wfn.org | Worldwide Faith News is moving - no user change necessary

[wfn@wfn.org]

Worldwide Faith News
George Conklin, Project Director
wfn@wfn.org
http://www.wfn.org

(New York - March 7, 2001)  In the near future the Worldwide Faith News 
data base of official news releases from world and national faith groups 
and organizations will move to a new Internet service provider.

Users of WFN do not need to make any changes.

The URL will continue to be http://www.wfn.org.  Internet users who have 
subscribed to the WFN-NEWS mailing list will continue to receive all 
releases posted to WFN.

WFN expects the change will be transparent to all users of the 16,000 
document data base and subscribers to the WFN-NEWS mailing list.

If there are questions or problems during the transition time they can be 
sent to: wfn@wfn.org.

The change is being made because the non-profit corporation which has 
served as host for http:/www.wfn.org for the last six years is closing its 
hosting service for the WFN-NEWS mailing list and other similar lists.

The change will bring improvements for users of the WFN data base.  The new 
WFN home page will display the most recent 20 news releases posted to 
WFN.  It will be updated dynamically, 24 hours a day, each time a new 
release is posted.  The same dynamic update will also be done for the page 
used to display all releases posted during the last 30 days.  In the past 
updates were done once each day.

A new search engine will permit complex searching of the WFN data 
base.  Michael deBeer, a consultant for the Institute for Global 
Communication and other world organizations, has designed the new WFN using 
open-source components.  He was a designer for the original WFN.

Worldwide Faith News is widely used by journalists, educators and those 
interested in faith news around the world.  It has been recommended at 
journalism conferences and noted as a "must check daily" site for religion 
writers and editors.

Since its inception in 1995 Worldwide Faith News has benefited from 
financial administration provided by the National Council of Churches in 
the U.S.A.  Support for WFN's development and services have come from 
grants made by the Trinity Grants Program of Trinity Parish in New York and 
the posting organizations.  Posting to WFN is open to the news or 
communication offices of world and national faith groups and organizations.

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