Thomson Reuters staff mark International Women's Day

IWD, first observed in 1911, celebrates women’s economic, political and social achievements. It is a public holiday in China, Russia and some other countries.

The project, a collaboration involving the Reuters UK Online desk and the women@thomsonreuters network, is open to external guest contributors.

The live blog began with the observance of International Women's Day in Kiritimati, Kiribati. It is being anchored by different Reuters bureaus around the world including those in Singapore, India, Switzerland, Dubai, Britain, Canada and the United States.

Organisers say it is the first time something on this scale has been attempted at Reuters. They believe the “follow-the-sun” live blog format could provide a template for covering other global news events online and in real time. Other events covered by live blogs include the Winter Olympics 2010, the United Nations COP15 meeting. Although the duration of these events was much longer they were not covered around the clock and around the world.

Online events include:

A special coverage page “Women in Focus”

http://uk.reuters.com//news/globalcoverage/womenInFocus

A live follow-the-sun blog platform to which all are free to contribute

http://live.reuters.com/Event/International_Womens_Day_2010_2

A slide show of Reuters images

http://online.thomsonreuters.com/womensday/

Reuters is powering the Aurora International Women’s Day site for the second year

http://internationalwomensday.com

A series of guest great debate blogs

http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate-uk/tag/iwd/

A special Twitter feed

http://twitter.com/Women_on_IWD. ■