Unlike any newsletter in the history of CAAT, this one does not focus on alternatives to animal testing. It focuses on alternatives to the printing press. You may be wondering why this newsletter looks and feels different from any issue you have held in the past. The answer is simple: the entire goal of this newsletter is to acquaint you with a fundamental change in the way CAAT will communicate with you -- and the rest of the world -- in the next decade. It's called Altweb, the Alternatives to Animal Testing Web Site. This is the last issue of the CAAT newsletter that will be printed in its entirety. Future issues will appear on Altweb. Why change?This newsletter currently is mailed to about 25,000 people. By the time you receive it, the news in it is at least a month old -- the time it takes us to write, produce, and distribute the newsletter. On the other hand, Altweb can be changed as soon as news happens, as often as necessary, as fast as someone can type--and reach millions of people instantly. We are limited, also, in the amount of information we can share with you by the 12- to 16-page format we use in the printed form. Space is virtually limitless on the Web. With those advantages in mind, on Oct. 1 we launched Altweb at http://altweb.jhsph.edu. Although the site will be under continual development, it currently contains resources offered nowhere else online--or even in print--yet. For example, CAAT and the Office for Protection from Research Risks (OPRR) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) recently held a workshop on alternatives to the use of animals in monoclonal antibody production (See page 4 for details). Proceedings of the meeting were available online in less than a week; production on a printed version is still underway. Five organizations currently sponsor the Altweb project: the Alternatives Research & Development Foundation, the Doerenkamp-Zbinden Foundation, the Humane Society of the United States, the NIH-OPRR, and the Procter & Gamble Company. Their generosity has made Altweb possible. Additional sponsors are welcome and needed. Please contact us if you are interested. Individuals from nine organizations who support the Three Rs of alternatives serve on our Project Team. You can read about them beginning on page 8. Their efforts have made Altweb a reality. During the first two weeks of October, more than 3,000 people visited our site. Each spent an average of eight minutes there -- a long time for a Web "visit." We encourage you to visit as well. Your participation will make Altweb a success. What is Altweb?This project is unmatched in the history of alternatives; it unites industry, academia, the animal welfare community, and government to communicate the Three Rs to potentially millions of people. (More than 40 million people are online in the United States alone.) These people will come looking for different things. For the lab scientist, Altweb can be an important starting point for an alternatives search. For the university IACUC, Altweb can be a source of information on new methods. For the specialist in the field of alternatives, Altweb can provide an update on important meetings, grants, and ongoing research. Altweb is intended to serve more than the scientific community, however. We plan to be a clearinghouse for resources for the middle school student, as well as the high school biology teacher, or the veterinarian in training. Finally, Altweb was created to talk to the public about alternatives. We want to offer a reasonable forum for information and discussion on the science behind the decisions made in the laboratory. How will we do this? First, through news about alternatives and animal research, updated--for now--monthly, eventually weekly, and someday, daily. Second, through an archive of important journals, books, articles, etc.--including all issues of the CAAT newsletter printed during the last 16 years. And third, through links to related Web sites around the world. We think the next few months are going to be an exciting time at CAAT, as we begin to expand Altweb. In this newsletter, we want to show you what our Web site is--and give you an idea of all it can be. | 
