---
title: "Vegetarian News - Cooking up a Storm in Cyberspace - IVU - International Vegetarian Union"
description: "Vegetarian News - Cooking up a Storm in Cyberspace: Cooking up a Storm in Cyberspace IVU News - Issue 3 - 1998 It has been a momentous year for IVU on the Internet. We progressed from using the net as an optional extra to its becoming an integral part of IVU’s operations, and it is allowing us to"
url: "https://ivu.org/history-of-ivu.html?view=article&id=5535:news-3-98-storm&catid=227"
date: "2026-11-05T23:59:15+00:00"
language: "en-GB"
---

#  Vegetarian News - Cooking up a Storm in Cyberspace

  **Cooking up a Storm in Cyberspace**
 [**IVU News - Issue 3 - 1998**](https://ivu.org/history-of-ivu.html?view=article&id=5522:news-3-98-index&catid=227)

![wolf in storm](https://ivu.org/images/legacy/history/news/3-98/wolf.jpg)It has been a momentous year for IVU on the Internet. We progressed from using the net as an optional extra to its becoming an integral part of IVU’s operations, and it is allowing us to do things that have never been possible before. There have been several major developments in recent months.

**Unity is Strength**

I wrote in the summer 1997 issue of IVU News about our [new domain](https://ivu.org/history-of-ivu.html?view=article&id=5451:news-2-97-domain&catid=223) - *ivu.org* - and invited member organisations to join us by using this to host their own pages. Eighteen groups have now taken up the offer.

 The Malaysian Vegetarian Society, for example, is now at www.ivu.org/mvs and others have similar addresses, giving a real sense of identity for IVU members in cyberspace.

At present we can offer groups only one page each on *ivu.org*, unless they do their own 'html', in which case space is unlimited. All can have e-mail addresses such as *This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.* to create an even greater sense of unity.

**Virtual Friends**

A curious anomaly of the IVU on the Internet is that some of the major vegetarian resources are not eligible for IVU membership because they are run not by organisations but by individuals with informal contributions from lots of other individuals and there is thus no IVU membership category to cater for them.

We have now created an [Internet Partners](https://ivu.org/history-of-ivu.html?view=article&id=4414:members-partners&catid=207) scheme to allow us to work together with these resources and to show solidarity in relation to the rest of the world: back to building the on-line communities mentioned above. The idea is simply to swap logos with appropriate resources and put announcements on our pages about being partners. It’s as simply as that and it costs nothing at all, but it helps to maintain the IVU as a focal point for vegetarianism on the Internet.

One of the most significant benefits of this scheme is that the IVU website is now itself hosted by one of our Internet partners -- [vegsource.com](http://www.vegsource.com/), a website run from the USA with a lot of input from some talented people. We are also developing some joint resources with VegSource, such as message boards which allow people to type their own information directly on to web pages.

In addition, we have direct support from an IVU member — the [Vegetarian Resource Group](http://www.vrg.org/), based in Baltimore — in providing us with a [secure transaction](https://ivu.org/history-of-ivu.html?view=article&id=4408:members-join&catid=207) facility which allows people to pay for IVU membership by simply typing their credit card details on to a web page.

**IVU-Talking**

One of the big successes of the last 12 months has been the [IVU-Talk](https://ivu.org/history-of-ivu.html?view=article&id=4407:members-ivu-talk&catid=207) mailing list. An e-mail list allows any subscriber to send a message to one list address and it is then automatically sent on to everyone else on the list. Replies also go to everyone, which means that we can have multi-way discussions.

There are now more than 100 subscribers to IVU-Talk, all of them members, volunteers, contacts for member organisations, etc. Anyone who receives IVU News should be entitled to join IVU-Talk, so if you have an e-mail address let me know and I’ll add you to the list.

The effect of IVU-Talk has been to give all members who have access to e-mail the opportunity to keep in touch on a daily basis — something which would have been quite impossible in the past —and it is creating a real sense of community on a global scale for the first time in IVU’s 90-year history.

We also have an e-mail list called IVU-C specifically for IVU councillors and Regional Secretaries. This was set up by [Kevin Pickard](https://ivu.org/history-of-ivu.html?view=article&id=4343:members-council-kevin-pickard&catid=208) in Toronto and gives Councillors the opportunity to talk to each other more than just once a year. Both lists are run on the [Envirolink](http://www.envirolink.org/) computer in Pittsburg — another example of mutual support among veggie-friendly Internet people.

**On-line Congresses**

One particular use of IVU-talk was an attempt to put the European Congress at [Bussolengo](https://ivu.org/hv-congress-1999-congress-euro97-index.html), Italy, on-line. There were a lot of problems due to lack of planning and very limited resources, but we did manage to get connected and allow people at the congress to talk to the rest of the world.

Those who were at the [Johnstown World Congress](https://ivu.org/hv-congress-main-congress-wvc96-index.html) in 1996 will have seen a different version of this in the Cybercafe there. The development of IVU Internet resources since then should create some great opportunities to combine all this in the future. The World Congress in [Toronto 2000](https://ivu.org/hv-congress-2000-congress-2000-index.html) will probably be the next major landmark — maybe even live video transmissions from the conference hall by then..?

**Cooking up a Cyberstorm**

The latest additions to the IVU website are a collection of all-vegan recipes and a section on [famous vegetarians](https://ivu.org/history-of-ivu/hv-general-people-index.html). The recipes are sent in by readers and are growing into a major resource. There has already been a huge response, with the recipes pages getting almost as many “hits” as the rest of the website combined. The plan is to have as many as possible translated into as many other languages as possible to produce the Internet’s first fully multi-lingual vegetarian cookbook.

The IVU is now firmly established as a vital part of the vegetarian Internet. The aim for the future is to make it the first place people think of when they are looking for information about vegetarianism on the Internet: there really is strength in unity, and we now have the opportunity to prove it.

*This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.*

![planet](https://ivu.org/images/legacy/history/news/3-98/planet.jpg)

**Unity is Strength**

[Join the IVU](https://ivu.org/history-of-ivu.html?view=article&id=4408:members-join&catid=207) and put your group on the Web

IVU can now give every affiliated society space on the World Wide Web. Make the *ivu.org* domain your home on the Internet. Just check that your subscription is up to date and contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or the Hon. General Secretary.

Provided that your message is in keeping with the aims of the IVU, John will put it on the Web for you.

---

 Contributions to IVU News are welcomed. Material published does not necessarily reflect the views of the editor or the policy of the International Vegetarian Union.
A note on this archive. The history section of this website is drawn from a body of legacy content originally compiled by John Davis, former manager of the International Vegetarian Union. It represents his curation of historical material, and in places includes passages written by him directly.

Over the years, the IVU website has migrated between several different hosting servers. In the course of these migrations, a number of PDF files were unfortunately lost, and **some links to PDF documents may no longer function**. Where this is the case, we have chosen to leave the original link text in place, as it may itself carry information of historical value.

- Hits: 1466

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