"DRNK. FLNG CRZY,HOT,NKD. U?"

So we all catch on at a different speeds...especially with technology. Mark Morford's article in the SF Chronicle today titled "Wanna hook up? Let your thumbs do the dialing," made me laugh, but the way he wrote about SEXINFO, an ISIS project, did not.

It is no surprise that text messaging is used like other forms of communication to bring people together, be it for a drink, a meeting, or sex. Have a gander:

"The trends now appear and disappear so quickly, nothing is really definitive or permanent or actually essential to know. It's all just a shifting throbbing mutating gob of gizmo and sex and desire and potential heartbreak, pouring over the culture like some sort of sticky bittersweet Wi-Fi-enabled honey. Same as it ever was, just with fewer vowels and lots more tendinitis."

"And so maybe I can simply wait for the next wave, the next mode of hot tech hookup whateverthehellitis, which I imagine will be arriving any second now, if not sooner. Instant cell phone video clips? Bluetooth-enabled pineal gland implants? Viagra misters/thong detectors in the new iPhone? We'll just have to see. Can someone please text me when it arrives?"

I think the twitters, the dodgeballs, and the justintvs will have their year in the sun. Text messaging is different. It's like a landline, like a computer, like a TTY. The way we use it will change, but the tool has stuck.

How slick is your sex ? - anal sex quiz from Lifelube

LifeLube, a site packed with online resources for gay/bi/queer men, has a lube quiz aimed at helping researchers decide which lubes to prioritize for safety testing. If you are a lover of anal sex, take this quiz and help them out.

We like this site for many reasons, one being they are helping us share InSPOT with the world AND they have a great blog with recent posts about queerness in Saudi Arabia, circumcision news and serosorting debates.

Wrap it up NYC - sweet sweet city condoms

Normally I wouldn't blog this because it's not exactly technology related (although at one moment in time condoms were new), except the website is super rad and the general idea even radder. I couldn't resist.

The simple animations of New Yorkers humping in high rises, and gabbing on the bridge are awesome, and the list of spots where you can pick up free condoms is a goldmine (for those online at least).

What city will hop on next?

Update: Nordstorm did the website design and branding.

SEXINFO, tree on a plane, badge of honor

So, as I mentioned before, ISIS was awarded a Techie from Grassroots.org for our project SEXINFO. The money arrived, the tabel at the innovations plaza went great, the statue...well, it has a little life of it's own.

I didn't return directly to SF from the NTC in DC. I took a cab to Dulles, then a plane to Boston, then a bus, then a train, then trucked by foot to my friends house. The statue came with me. It didn't fit in my suitcase; it had to be carried. It wasn't until I walked, trained, bussed and crossed security in Boston to head home again that someone actually commented on the statue (there has been plenty of stares). An airport security guard was so excited about it that he offered his own little LCD flashlight into the tree's trunk and the security line got to see the wonderful branches illuminate.

Anyway, It made it home. I made it home. SEXINFO is more known to the world, and I am forever thankful that the tree is in the office and I never have to take it in a train, plane or cab again. Check out these additional Flickr shots of other Techie award recipients.

Hookingup and gaming meet in Naughty America

Nick Yee, in The Daedalus Project , wrote about his research into online relationship development in games (mostly in World of Warcraft) in a post called The Impossible Romance. What's really interesting here are the comments. I highly recommend spending some time reading folks' comparisons of meeting online versus meeting in real life.

Along the same lines, Naughty America has done what we've (or gamers looking for dates) have all been waiting for. Now here's a game (launching sometime this summer) where you design a character, rearrange and decorate your bedroom to get ready for some action, cruise around in different neighborhoods, etc. So it's kind of similar to other games like Second Life in that there's chat between avatars, but in Naughty America, each character has a real dating profile. So when you meet someone online, you can have virtual sex with them and move on from there. There are even sexual position choices.

Bonnie of Bonnie's Heroine Sheik blogged it too, specifically the reluctance of the game makers to admit it is in fact a sex game! I was surprised to see that like True.com, Naughty America will submit game players to background checks.

Technology take up is natural for "digital natives"

I was reading the NTEN blog and found a great little article about reaching low income people with technology which features Joyce Raby from Legal Services Corporation, and some words from Lee Rainie of the Pew Internet and American Life Project , a non-profit research center studying the effect of the internet on American's. Anyway, particularly interesting for public health is Rainie's idea of "digital natives," or kids born after 1985 who have basically grown up with the Internet, and who are excellent targets for technology based messaging.

With our SEXINFO project (sexual health resource guide via text message), 90+ % of youth who remembered seeing the ad campaign for the text messaging service had their own phone. This was really surprising to us because all of these youth were from one of the lowest income neighborhoods in San Francisco.

The latest report from pew is a demogrpahic report about latinos with less english proficiency remaining a disporportionatly low percentage of total Internet users in the U.S. So, while the digital divide doesn't extend to youth in a general sense, non-english speakers (including youth), still don't have adequate access to Internet resources, even if they have access to computers.

InSPOT, our online STD/HIV partner notification system will soon be translated into Spanish. Perhaps translating SEXINFO as well will extend its benefit even farther.

SEXINFO wins a Techie from Grassroots.org!

SEXINFO, ISIS-Inc's (with SF DPH support) San Francisco-based text messaging service for youth, has won a Techie from Grassroots.org. Our prize you ask? We get a $1000 travel scholarship to attend the Non-profit Technology Conference in DC next week, promotional space on both the NTEN and Grassroots.org websites, and a sculpture! We will also be showcasing InSPOT.org along with SEXINFO at the Innovations Plaza during the conference, handing out other project related print materials, giving SEXINFO and InSPOT demonstrations, and handing out condoms.

Yay.

Micro-geo-insta-bloggers meet Prevention

Is there a use for microblogging tools in Public Health, particularly STD and HIV prevention? What can we come up with?

There's Yellow Arrow: "...a global creative community making a new M.A.A.P. (massively authored artistic publication) of the world." In basic terms, Yellow Arrow links a physical places with a virtual messages that are accessible to anyone with mobile text capability.

IDEA: Rachel Kachur, CDC, says: "I can imagine using this for an STD awareness campaign. Anywhere there is a yellow arrow with a certain code, people call the number, enter the code and get an STD message. 'If you are sexually active, your chances of having chlamydia are 1 in 4. Get tested.' Something like that. We could do a campaign on a college campus and see if it increases testing..."

There's Twitter: a new way to answer the question " what are you doing right now?" by text or computer and then have it broadcast to the web and to others' phones in your network.

IDEA: What are you doing right now? "Downloading a syphilis test." "Asking Dr. K a question." "Sending an InSPOT card." Would people share this info?

There's Dodgeball: I blogged it before. Basically Dodgeball relays texts to as many people as you want or alerts you by text when you are physically close to a "crush" or a "friend's friend."

IDEA: Could a location notify you when you are near IT? Rather than a person setting off your text alert, could you get a message when you are near a bowl of free condoms or a test site? I guess it's possible if there were a phone sitting in the bottom of the bucket or in the pocket of a test counselor.

There's Justin.tv (not a blog per se. More like a really bright idea): Laughing Squid said it best, Metroblogging said it next.

IDEA: Justin has been living on streaming video for 8 days now. You can text in what you'ld like to see Justin do. Maybe Justin should text the word SEXINFO to 61827 and show us all what happens. ... there's a lot of people watching. I'm going to ask him. Check in to see if he does it.

There's vlogging in general:

IDEAs: ?

Let's brainstorm. Public health and STD/HIV prevention does not have to live behind the curve.