Facing AIDS for World AIDS Day Flickr FAQs

By Michelle Samplin-Salgado

As we mentioned in last week's post, we've created a Flickr group for you to upload your Facing AIDS for World AIDS Day photos. There are already hundreds of photos from the United States Conference on AIDS — we hope you'll help us add hundreds (thousands?!) more!

www.flickr.com

This is a Flickr badge showing public photos and videos from AIDSgov. Make your own badge here.

We've been talking with some of our colleagues and realize while it is very popular, not everyone is familiar with Flickr, so we're doing this post to give you a little more background.

Flickr is an online photo-sharing community that allows anyone to organize and share their digital photos with friends, family, colleagues, and the rest of the world. The HIV community has embraced Flickr as a way to share photos from events, promote photo contests, and yes, Face AIDS. AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts' Flickr photostream has over 3,000 photos. And many organizations, like the Global Health Council and YouthForce have used Flickr for photo contests. We spoke to Michael Barron, Director of AIDS LifeCycle , about how Flickr has helped to promote their annual AIDS ride by asking participants to post photos from the event. He told us, “Our dedicated cyclists and volunteer 'roadies' share photos with the donors who rallied to send them on the road to raise awareness about HIV and AIDS all over California and beyond.”

Facing AIDS for World AIDS Day 2009: How You Can Take Action with One Photo

By Jennie Anderson and Josie Halpern-Finnerty

Tree Alexander at USCA

If a picture says a thousand words, how much would a picture of you wearing a red ribbon and holding a sign that says you're "Facing AIDS for World AIDS Day" say? Could it help end stigma? Promote HIV testing? We think so - and we need your help.

Last week at the U.S. Conference on AIDS, we kicked off the relaunch of our Facing AIDS for World AIDS Day campaign. Hundreds of you stopped by our photo booth and told us why you are Facing AIDS. In doing so, you are helping to reduce stigma around HIV by putting real faces to the people who care about responding to HIV, and by helping to promote HIV testing. We first launched this campaign last year for the 20th World AIDS Day and given how many of you responded, we're doing it again this year and taking it to the next level.

New Media Institutes, Usability Testing, A Photo Booth, and More: Preview of AIDS.gov's Activities at the U.S. Conference on AIDS

By Jennie Anderson

What do new media institutes, usability, and a BIG RED photo booth have in common?

They are some of activities we're planning for later this month at the U.S. Conference on AIDS (USCA) . This annual conference, hosted by the National Minority AIDS Council (NMAC) , will take place October 29-31st in San Francisco and will bring together public health experts, people living with HIV, government employees, activists, and community leaders from across the country (and a few from around the world!). We're so grateful to the organizers of USCA — they've put together a packed agenda for the conference, and we look forward to taking part.

Lights, Camera, Take Action! Making, Watching, and Sharing Videos Online

By Josie Halpern-Finnerty

Over half of internet users watch and download online videos . In the last month, we’ve shared numerous videos with you of individuals talking about the importance of HIV testing through this blog. Today’s post is dedicated to how you can use online videos to respond to HIV—by watching, making, and sharing them!

Video of International AIDS Society 2009 Conference Session, Global HIV Research and Policy and Program Implementation Under the New U.S. Administration

Video-sharing sites allow you to upload, share, and store online videos (similar to photo sharing sites). One of the most common video sharing sites is YouTube . Others include GoogleVideo , Yahoo!Video , dotSUB (for captioned videos) and ICYou (for health-focused videos). These sites share much in common with online social network sites, such as Facebook and MySpace—users can connect with each other, send messages, leave comments, and share videos.

World's Largest Open Scientific Conference on HIV/AIDS Uses New Media Tools

By Miguel Gomez

This weekend approximately 5,000 of the world’s leading scientists, clinicians, public health experts and community leaders will convene in Cape Town, South Africa, for the 5th International AIDS Society Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment, and Prevention (IAS 2009) to “examine the latest developments in HIV-related research, and to explore how scientific advances can—in very practical ways—inform the global response to HIV/AIDS.” The conference will run July 19-22, 2009.