The Power of Blogs: Bloggers Unite on World AIDS Day

World AIDS Day 2008 (December 1) is now less than two weeks away! Worldwide, an estimated 33 million people are living with HIV . In the United States, an estimated one million Americans are living with HIV.

AIDS.gov is partnering with the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and Blog Catalog for Bloggers Unite on World AIDS Day 2008 . This event encourages bloggers from around the world to dedicate their blog posts on December 1, 2008 (World AIDS Day) to issues related to HIV/AIDS.

Our goal is to leverage the power of the blogosphere to remind people that HIV/AIDS is still a critical issue in the U.S. and around the world, and to promote HIV testing. Jan Lipkin, NIDA’s Deputy Chief, Public Information and Liaison Branch, said “NIDA and Bloggers Unite [also] share a vision for empowering individuals to make educated decisions, and we are looking forward to reaching out to the blogging community to help us educate others on World AIDS Day and beyond.”

To learn more about uniting bloggers around social causes, we spoke with Tony Berkman, of Blog Catalog (and the founder of Bloggers Unite), and David Wessner, Associate Professor of Biology at Davidson College and founder of the AIDS Pandemic Blog . David participated in Blog Action Day (which addressed the issue of poverty) and will participate in this year’s Bloggers Unite for World AIDS Day 2008.

The Power of Bloggers

According to the blog search engine, Technorati , “blogs are powerful because they allow millions of people to easily publish and share their ideas, and millions more to read and respond.” There are nearly 113 million blogs , and an estimated 13.6 million health-related blogs . A recent study by Envision Solutions, Inc. found that nearly half of all bloggers in the U.S. wrote about health at least once last year. There is tremendous potential to reach millions of people this year with HIV/AIDS information.

Tony told us that initiatives like Bloggers Unite “nurture social media into being a proactive and positive tool to raise awareness.” He also mentioned that they’ve seen an increase in participation with each Blogger’s Unite event, “because bloggers enjoy coming together as individuals to do good.”

David said, “With an issue like poverty or HIV/AIDS, different bloggers will highlight different topics and present different points of view. As an educator, I am most excited about this aspect of the World AIDS Day project. I will encourage my students to read and consider a number of the Bloggers Unite posts. I’m sure that the ensuing discussions we have as a class will be wonderful. And, hopefully, some of the students will take action as a result of our conversations.”

Get involved: Blog or Support a Blogger

Do you have a blog? If so, we hope you’ll join us in writing about HIV/AIDS for World AIDS Day on December 1. For resources to help you write your post, visit AIDS.gov or the Bloggers Unite resource page. And if you’d like more information on rates of HIV/AIDS in the U.S., please visit the CDC’s website.

If you’re not a blogger, you could ask your favorite blogger to take part, or consider starting your own blog this December 1! You can also take part by reading and commenting on World AIDS Day blog posts. We have many other new media activities for you to get involved this World AIDS Day.

Next week we’ll be talking about our Facing AIDS for World AIDS Day Campaign - join our Facebook Facing AIDS for World AIDS Day group and check our our Flickr Group for a preview!

World AIDS Day in Second Life

World AIDS Day (December 1) is less than a month away! One of our many World AIDS Day activities will be our participation in a Second Life (SL) 2008 World AIDS Day event. As we mentioned in a previous post about SL, virtual worlds can be an effective way to reach people with HIV resources and information. Thanks to a generous grant from the National Library of Medicine, the Alliance Library System (which also developed Health Info Island ) will open a brand new SL island on World AIDS Day. That island will be dedicated to HIV/AIDS education, outreach, and support.

World AIDS Day Second Life Poster

In preparation for the SL event, we sat down (in SL, of course) with two of the event’s organizers, Ricken Flow (Rick Davis in the real world) and Jenaia Morane (Jena Ball in real life). Rick and Jena are both doing HIV work in SL and told us a bit about their experiences.

Rick said, “What surprised me most [about SL] is how close it is to real life. You have jobs, a commerce system, hospitals, grocery stores, architects, schools, etc.” He also told us that, unfortunately, real-life stigma around HIV translates into stigma in SL.

Ricky Davis (real life)
Ricken Flow (Second Life)

When Rick added his HIV status to his SL profile and received negative comments from other SL members, he realized that “People in virtual worlds need education and support just like in real life.” That’s when he decided to start an HIV/AIDS support group in SL. The group meets monthly and has over 60 members, 10 of whom meet regularly. Rick said, “The most exciting thing is having a presence so that people can ask questions about HIV, and feel comfortable talking about it, when they would never be able to do that in real life.” He also told us, “SL gives people living with AIDS who have physical limitations an opportunity to feel they are a part of a community and a support network.”

As founder of the HIV/AIDS Support Group, Rick was invited to speak at last year’s SL World AIDS Day event. This year, he volunteered to coordinate SL’s events, which include a World AIDS Day Musical Festival on November 30. On December 1, there will be a day-long event, including these activities:

• Pathfinder Linden will present on the importance of virtual reality in promoting health education, outreach, community support, and global activism.
• Miguel Gomez and Michelle Samplin-Salgado, from the AIDS.gov team, will present on using new media in response to HIV/AIDS and on the new CDC HIV incidence data.
• There will be tours of Karuna , the new island in SL dedicated to HIV/AIDS education and outreach.
• Jena will offer writing workshops where people can come and tell their stories about HIV/AIDS.
• SL will offer special displays and information about HIV/AIDS, including virtual AIDS ribbons and t-shirts.
• There will be virtual dance and live performances. (Rick told us, “SL has some amazing singers and musicians who perform live through streaming technology.”)
• The day’s events will conclude with a candle-lighting ceremony.

Jena Ball (real life)
Jenaia Morane (Second Life)

According to Jena, “The World AIDS Day events in SL are an opportunity to help those who are dealing with HIV/AIDS find an international community of support and resources.” She continued, “Because SL is three-dimensional and global, it allows for meaningful interpersonal interactions in real time that simply aren’t available in chat rooms or other venues - interactions that are desperately needed when someone is dealing with HIV/AIDS.”

We encourage you to learn more about SL and join AIDS.gov there for World AIDS Day by visiting the event’s website (you can find a media kit , the agenda , speakers , and more).

In addition to the many virtual and real life events planned for World AIDS Day, at AIDS.gov we’re planning several other new media activities, such as the Facing AIDS Campaign. Our next three blog posts will highlight these activities and include information on how you can get involved. Stay tuned for next week’s post on our Bloggers Unite on World AIDS Day event!

In the meantime, let us know if you’re in SL—we’d love to connect with you!

"A Picture is Worth A Thousand Words"-- How to Increase Involvement in World AIDS Day 2008

“A picture is worth a thousand words” and today we will be talking about two different powerful pictures that relate to World AIDS Day--one which involves data, and the other which involves you.

Picture # 1: The Trend

The picture above shows our search results from typing “AIDS” into Google Trends (a tool that lets you see what words people are searching for on Google). Two key things caught our attention about this picture: 1) People are searching for the word “AIDS” most frequently around World AIDS Day (December 1st), and 2) for the last four years, there has been a steady decline in the number of people searching for this term.

As AIDS continues to take a devastating toll on people around the world and here at home, we must change this trend. We can't afford to be complacent. A few weeks ago, the CDC told us that the number of Americans who are newly infected with HIV each year is even worse than we thought. Because there is no cure for HIV and no vaccine to counter it, HIV prevention and testing remain two of our most powerful tools in the response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

So, here's where picture #2 comes in....

Picture # 2: Changing the Trend

As many of you know, World AIDS Day is December 1st. This is a day for us to come together around HIV/AIDS--to remember, recognize, and take control of the future. But given the downward trend illustrated above, the subject of AIDS seems to be falling off peoples' radar.

The good news is that we know more and more people are going online and turning to their peers for health information. This is where YOU --providers, educators, caretakers, social media gurus and novices, colleagues, and friends--come in. We need your help to reduce the stigma around HIV/AIDS and encourage testing for World AIDS Day. In four easy steps, you can help create change.

1. Grab your cell phone or digital camera and take a picture of yourself wearing a red ribbon --any red ribbon--cloth, paper, plastic, licorice, etc.--feel free to be creative!
2. On December 1st--World AIDS Day--add the picture to your social networking profiles, blogs, other websites, etc. Leave the picture up for one week (until December 8th at midnight--no matter where you live).
3. Add your picture to the World AIDS Day 08 Flickr account! Not on Flickr? Flickr is an online photo management and sharing application. Signing up is fast, and allows you to post your picture to the group so we'll have an album of everyone who took action.
4. Tell 10 friends to do the same.

Together we can remind people that HIV/AIDS is still a threat. Together we change the trend.

Between now and World AIDS Day, we'll blog about other exciting new media activities for you to get involved with....stay tuned!!!

Are you planning any new media activities for World AIDS Day? If so, please let us know about them and we can help spread the word.

Also, next week, AIDS.gov will be hosting two different activities at the United States Conference on AIDS (USCA), the nation's largest HIV/AIDS conference. USCA is run by the National Minority AIDS Council --and it gives us an opportunity to meet with leaders in communities of color to talk about new media.

Our events will include:

Open Discussion Group on New Media (Friday, September 19, 6:45-7:45 PM, Room 302, Convention Center) We will discuss what new media is and how you can use it in your work on HIV prevention, testing, and treatment.

Workshop on HIV/AIDS Awareness Days (Saturday, September 20, 9:30-11:30 AM, Floridian A, Third Floor, Convention Center)--HIV/AIDS Awareness Days: A Turning Point Cross Promotion of the National HIV/AIDS Awareness Days: Where Are We Now? Where Can We Go? We will discuss how HIV/AIDS Awareness Days can be used to promote HIV prevention, testing, and treatment.

If you plan to attend USCA, please join us for the dialogue!