LA Corp Calendar Stacks Up for Remaining 2012
The Living Affected Corporation is gearing up for both a productive and busy final quarter of the year according the organizations Jonathan Griggs, current member of Strilite, which serves as the entity focused on Black MSM HIV prevention programming. "As we looked at our calendar, we noticed that we were going to be extremely busy especially with our impending HELP Fair scheduled for September 28." The group has had a hectic schedule since its scaling up earlier this year which included events at HBCU's Philander Smith and Arkansas Baptist Colleges, collaborations with assorted agencies, aggressive skills building and capacity enhancements resulting in certifications in both HIV Testing and community intervention implementations. "It's been a heck of year so far," said Derrick Lopp, another Strilite member. "I can't believe all the things that we've either have done or have planned for the rest of the year. Even though its kinda of exciting, it's been hard work!" The Living Affected Corporation also has been hard at work charting its future through additional strategic development process under The Damon Jackson Group which specializes in organizational management. Jackson has joined LA Corp in leading the sessions while also serving as a researcher utilizing the group's resources to earn his PhD in the field. After launching a networking event Aug 1,(pictured) the group wanted to increase its branding and outreach to the community. "We hope that as we develop that as a concept we will experience significantly more interest in our organization as well as mission." concluded Lopp. Currently the organization is still seeking qualified board of directors, volunteers, fundraisers and allies to support its services and programs. If interested contact 501.379.8203 or info@lacorponline.org for more information.
New Black Gay Men's Support Group Forming
A new Black Gay Men's Support Group is being tentatively structured as "Tongues Untied" and is planning its debut October 10, 2012 at 401 North Maple Street, in North Little Rock. Under the guidance of The Living Affected Corporation in conjunction with ADH's newest sub-grantee, Strilite, the venture will be designed to further support efforts to " HIV prevention message" within the same gender loving community and beyond. Member Desmond Pruitt stated, "I think that this is truly needed in our area and I'm very interested in how it will take off. I believe that we need places to share our thoughts and challenges especially before crisis situations set in." The new group will have both an open forum and topical format based around a 90 minute frame or as the group decides. Chief Operating Officer, Cornelius Mabin emphasized that this project was always apart of the Strilite vision. From its inception, the members viewed having such a group would be vital to their mission to "provide peer to peer mentoring, support and prevention education against maladies such as HIV in our community." Furthermore, " it's become imperative that as we deal with individuals holistically, we must wholeheartedly support their vision of "reaching our present to change our future." As planning is completed, times will be confirmed and announced on all the organizations digital platforms.
New Black Gay Men's Support Group Forming
The Cloud: Using Web-Based Tools for Collaboration
A typical day in the life of many AIDS.gov team members involves writing, editing, and sharing documents — blog posts, training materials, conference materials, reports, videos, and more. Multiple team members working across cities and time zones contribute to and review each document, so having quick, effective, and easy ways to share documents is key. Below, we highlight tools we use to help streamline our communication and document collaboration.
Six years ago when the AIDS.gov project launched, most of us were using a single device (e.g., a desktop work computer) to develop and collaborate on documents. Our systems for creating and editing materials were often slow since they required saving and emailing large files and keeping track of the “master” document to avoid version control issues. The other challenge was not being able to easily access the files from multiple computers (e.g., home and work computers) without saving the files to thumb drives (or disks!), or emailing the files.
The good news is, today, thanks to the prevalence of wi-fi, document collaboration has become a lot easier. This is becoming increasingly important as people are often using more than one device (e.g., computer, phone, tablet, etc.) to create and share documents. According to a recently-released Forrester Consulting report
(PDF), as of 2010 more than half of U.S. online adults used two or more PCs and smartphones, and they estimate that two-thirds will by 2016.
In addition to using multiple devices to work on documents, people are using “the “cloud” to access, sync, and share documents. According to Common Craft’s video, Cloud Computing in Plain English, “Computers used to work alone, inside a home or business. But thanks to the Internet, we can now use the power of computers at a completely different location – what we call “in the cloud.”
An example of the many tools out there that we have been using at AIDS.gov is DropBox, “a free service that lets you bring your photos, docs, and videos anywhere and share them easily.” Think of it as a virtual folder where you can “drop in” files and then access them from multiple devices. Dropbox can be accessed via a web browser, mobile app, or desktop program. By dragging files over to it, they are saved in the folder (which is backed up online). An important feature of Dropbox is that folders and documents can be private or shareable. We use a shared folder for the AIDS.gov team so that any team member can access files there when needed. If anything were to go wrong with our hard drives or mobile phones, these files will still be saved in the cloud.
Products similar to Dropbox include Google Drive (which ties to Google Docs), SugarSync, and Box. Most of these services are accessible across different devices, include a few free gigabytes of storage to get started, and allow for sharing (this article features a comparison of these products and more).
Another free tool we use to manage, create, and share AIDS.gov documents is Google Apps. We use it for many different types of project work, but in particular we use Google Docs to draft and edit blog posts. One of our favorite features is multiple members being able to edit a post together in real time, as well as see the latest revisions made. Having all of our blog documents in one place across team members also helps us stay organized. We also use Google Calendar to help manage our editorial calendar.
We know there are so many tools out there and want to hear from you about which tools you find helpful. How are you using online tools to collaborate on documents? We welcome your comments.
Six years ago when the AIDS.gov project launched, most of us were using a single device (e.g., a desktop work computer) to develop and collaborate on documents. Our systems for creating and editing materials were often slow since they required saving and emailing large files and keeping track of the “master” document to avoid version control issues. The other challenge was not being able to easily access the files from multiple computers (e.g., home and work computers) without saving the files to thumb drives (or disks!), or emailing the files.The good news is, today, thanks to the prevalence of wi-fi, document collaboration has become a lot easier. This is becoming increasingly important as people are often using more than one device (e.g., computer, phone, tablet, etc.) to create and share documents. According to a recently-released Forrester Consulting report
(PDF), as of 2010 more than half of U.S. online adults used two or more PCs and smartphones, and they estimate that two-thirds will by 2016.In addition to using multiple devices to work on documents, people are using “the “cloud” to access, sync, and share documents. According to Common Craft’s video, Cloud Computing in Plain English
, “Computers used to work alone, inside a home or business. But thanks to the Internet, we can now use the power of computers at a completely different location – what we call “in the cloud.”An example of the many tools out there that we have been using at AIDS.gov is DropBox
, “a free service that lets you bring your photos, docs, and videos anywhere and share them easily.” Think of it as a virtual folder where you can “drop in” files and then access them from multiple devices. Dropbox can be accessed via a web browser, mobile app, or desktop program. By dragging files over to it, they are saved in the folder (which is backed up online). An important feature of Dropbox is that folders and documents can be private or shareable. We use a shared folder for the AIDS.gov team so that any team member can access files there when needed. If anything were to go wrong with our hard drives or mobile phones, these files will still be saved in the cloud.Products similar to Dropbox include Google Drive (which ties to Google Docs), SugarSync, and Box. Most of these services are accessible across different devices, include a few free gigabytes of storage to get started, and allow for sharing (this article
features a comparison of these products and more).Another free tool we use to manage, create, and share AIDS.gov documents is Google Apps. We use it for many different types of project work, but in particular we use Google Docs to draft and edit blog posts. One of our favorite features is multiple members being able to edit a post together in real time, as well as see the latest revisions made. Having all of our blog documents in one place across team members also helps us stay organized. We also use Google Calendar to help manage our editorial calendar.
We know there are so many tools out there and want to hear from you about which tools you find helpful. How are you using online tools to collaborate on documents? We welcome your comments.
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