Voices of New Media Leaders Across the Country- A Few Highlights from 2009

By Miguel Gomez

In last week’s post I shared some of our new media lessons learned from the past year, and this week I’m excited to share with you a short video highlighting voices and new media lessons learned from several of our Federal and community partners. From San Francisco to Oklahoma to Washington, DC, to texting, podcasts, social networks, and more, you’ll hear about how AIDS service organizations and government agencies are using new media tools in response to HIV.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OU1a2TfvQAs

The transcript of this video can be found on AIDS.gov.

We look forward to continuing the dialogue with you in the year ahead. How has new media inspired you to take action? And what would you like to see more of from AIDS.gov in the year ahead? Wishing everyone a healthy and happy 2010!

Working Together to Face AIDS: How YOU Took Action for World AIDS Day

By Josie Halpern-Finnerty, Jennie Anderson and Michelle Samplin-Salgado

A month ago, we asked you a question: If a picture says a thousand words, how much would a picture of you holding a sign that says you’re “Facing AIDS for World AIDS Day” say? Could it help end stigma? Promote HIV testing?

Your responses overwhelmed and inspired us—over 800 of you shared your faces and words in recognition of World AIDS Day, December 1. You downloaded the Facing AIDS sign (PDF 157 KB), told us why you are Facing AIDS, took a photo, and added it to the Flickr group. Many of you changed your profile pictures on Facebook or MySpace and shared HIV testing information. You showed us how powerful new media tools such as photo sharing sites, social networks, blogs, and texting can be for communicating important health information.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjGXh1oiy_I

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've written 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.