May 18, 2000

CAFÉ UTNE HOSTS "RE-IMAGINING POLITICS" ONLINE CONFERENCE

MINNEAPOLIS, MN. – Café Utne, Utne Magazine's Webby Award-winning discussion community, and the New York Open Center have launched an online conference titled "Re-Imagining Politics and Society at the Millennium: Creating a Just, Caring and Sustainable World." The online conference occurs in conjunction with this week's "Re-Imagining Politics" summit at New York City's Riverside Church.

Café Utne's online conference allows the New York summit's 1,000 expected attendees to expand their discussion and action around issues to be addressed at the summit. "Café Utne is broadening and deepening the energy of the Re-Imagining Politics summit," said Ralph White, Co-Director of the New York Open Center. "Many summits lack a means for follow-through. Café Utne allows presenters and activists to continue communicating and organizing long after the summit itself concludes."

The "Re-imagining Politics" summit is hosted by the New York Open Center and the Foundation for Ethics and Meaning. Billed as "the major conference of the year for people seeking an alternative to the WTO/IMF vision of the world," the May 18-20 event is described by conference organizers as a "crucial missing link to engender unity and public involvement after the protests against globalization in Seattle and Washington, DC."

The summit's agenda includes talks and workshops on corporate and political ethics, human rights, the environment, education, labor and justice, health and the media. Summit speakers include Utne Visionaries David Korten, Cornel West and Michael Lerner.

Founded in 1995 by Utne Magazine, Café Utne (http://utne.com/cafe) is one of the nation's oldest and most active online discussion communities, and recently won a Webby Award for "Best Community Site." Utne Magazine Online offers magazine archives as well as current book, magazine, music, web site and product reviews. Utne Magazine magazine is the nation's leading digest of the alternative media. With a paid circulation of 225,000, the bimonthly magazine has been nominated three times for the National Magazine Award for General Excellence.