Data Academy: Providing Training and Technical Assistance around HIV Data to Ryan White Grantees and Program Staff

By Michelle Samplin-Salgado, AIDS.gov New Media Strategist

We’ve talked a lot about the importance of knowing your audiences and their information needs. Our colleagues at the HIV/AIDS Bureau at the Health Resources and Services Administration (HAB/HRSA) provide training and technical assistance (TA) to Ryan White grantees and program staff about how to manage data. In response to feedback and a process to identify unmet TA needs, HAB/HSRA developed Data Academy , a series of on-demand, web-based training modules about how to collect, use and share data. We spoke to Mira Levinson, Project Director, to learn how and why they developed Data Academy. Here’s what she had to say:

Data Academy is based on feedback we received from Ryan White grantees and program staff about what kinds of support they needed to help manage, report and use their data. We used the POST strategy to figure out exactly what information would be most important to convey, and the most effective way for grantees to access the information.

A Conversation with Project Inform

Guest post by Alan McCord, Director of Information and Outreach, and Dana Van Gorder, ED, Project Inform

We use this blog to share some of the resources and work being done in the HIV community, focusing on organizations that are using new media to get the word out and enhance their services. As we've mentioned before, it's important to make use of ALL the tools available, including one of the most basic, and ubiquitous, the telephone. We asked Alan McCord, Director of Information and Outreach, and Dana Van Gorder, ED, of Project Inform , to tell us more about their work and the role of new and more traditional media. Here is what they had to say:

Lessons Learned from SXSW 2010

By Jeremy Vanderlan, AIDS.gov Web Developer, and Cathy Thomas, AIDS.gov Technical Director

Austin is a town with a distinct vibe. Where cowboy boots would be expected, nose rings are present instead. We saw more mohawks than crew cuts, more ironic t-shirts then suit coat jackets. It’s a town that thrives on individuality, and in this setting, the interactive community convenes for their flagship gathering, the South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive festival .

Last year, we heard from our Federal colleague Andrew Wilson that leaders in the field are using new media to connect, collaborate, and engage in creative ways. Extracting a theme from this year's conference isn't easy for us. The web is continuing to expand exponentially. There are apps for phones, book publishers pushing content to Kindle, enhanced interactivity with HTML5 and CSS3 , more browsers, thousands of social networking communities, and hundreds of ways to actually deliver content to a targeted audience.

Top 10 New Media Lessons 2009 & Open Government Initiative

By Miguel Gomez

As 2010 approaches and I look back at 2009, I want to first share some of my new media lessons learned from AIDS.gov.

The most important thing that I learned this year is that we still have so much more to learn! The good news is that as the AIDS community learns and uses more new media tools we are often extending the reach of our HIV/AIDS programs.

At AIDS.gov, we've learned new media is about:

New Media Use at the New York State Department of Health's AIDS Institute

By Miguel Gomez

At the CDC's HIV Prevention Conference last August, I talked with our colleague, Humberto Cruz, about new media and HIV. Humberto is the Director of the AIDS Institute at the New York State Department of Health . I was excited to hear about the AIDS Institute's adoption of new media — they've developed a widget for emergency room providers of post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) and their Disease Information Specialists are taking a lead for online partner notification for STIs. They have also convened a Social Media Workgroup and are developing a comprehensive new media strategy.