On behalf of the faculty, staff, alumni, and students of the Eastern Mennonite University’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding (CJP), I’d like to welcome you to the new Peacebuilder Online! Over the past year, this website has functioned as the online home of articles written for our print magazine, Peacebuilder, which has also been posted for some time to the Issuu platform. With this new version of the website, we greatly expand on that by offering a blog and CJP alumni directory that facilitates staying connected professionally and personally, including over social networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. We’ve also worked with the talented EMU Marketing department to refresh the look and feel of the website to improve readability and ease of use.
The purpose of the remainder of this post is to introduce the various sections of the new Peacebuilder Online.
The Peacebuilder Online homepage – This page serves as the hub through which you can explore most of the other sections on the website. The most prominent section of the page will feature the photo, title, and snippet from an article out of the most recent issue of Peacebuilder magazine (currently Fall/Winter 2010/’11). In the “Web exclusives” section to the right of that you’ll find the most recently published posts from our blog. Below the featured article you will find a “carousel” which scrolls three of the latest stories stories from each of our fields of peacebuilding practice such as restorative justice or strategic peacebuilding. Below that you’ll see short quotes from people connected to our program related to the work they’re doing in the field. Finally, to the right of those two section, at the bottom-right of the homepage you’ll see the three latest CJP alumni updates with links to each alumnus to read more about their work.
Current Issue & Archives – The former page will lay out the articles from the latest issue of Peacebuilder magazine in tile format with links to each article, while the latter page will list the past issues of Peacebuilder magazine by their covers with links taking you each issue’s articles page.
Alumni – This section of the website has been moved over from the CJP graduate program website and expanded upon. On the directory page you will be able to browse our alumni based on the region in which they currently work, their area of concentration (restorative justice, etc.), or their full name organized by last name. Alumni will be able to easily submit updates via an “Update” link at the bottom of each alumni profile page. These submissions will be reviewed before finalized on the web.
Blog – This section was created to increase the frequency of new content being generated on Peacebuilder Online, to supplement the biannual publication of the print magazine articles. In addition to being published more frequently, the length of the blog posts will be shorter than the magazine articles, and be written by peacebuilders themselves with editorial oversight by the CJP. (Learn more about writing for the Peacebuilder Online blog.) As with most blogs, readers will be able to comment on stories which we hope will carry the discussion further in exciting directions.
Social media buttons – At the top and bottom of every page you’ll see a list of colorful buttons which lead to other social media outlets for the CJP: Our Facebook page, Twitter feed, YouTube channel, and our RSS feed. If you click on the RSS feed icon, you will have the ability to subscribe to Peacebuilder Online using an RSS reader application (such as Google Reader) or via e-mail notifications. In addition to those social media links, “tweet” and “like” buttons appear at the bottom of all articles and blog posts. So if you find a particular piece of content insightful, please remember to click that “like” button!
So welcome again to the new Peacebuilder Online! We hope you enjoy exploring and learning as much as we did helping bring it to you!
[Brian Gumm is the Web and Information Systems Coordinator for the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding and is also a full-time, dual-degree student at CJP and the Seminary. A licensed minister in the Church of the Brethren, Brian’s personal blog, Restorative Theology, investigates the intersections between theology and peacebuilding. You can also follow him on Twitter, @bgumm.]
Way to go brian and emu marketing team. A dream realized!!! Great way for 2 way communication with alumni, fac/staff, supporters and practitioners all over the world. Top notch; well done.