Old and New Media Unite--Promoting National HIV/AIDS Awareness Days

This month, the organizations planning and implementing HIV Vaccine Awareness Day and National Asian and Pacific Islander HIV/AIDS Awareness Day are promoting these observances and expanding their reach by using traditional and new media tools.

National Asian and Pacific Islander HIV Awareness Day - May 19

According to the CDC, the number of Asian and Pacific Islanders (API) living with AIDS has climbed by more than 10 percent in each of the last five years. Sixty-seven percent of API men living with HIV/AIDS in 2005 were men who had sex with other men. Eighty percent of API women living with HIV/AIDS in 2005 were infected through heterosexual contact.

As the number of API living with, or at risk for, HIV grows, promoting this annual observance effectively becomes even more important. We spoke with Joseph Cavan, Media and Communications Coordinator for the Banyan Tree Project (BTP) , to hear about how the BTP is using traditional and new media to promote materials and events for this day. BTP is using press statements, a website, and public service announcements (PSAs) with leading Asian and Pacific Islander celebrities, Joan Chen , James Kyson Lee , and Amy Hanaiali`i . The organization is also using new media tools (e.g., video-sharing directories and social networking sites) to expand the reach of their materials.

HIV Vaccine Awareness Day - May 18

Leaders promoting this day are using traditional and online media to encourage people to get involved in vaccine research. In addition to their TV and radio PSAs, the Be the Generation website offers many interactive tools that engage users--for example, "Community Voices" videos, which will soon be added to the site, will offer stories about people who are working in HIV vaccine research. The website also has an HIV Vaccine Quiz .

To learn more about about using new media as part of the campaign, we spoke to A. Cornelius Baker, Project Director for the HIV Vaccine Research Education Initiative at the Academy for Educational Development's Center on AIDS and Community Health. He said, "We know new media is important, and it is very important to us that when we do engage new media, we do so in an appropriate way." He told us that his office is sensitive to the amount of mistrust that exists in the African American community when it comes to vaccine research. "We want to engage this community in an appropriate dialogue...but before we go that route, we must make sure that we have the resources to use new media tools effectively and appropriately."

Lessons Learned

Many of us are still exploring the intersection of traditional and new media. Our colleagues shared with us some of the lessons they have learned:

• Joseph told us that, for last year's National Asian and Pacific Islander HIV Awareness Day, the BTP had developed a MySpace page for users to read about their program. Afterwards, they realized the potential of social networking sites—and also realized that taking advantage of that potential would mean a serious time commitment (i.e., having a dedicated team member to regularly maintain the BTP's MySpace page).
• While not all of us have access to a professional studio like BTP does (or can get the country's leading high-profile talent!), there are inexpensive ways to create and promote videos online. YouTube has information about making and optimizing video for the Web and icyou , a video-sharing website that focuses exclusively on health content, also provides tools to upload videos for free.
• The team managing the Be the Generation website realized the site needed to be 508 compliant for people with disabilities. Cornelius told us, "Be the Generation is fully accessible under Section 508, and audio and video have been enhanced to make sure that all users can learn as much as possible from the site."

Are you using new media to promote HIV/AIDS Awareness Days? Please share your stories with us!

Stay tuned for next week's discussion on gaming and health...

Be Relevant, Be Real, Be Informed, Be There

In last week's post on PodCamp, we noted that our blog would begin to carry a list of new media conferences. We encourage you to visit the new Conferences Page.

We want to highlight conferences because these events can contribute to the dialogue on the effective use of new media. Many of these conferences are free or offer scholarships and volunteer opportunities in exchange for conference fees.

We found the messages coming out of three recent conferences, University of California San Francisco's Center for AIDS Prevention Studios (CAPS) Conference , PodCamp NYC , and the Web 2.0 Expo , useful as we plan our work. Here are some highlights:

Be Relevant

At the CAPS Conference: New Directions in HIV Prevention, there was a presentation on an HIV prevention video game by Marguerita Lightfoot .

Photo courtesy of CAPS

Marguerita Lightfoot

She noted that the video game was adapted from an intervention called Project LIGHT. The video includes health information, triggers impacting unsafe sexual behavior, and opportunities to practice communication skills. Lightfoot involved students ages 14 to 18 years of age in developing the video game. She said, "They helped make it relevant using their own words."

Dr. Lightfoot explained that youth were engaged in the video game and felt the computer was not judging them, unlike their peers often do. Other outcomes from the video game group, as compared with the small group and control group, included a reported decrease in sexual behavior and number of sex partners.

In two weeks we will expand on the topic of gaming.

Be Real

At PodCamp NYC , many talked about the importance of trust and authenticity in using new media successfully. At the session on "Finding Your New Media Voice," Laura "Pistachio" Fitton said, "Don't do social media for the numbers. Do it to connect to the people who are important to you." Fitton and Chris Brogan reinforced the importance of being useful, human, and authentic. By doing so, people will be engaged, and trust you and your message.

L. Johnson Martin Pratt's session, "Reaching African Americans Online," reinforced the message that we need to be authentic. He gave examples of many online websites and communities that identify with their target audience by not trying to be anything else than who they really are.

Be Informed

The Web 2.0 Expo is a large industry expo and conference. While it may not have a direct linkage to our work in HIV/AIDS, walking the expo floor and attending the keynotes is a good way to hear from many new media key players and hear the buzz about the latest new media tools. Many of the Web 2.0 Expo speakers' presentations are available online .

Be There

We encourage you to consider attending the CDC's 2nd Conference on Health Communication, Marketing, and Media, which will be held August 12-14, 2008 in Atlanta, Georgia. Jennie Anderson, AIDS.gov Director of Communications noted that last year's conference, "was a great opportunity for both novices and experts working on HIV/AIDS prevention and other public health topics to learn about the many facets of health communication, marketing, and media."

Don't forget to check out our new list of conferences and help us keep up to date!

Going to PodCamp and Learning about Obligations

Photo courtesy of Russell Heimlich

Miguel Gomez, Director of AIDS.gov and Israil Ali, HHS Emerging Leader, at Podcamp DC

Last week, two members of the AIDS.gov team went to PodCamp in Washington, DC.

PodCamps are usually free unconferences that offer a chance for new media users (such as bloggers, podcasters, and social networkers) to learn from experts and to engage in dialogue with each other. We want to thank the organizers: Christopher Penn , Tammy Munson , Joel Witt , and Ernie Ambrose!

Note: For the basics on podcasting, please see our earlier post.

What did we learn at PodCamp?
Some of the country's leading new media experts like Jim Long and Andy Carvin reinforced messages that we all have the obligation to restate. If you are already podcasting (or thinking about it), we all must keep in mind that:

• It's about users. Put people first, and give them the information they want, in the form they want it.
• It's about content. It's easy to get caught up in the technology--but people use the technology to get to the content. You have to offer them useful information.
• It's social. People like to consume and produce new media, but they also like to share it. They want to connect to other folks and engage in a dialogue.

Connecting with Leadership at PodCamp
At PodCamp, we talked about AIDS.gov's obligation to ensure that our new media efforts help racial and ethnic minority communities increase their access to HIV prevention, care, and treatment services. Thanks to PodCamp, we met and spoke with Shireen Mitchell, the founder and Executive Director of Digital Sisters, Inc. , an organization that focuses on using digital media and technology to access self-sufficiency tools for women and children who are traditionally underserved.

Shireen noted that some leaders may have misconceptions about use of new media among communities of color and how people connect. She says people interact in communities in which they are comfortable--and this means broadening new media efforts to reach people where they are.

"Social networks are not new," she says--noting that "people have always created social groups for pleasure and to exchange information. "It's the tools and technology that have changed." As with real estate, location is everything. "Not all people of color are on MySpace and Facebook," Shireen told us. "You might find us on MiGente and BlackPlanet [social networking sites specifically developed for communities of color]." To be effective, you have to find the right venue, along with relevant content.

Thanks to leaders like Shireen and others, the conversation about new media and communities of color is increasing among new media experts.

Other Federal Representatives at PodCamp
While it's critical to talk about users, we also have to remember that many of our colleagues are still unfamiliar with new media tools, and some are hesitant to use them. At PodCamp, we were pleased to meet representatives from the Department of Commerce, the Army, and Voice of America . We agreed that we have an obligation to do a better job of sharing how important new media tools are with our colleagues and senior managers. We also have to let our peers know about podcasts and other new media tools, and share information on who is using them.

Finally, PodCamp reminded us that we need to provide opportunities for our colleagues to learn about new media. PodCamps are just one of the many (often free) opportunities to learn about new media. Starting in May, this blog will carry a list of new media conferences.

Resources
We were introduced to (and reminded of) several resources that we'd like to share with you, as well:

• Podango that allows podcasters host and manage their own shows or stations using the company's hosting, syndication, audience measurement and Web site creation tools.
• The new media search engine IceRocket
• Blogpulse , a service of Nielsen BuzzMetrics, searches content on blogs and identifies trends
• Wikipedia's list of social networking sites
• Utterz , that allows you to update your existing web pages on sites like Blogger, WordPress, Facebook, LiveJournal, and MySpace from your mobile phone
• Mogulus to create your own online tv channel and shows
• Twitxr to upload photos from your mobile phone (similar to the microblog application, Twitter , but with photos)

Were you at Podcamp in DC? New York? We'd love to hear from you!

Doing the Right Thing--508 Compliance

In our post last week, we talked about planning and putting people first before choosing new technology. We highlighted the POST strategy which starts with:

P = People. Who is your target audience? What tools are they using?
We believe in putting people first, and that means our website content must be equally accessible to people with disabilities--some of whom have acquired their disabilities as a result of HIV/AIDS.

Recently, we learned that thousands of our Federal HIV websites are not always accessible to persons with disabilities, including more than one million legally blind, and 28 million deaf or hearing-impaired, citizens. Last week, AIDS.gov sponsored a conference call for over 100 of our Federal colleagues to talk about making our websites "Section 508 compliant." (This refers to a law that requires Federal information in electronic formats to be accessible to all individuals with disabilities.)

During the call, we learned a lot from our Federal colleagues about the things we need to do to ensure our HIV/AIDS web pages are compliant, as well as some key information for those who receive Federal HIV/AIDS funding.

HIV/AIDS Webpages and 508
Jeremy Vanderlan from AIDS.gov talked about his challenge in developing promotional materials. In using a screen reader that allows you to experience "reading" a document just as a visually impaired person would experience it, he noticed that the screen reader read the phrase ".gov" as "dot governor." To resolve the problem, Jeremy edited each ".gov" instance to "dot gov." "As you can imagine, if these are promotional documents for a dot gov website," Jeremy said, "there were quite a few references to this error."

Michael LaFlam commented after the call about the CDC's video podcast accessibility issues. "We had thought that, because we offered a transcript, we were meeting requirement standards," he said--something those of us at AIDS.gov also had to learn. "We subsequently learned that we needed to make our podcasts open-captioned, which is different from closed-captioned, in that the text appears on the screen without user intervention." The CDC has to outsource the open-captioning process, which affects their production time-line and budget.

Kristen Kayatta, one of HHS's Section 508 experts, told those on the call that there are numerous 508 issues on HHS's 1.6 million Web pages. In fact, there's an average of 14 issues per Web page. That's a big job to fix, but Kristen said, "We have a five year plan ... we're well on our way." She explained 508 compliance to our Federal colleagues in this way:

" ... at the most basic level, [508 compliance] requires and ensures that all users have equal access to electronic documents. First, is the development of web pages. This means that all files must be machine-readable. All audio files need to have accompanying text and video files need to be captioned. Secondly, Section 508 applies to all electronic documents, including PDF files, Word files, and the PowerPoint files. And, lastly, this affects not only files that are posted on our site, but also those that are shared through e-mail, through portals, and that are saved on our share drives."

Resources
Kristen offered some resources to help everyone achieve 508 compliance:

• HHS Section 508 Accessibility – This site includes information on Section 508, including: determining how the law applies, assistance in creating compliant documents and Web pages, information on standards and policies, how to gain access to 508 tools, and language to add to contracts to ensure all deliverables are 508 compliant.
• We also recommend that you check out the resources discussed in our January 29, 2008 post on 508 compliance.
• The U.S. Access Board's standards for Web-based Internet and intranet information and applications (36 CFR 1194.22) for documents (HTML, Word, etc.)--and don't forget the Access Board's standards for software, such as scripting or Flash.

Note to AIDS Service Providers
We all need to think about 508 issues for our Web pages, because, sooner or later, if you work with Federal programs, you are going to face this challenge. Federal agencies are required by law to be 508 compliant, and if you receive Federal funds for your work, you are required to consider accessibility, too. Federal contracts now require products to be 508 compliant, and soon, Federal grant proposals will also contain 508 requirements. In addition, state and local government activities are covered by other state laws and the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Bottom line? We need to be accessible, but we still have a lot to learn. HHS is working to ensure that our materials are accessible, but becoming accessible will be a process, not an event. The AIDS.gov team would like to thank the speakers and participants from last Tuesday's call. Together we can meet our goal of doing the right thing in making all our materials accessible.

Do you have a section 508 challenge or success story? We'd love to hear about it!

You may download the transcript of the conference call in PDF (89.9K) or Microsoft Word (62.5K) format.

People Before Technology

At AIDS.gov, we've learned that new media is exciting and many of us want to incorporate these tools into our programs before we have a plan. To prevent this from happening, our AIDS.gov New Media Strategist has urged us and others to use Forrester Research's POST strategy to stay on track.

POST Strategy--The order is important!

• P = People. Who is your target audience? What tools are they using?
• O = Objectives. Pick one. Are you starting an application to listen to your customers, or to talk with them? To support them, or to energize your best customers to evangelize others? Or are you trying to collaborate with them?
• S = Strategy. What do you want to accomplish? Do you want increase testing rates? Increase awareness?
• T = Technology. This might be a podcast, wiki, social networking site, or a blog . Once you've defined your people/audiences, your objectives, and strategy, then you can choose the most appropriate technology.

New Media Planning and AIDS Service Organizations
To get a better idea of how we can all use the POST strategy to promote HIV information and services, we talked again with Erik Ireland from the San Francisco AIDS Foundation (SFAF) , and Mark Clark, of New Mexico AIDS Services (NMAS) , about how the strategy guides their new media work.

People
Along with SFAF clients and people at-risk for HIV, Erik says that Foundation staff have identified their colleagues and peers as one of their target audiences. At NMAS, Mark and his colleagues have identified two main audiences for their new media work: 1) People living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA), many of whom have dual diagnoses (i.e., HIV with substance abuse or mental health issues); and 2) People at risk for HIV (late-testers).

Mark says "We know folks are going online. Many of them are in rural areas and they rely on the Internet to communicate with other people and find services. Our clients see the Internet as a safe and private way to get information."

Objectives
Because SFAF has identified professional peers and colleagues as one of their target audiences, Erik says one of their objectives is to "stay in touch with [them] and keep them abreast of important HIV information."

Mark says that NMAS' objectives include linking PLWHA with services (e.g., health education classes) and encouraging people to get an HIV test. "We also want to encourage clients to talk with their providers about who and what they are all about," he says.

Strategy
"Our strategy is to provide people with the most timely and easily-digestible information," Erik says. "We want to give them a short synopsis so they can dig deeper if they are interested."

Mark says that NMAS has a similar strategy. "We try to bring the information to our target audience, and give them the newest information in the timeliest way possible. We want to offer information that grabs their attention." To do that, Mark says, "We involve folks where they are (the Internet), 24-7."

Technology
Erik says that SFAF uses podcasts because "they are a 'short and sweet' way to bring HIV information to our audience. People can listen to them when and where they want to."

During SFAF's planning process, everyone agreed podcasts would be the most appropriate new media tool. "We've gotten great feedback from our listeners...And now people are coming to us with content ideas!" Erik tells us.

Mark and NMAS use the NMAS MySpace page as a way to reach their target audience where they are: "It's an immediate way to get the word out, and it's convenient."

It is important to note that the best technology choice may be the simplest. For example, e-mail or text messaging may be the best way to reach a specific audience. Avoid the temptation to choose the technology first and be lured by the "cool" factor.

Avoid the temptation to choose the technology first and be lured by the "cool" factor.

Bottom-line: There are many new media-planning strategies out there, including POST. No matter what strategy you use, it should always be about your target audience--what they need and want.

Please let us know what you think of today's post!