views from women around the globe. The WIP was founded by Katharine Daniels, a passionate educator and world traveler with an ear for a good story. With a Masters in Applied Linguistics and a history of working on social causes, Katharine began to notice a void in mainstream media. “Through my travels over the years, I started to realize that the stories people shared with me weren’t the ones I read about in the news. These stories were personal and experiential; I could connect with them, and they meant so much more to me than an official news item from a large publication.”
Even more urgent than the lack of personal stories was the dearth of stories written by women. “Our natural instinct as women is to find solutions that directly benefit the communities where we live,” says Katharine. She began to form a vision for a site written exclusively by women writers, filled with powerful, compelling stories about real lives and tangible issues.
Katharine was a TypePad blogger, and was familiar with Six Apart’s other products, including Movable Type. She added Movable Type to her list of possible software options, but wasn’t initially sure that it was the right platform for her project.
“One of my biggest concerns in choosing software was that I didn’t want my site to look
like a blog,” says Katharine. “I wanted it to look like a news website.” She created a development brief of everything she wanted to accomplish with the site, and began to search for developers. “The first few people I talked to weren’t a fit,” she recalls. “So I decided to contact Six Apart directly.”She met with David Jacobs of Apperceptive, now part of Six Apart Services, and explained her vision. “David 'got it' in one shot,” she enthuses. “It was brilliant - they took my brief and created the site exactly as I imagined it to be. It was a marriage made in heaven.”
The WIP was built entirely in Movable Type in about six weeks. Six Apart Services provided the complete site design, configured and customized the Movable Type installation, and made it easy for site members to create their own profiles. WIP site members can even subscribe to an email newsletter that's fully integrated with the site's publishing system. The finished site launched just in time for the International Women’s Day celebration on March 8.
Brave Voices, Real Issues
Today, The WIP is read around the world, and covers a broad range of issues, from poverty to global warming to the political landscape, using personal stories from over 100 writers in 35 countries. “We’re giving women the opportunity to write about what matters to them,” says Katharine. “In the process, we’re helping to create change.”Katharine makes it clear that though the articles are written by women, the issues matter to everyone: “When we talk about a woman’s perspective, we aren’t simply talking about ‘women’s issues’ - but rather a whole range of complex topics from diverse women around the world.”
The WIP is headquartered in Monterey, and works closely with the Monterey Institute of International Studies, which assists with fact checking. News Editor Aralena Malone-LeRoy is located in Paris, while Features and Photo Editor Sarah McGowan works out of Los Angeles.
The stories on The WIP are as diverse as they are hard-hitting: from Julie Chowdhury of Sweden on the global water crisis to Cheery Zahau of Burma on the rape of ethnic women by Burmese soldiers, the site courageously addresses a range of difficult, complex and painful topics.
The WIP is now hosting offline events, such as a public talk at Columbia University featuring an accomplished panel of women well-versed on issues such as human rights, the economy and education.
In the future, The WIP will continue to expand both online and offline with a clear mission: “Our goal in gathering these stories is to listen and learn so that we can find solutions together,” says Katharine.
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