LA Corp Networking
Success
The Board of Directors of
the Living Affected Corporation successfully launched it's initial Afterhours
Networking session yesterday as an effort to continue its community outreach and
branding of the organization. "I was excited about the possibles as well as
meeting new people in my role as a board member," said Tonya Estelle. " I was
hoping that it would be nice turn out plus we would begin something new to look
forward to from the organization." she concluded. The group assessed through
their strategic planning sessions that it was vitally important to scale up its
brand visibility via introducing allies, prospective donors and supporters to
the new offices, volunteer opportunities, ongoing programming and services. Board
member Davaron Anderson said, " I believe that networking will be
helpful by alerting the community about our mission concerning our vision to
engage services that will transform our community in a positive way." He
continued, " currently LA Corp is the only community based organization serving
as a sub-grantee with a direct emphasis on affecting the HIV/AIDS infection
rates of the Black MSM population. Even though we are focused in that area, it
is our desire to evolve into a agency that will serve multiple purposes
throughout the state." In attendance was Rev. Damon Jackson, designers Clyde
Davis and Korto Momolu, local advocate Mr. Bob Coffey,
and independent music producer and dancer, Mr. Patrick Robinson. The board will
announce shortly the entire schedule for the event and additional fund raising
efforts to support the organization. Additional board positions are open and
qualified applicants can submit their interest by e-mail at info@lacorponline.org or by fax
855.792.5483. Advertising opportunity information can be
obtained at 501.379.8903 For more info: www.livingaffected.blogspot.com
or www.livingaffected.org (pictured l to r: D. Anderson, Tamara, Myles, George, J. Mclaughlin, D. Jackson)
It was very exciting to see the presence of a number of social media and mobile sessions at the XIX International Conference on AIDS (AIDS 2012 
) last week in Washington, DC. Patricia Mechael (@PattyMechael), one of the presenters at those sessions, noted that HIV/AIDS was one of the first areas to leverage mobile technology in the global health space; thus it is our duty to continue this and to influence others. In the session, Utilization of Social Media and Web 2.0 to Advance the Human Rights of Young People and Adolescents , Hugh Stephens (@hughstephens) reminded us that it is critical to keep abreast of emerging technologies as avenues for helping us reach our goal of an AIDS-free generation. The Living Affected Corporation served as "mini hub" as live streams were viewed in the offices that was open community wide. Also the organization provided pictures and comments via its Facebook page during the webcast. The organization will be using all social media platforms including YouTube to offer prevention messages to the Black MSM population and beyond.
Social and Crowd Sourced
There were many sessions that highlighted how social media and/or mobile technologies are instrumental in the response to HIV/AIDS in different settings. During the session Strengthening the Global HIV Response Through Social Media, Aram Barra (@arambarra) from Mexico talked about Crowd Out AIDS (@CrowdOutAIDS), an online social collaboration platform developed with UNAIDS that maximizes the potential for young people’s participation and leadership in the AIDS response and serves as the hub for all UNAIDS youth-related activities.The platform takes advantage of crowd sourcing which gathers information from the general public about current events, products and retail establishments. For example, if a natural disaster strikes an area, locals often capture and upload images before a professional news crew arrives. Crowd Out AIDS features include CrowdMap , a global geo-location database of youth activists and organizations, as well as a forum, a blog and a wiki all built around engaging youth. It was refreshing to see a collaborative platform designed specifically for young HIV/AIDS leaders.
An example demonstrating the use of crowd sourcing is Declaration for Change (#dec4change). Young people from around the world used a Codigital platform to develop a list of priorities and a declaration for change for the AIDS response aimed at achieving an AIDS-free generation. Youth contributed new ideas, proposed edits or revisions to each other’s suggestions, and voted on ideas of how young people will achieve an AIDS-free generation.
Easy Global Usage with Big Impact
“Simple in concept, powerful in results” is the description given by Uganda’s Eunice Gnay Namirembe, Program Manager of Text to Change (TTC), an easily scalable platform used to send out and receive text messages, multimedia messages, voice, and data to educate, engage, and empower people on health and well-being. Using mobile phones on a large scale for social purposes, TTC has been used to provide HIV-related information, such as personalized adherence reminders to improve treatment outcomes and interactive quizzes. The tool can also be used for data collection surveys. By focusing on the end-user through provision of local content and software, TTC has had great success. Ms. Namirembe also observed that despite the growing number of smartphones in the world, people in rural areas in developing countries can best be reached by text messaging, which is (and may remain for awhile) the most widely-used data application in the world. So, finding effective methods of working toward important health goals through mobile devices makes the most sense.
Innovative Approaches
Among the innovations I saw featured was the mobile microscope, which could soon be used to improve HIV care delivery in the developing world. Dr. Aydogan Ozcan, a recipient of the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award and head of UCLA’s Ozcan Research Group, demonstrated LUCAS, an attachment for mobile phones that acts as a microscope, except without lenses. Using hardware that costs less than $10, these mobile microscopes are able to use the shadows of cells to detect illnesses. For the HIV community, Dr. Ozcan talked about their work on a mobile phone attachment that could be used for CD4 counting, logging the results in a database, and texting the results at a minimal cost. This could dramatically improve the availability of CD4 counts and other lab work in the developing world where access to labs and timely results can be a challenge, particularly in rural areas. It could also be used for digital diagnosis and rapid testing of Malaria and other diseases. Different versions of Ozcan’s mobile phone attachments could help diagnose patients and provide better opportunities for care.
HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius also announced during an AIDS 2012 plenary session that HHS is working in partnership with the MAC AIDS Fund to pilot UCARE4LIFE. The pilot will use mobile phone texting to provide important tips and reminders about disease management to people living with HIV.
There were many other presentations about new media and mobile technology during the conference. The take-away here is that as we continue toward our goal of an AIDS-free generation, we need to remember to leverage all that the digital world now offers to help us efficiently and effectively act.
The Board of Directors of
the Living Affected Corporation successfully launched it's initial Afterhours
Networking session yesterday as an effort to continue its community outreach and
branding of the organization. "I was excited about the possibles as well as
meeting new people in my role as a board member," said Tonya Estelle. " I was
hoping that it would be nice turn out plus we would begin something new to look
forward to from the organization." she concluded. The group assessed through
their strategic planning sessions that it was vitally important to scale up its
brand visibility via introducing allies, prospective donors and supporters to
the new offices, volunteer opportunities, ongoing programming and services. Board
member Davaron Anderson said, " I believe that networking will be
helpful by alerting the community about our mission concerning our vision to
engage services that will transform our community in a positive way." He
continued, " currently LA Corp is the only community based organization serving
as a sub-grantee with a direct emphasis on affecting the HIV/AIDS infection
rates of the Black MSM population. Even though we are focused in that area, it
is our desire to evolve into a agency that will serve multiple purposes
throughout the state." In attendance was Rev. Damon Jackson, designers Clyde
Davis and Korto Momolu, local advocate Mr. Bob Coffey,
and independent music producer and dancer, Mr. Patrick Robinson. The board will
announce shortly the entire schedule for the event and additional fund raising
efforts to support the organization. Additional board positions are open and
qualified applicants can submit their interest by e-mail at info@lacorponline.org or by fax
855.792.5483. Advertising opportunity information can be
obtained at 501.379.8903 For more info: www.livingaffected.blogspot.com
or www.livingaffected.org (pictured l to r: D. Anderson, Tamara, Myles, George, J. Mclaughlin, D. Jackson)Social Media and Mobile @ AIDS 2012
It was very exciting to see the presence of a number of social media and mobile sessions at the XIX International Conference on AIDS (AIDS 2012 ) last week in Washington, DC. Patricia Mechael (@PattyMechael), one of the presenters at those sessions, noted that HIV/AIDS was one of the first areas to leverage mobile technology in the global health space; thus it is our duty to continue this and to influence others. In the session, Utilization of Social Media and Web 2.0 to Advance the Human Rights of Young People and Adolescents , Hugh Stephens (@hughstephens) reminded us that it is critical to keep abreast of emerging technologies as avenues for helping us reach our goal of an AIDS-free generation. The Living Affected Corporation served as "mini hub" as live streams were viewed in the offices that was open community wide. Also the organization provided pictures and comments via its Facebook page during the webcast. The organization will be using all social media platforms including YouTube to offer prevention messages to the Black MSM population and beyond.
Crowd Out AIDS
There were many sessions that highlighted how social media and/or mobile technologies are instrumental in the response to HIV/AIDS in different settings. During the session Strengthening the Global HIV Response Through Social Media
, Aram Barra (@arambarra) from Mexico talked about Crowd Out AIDS (@CrowdOutAIDS), an online social collaboration platform developed with UNAIDS that maximizes the potential for young people’s participation and leadership in the AIDS response and serves as the hub for all UNAIDS youth-related activities.The platform takes advantage of crowd sourcing which gathers information from the general public about current events, products and retail establishments. For example, if a natural disaster strikes an area, locals often capture and upload images before a professional news crew arrives. Crowd Out AIDS features include CrowdMap , a global geo-location database of youth activists and organizations, as well as a forum, a blog and a wiki all built around engaging youth. It was refreshing to see a collaborative platform designed specifically for young HIV/AIDS leaders.An example demonstrating the use of crowd sourcing is Declaration for Change (#dec4change). Young people from around the world used a Codigital platform to develop a list of priorities and a declaration for change for the AIDS response aimed at achieving an AIDS-free generation. Youth contributed new ideas, proposed edits or revisions to each other’s suggestions, and voted on ideas of how young people will achieve an AIDS-free generation.
Text to Change
“Simple in concept, powerful in results” is the description given by Uganda’s Eunice Gnay Namirembe, Program Manager of Text to Change
(TTC), an easily scalable platform used to send out and receive text messages, multimedia messages, voice, and data to educate, engage, and empower people on health and well-being. Using mobile phones on a large scale for social purposes, TTC has been used to provide HIV-related information, such as personalized adherence reminders to improve treatment outcomes and interactive quizzes. The tool can also be used for data collection surveys. By focusing on the end-user through provision of local content and software, TTC has had great success. Ms. Namirembe also observed that despite the growing number of smartphones in the world, people in rural areas in developing countries can best be reached by text messaging, which is (and may remain for awhile) the most widely-used data application in the world. So, finding effective methods of working toward important health goals through mobile devices makes the most sense.Innovative Approaches
Among the innovations I saw featured was the mobile microscope, which could soon be used to improve HIV care delivery in the developing world. Dr. Aydogan Ozcan, a recipient of the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award and head of UCLA’s Ozcan Research Group
, demonstrated LUCAS, an attachment for mobile phones that acts as a microscope, except without lenses. Using hardware that costs less than $10, these mobile microscopes are able to use the shadows of cells to detect illnesses. For the HIV community, Dr. Ozcan talked about their work on a mobile phone attachment that could be used for CD4 counting, logging the results in a database, and texting the results at a minimal cost. This could dramatically improve the availability of CD4 counts and other lab work in the developing world where access to labs and timely results can be a challenge, particularly in rural areas. It could also be used for digital diagnosis and rapid testing of Malaria and other diseases. Different versions of Ozcan’s mobile phone attachments could help diagnose patients and provide better opportunities for care.HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius also announced during an AIDS 2012 plenary session that HHS is working in partnership with the MAC AIDS Fund
to pilot UCARE4LIFE. The pilot will use mobile phone texting to provide important tips and reminders about disease management to people living with HIV.There were many other presentations about new media and mobile technology during the conference. The take-away here is that as we continue toward our goal of an AIDS-free generation, we need to remember to leverage all that the digital world now offers to help us efficiently and effectively act.
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