Online network mapping pays off

ISIS certainly packed a double whammie with the Fresh Focus Sex-Ed Video Contest that concluded in January. Not only did we get 70 incredible videos from young people all over the country and Canada, but we developed our own unique marketing strategies in the process.

The Chronicle of Philanthropy has written up our success story in a fund raising focused article titled New Rules of Attraction.

And one thing definitely leads to another, as Deb says about the some of the attention we've been getting from new funders, "This is a result of the visibility we generated through the contest and our positioning ourselves as thought leaders online."

Amazingness!

Search without belonging - Copenda

I just saw this on one of my favorite blogs, the Online Dating Insider. Copenda allows you to search multiple dating and social sites at the same time. Then you can click over to the interesting profiles on its native site. Pretty cool.

So far the site has indexed over one million profiles. You can search Myspace, Facebook, hi5, Friendster, Match.com and plentyofish. It's really surprising, as the Insider notes, that these sites would open up their networks to a third party. But the bottom line still remains, if you find someone you like, you need to sign up with the original service to actually message them.

It will be interesting to see what methods evolve for being "seen" or being ranked high on the Copenda search results. It's unclear at this point how one gets to the top of the barrel, aside from geographical proximity. Does updating your Match.com profile frequently help here? I dunno.

Also, the people you come up with on Myspace for example, might not be looking for dates. So, the sifting you may need to do is potentially more involved if you're looking for dating specifically.

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In other news, Jennifer Garner didn't get any sex education, and she's not the only one.

Social Site Aggregators - Useful?

Ever take a break at work to check your friends' blogs? Then take another minute to see if any of those new MySpace comments are real? Then another five minutes to upload a few photos of your weekend to Flickr...and before you know it you've forgotten whether your password on Twitter is hotdog1 or 1hotdog and you realize you really should get back to work. Does this happen to you?

I don't have the solution...and perhaps just more to add to the problem. But how can we begin to catalog the multiple profiles, tag collections, photos, podcasts, etc that we all love to consume into one place? And how can we start to realistically digest the media jumbles our friends create?

Well, there are some new options to try. Each has some strengths and some wussiness too. My friend Lauren from Object Adjective (they designed the Sex::Tech website for us) recently reviewed Plaxo Pulse.

Some others are Flock, FriendFeed, ProfileLinker, Fuser, Spokeo and MyLifeBrand.

Flock seems promising. You can access and update many social sites (the usual suspects plus Piczo, del.icio.us, Twitter, etc.). Flock even supports massive (up to 1000) picture uploads. One major downfall is that you have to download it. Alas.

What does this have to do with ISIS and sex you ask? Well, I'm not entirely sure, however, we have this contest called Fresh Focus. To promote the contest we have MySpace pages, a Flickr account, a couple of blogs, friends and colleagues that blog about us, press releases, emails coming in, emails going out, podcast promos, youtube videos...you get the idea. How can we manage all this stuff, even with a stellar cast of 6? We're working on finding the best way.

Happy Turkey everyone, if you do that sort of thing.

OKcupid - quiz mania

So I randomly took an OKCupid quiz the other day. And after that I took another and another -- very addicting. The cool part is that after you take one, you can see other people who have taken them as well, their profiles on OKCupid, etc. So here it is in all it's glory, The Dating Personality Test.

The result you ask? I'm The Bachelor. The Deliberate Gentle Sex Master (DGSM). My exact dating opposite is appropriately "The Manchild," of the Random Brutal Love Dreamer (RBLD).

Some sample questions include:
"Would you rather get caught masturbating by your mother or your father?"
OR
"You're in a serious, loving relationship, and your mate asks for a threesome. You are more...
Offended?
Relieved?

There is also a "The Nerd? Geek? or Dork? Test." I'm a pure nerd. See isn't this fun?

Online Dating Insider provides a closer look at the quiz algorithm and question asking philosophy, which yes you guessed it, is much different from eHarmony's. OkCupid is also developing a new app for Facebook which will no doubt multiply their marketing potential.

Gov't attack on adult social networking freedoms!

The following is a partial repost from the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force:

The federal government is proposing regulations that would effectively kill adult social-networking sites. This is being done under the guise of fighting child pornography. You have until September 10 to object to these regulations. It’s easy to do and essential. A sample e-mail comment is at the bottom of this page. Please forward this information to your friends!
What’s the Deal?

The Department of Justice is proposing regulations to implement a federal law designed to combat child pornography, known as Section 2257. The law was first enacted in 1998 and was amended in 2006 and significantly expanded to include regulation of the Internet.

While many of the regulations pertain to companies that produce adult entertainment magazines and videos (and are extremely burdensome), they would also affect anyone who uses an adult social-networking site. Here’s how:

* The regulations would require the people running a site to get and maintain personal information from every user (that means you) who posts a “sexually explicit” photo, including your photo ID (driver’s license, passport, or military ID).
* The regulations would allow the Attorney General to conduct warrantless searches at will on the sites’ records, including your personal information.
* There are few safeguards over what the FBI can do with the information it obtains.
* If a site operator fails to comply with the regulations, he or she would face a prison sentence of up to 5 years.
* For more detailed information on Sec. 2257, go to the task force fact sheet.

Obviously, none of this has anything to do with child pornography. Instead, it is a blatant attempt to end the ability of consenting adults to use adult social-networking sites to meet other people for sex. Obviously, if these regulations go into effect, they will kill this industry.
What You Can Do

The Department of Justice has published these proposed regulations and the public has until September 10 to comment on them.

We need to generate thousands of comments objecting to the proposed regulations – and it’s easy to do via e-mail. Just follow the instructions below...
____________________

A sample letter addressed to the U.S. Department of Justice is provided on the bottom of this link. The fact that the Justice Dept. can't handle increasing the prison population will hopefully save us from this grand save-the-children idea. Jeeez, what next? You can always join Playboy's new social networking site (college only) that surprisingly shows little skin.

Socialverse - potentially yelp meets SL

Socialverse is a new networking tool that is not quite be off its feet yet, but I see some potential for creativity. Basically you've got an avatar who can roam through several cities on earth. Businesses, schools, hospitals, etc., which exist in real life, are located along the streets and these can be reviewed/updated/slightly modified by anyone.

My idea was to explore if Socialverse could be a place where public health clinics and testing sites list them selves and then are open to public review just like the rest of the businesses. Of course there's Yelp for this as well, but the map integration is nice. If you go up to a business, perhaps a representative could (sometimes) be there to tell you more about it using the chat function?

Socialverse is in beta (very much so), so there are issues. Mainly, things needs to be able to be individualized. I couldn't tweak my avatar much or change my clothes. Also, a lot of the buildings look the same. There would have to be a critical mass contributing to the building of cities to really get this going. Also, the purpose is a bit nebulous. Would I go here to find out about cafes in my neighborhood, or to chat with other avatars also wearing blue jeans and white t-shirts?

Here is a basic demo:


When I mentioned my clinic idea to Chad from Socialverse he said: "If you have any suggestions for features that you think of, particularly those that could be of benefit for clinics, please let me know and we'd be more than happy to work with you or anyone else in your industry to try and implement them. We have created Socialverse to be very flexible as to what it can support, including a complex "class" based system of "things" and "places". For example, in Socialverse a "clinic" is a class. And we can custom tailor each class to fit the particular informational and service needs of that class or industry."

I guess we can wait and see.

CheckTonight.com - hookup insurance?

CheckTonight.com is hooking up with online dating sites to provide negative test result verification. Well, so far, the list of participating sites isn't that impressive (Atomicmen being the biggest). While the move to do this among dating sites is good, there are some definite issues. It is also a bit disappointing that the group taking this plunge seems to vilify, if only slightly, anyone who may already be positive, with the prominent text: "Show You Tested Negative for HIV and Optionally Other STDs." It also offers zero mention of window periods.

Here's what signing up was like for me:
1. First join a lesser known hookup site (ha!)
2. Register at CheckTonight.com. (which includes downloading and faxing a HIPAA form).
3. Find a suitable place to get tested (you can use their search tool, or see a private doc).
4. If you choose one of the Labcorp testing sites, pick which tests you want. Here's the kicker for the insurance-less:
Full panel: HIV, herpes, Hepc, chlamydia, gonnorhea, syphilis $369!!Or you can choose specific ones. Syphilis alone is the cheapest at $32, chlamydia/gonorrhea is $174. And so on...
5. Then sign another HIPAA form releasing CheckTonight.com to receive your test results. (It's okay for minors to use the service, but an adult is supposed to sign the form, electronically though).
6. Enter credit card info, billing address.
7. I didn't go any further...but you get the point. A lot of steps.

Here's the list of steps in their words.

So what is promised after your test results are faxed back to CheckTonight.com?
1. Positive results are not kept or posted anywhere. A nice list of resources are given.
2. Negative results receive a badge (including test date) that can be posted on a very select list of dating sites, or a social networking site that accepts html (I'm assuming that it is a basic html badge).


So, my two cents are:
Can the badges be stolen, doctored and repasted elsewhere?
Why not encourage HIV+ folks to test for STDs?

I would love to hear comments about this from readers...

Update: Atomicmen has gone out on a limb to try something that some of us in public health have been asking for for a long time. Checktonight is imperfect, but Atomicmen's attitude and willingness to improve is on target:

"...CheckTonight ... is willing to work with Atomicmen on making the site more friendly so any feedback is welcome. I appreciate all feedback and knowledge and would encourage anyone to help in the education of those who are not understanding of anyones "fears", but that door swings both ways. I think that direct reaction to something with out investigation can also be fear based and should allow for the passing back and forth of ideas to make sites like CheckTonight more approachable to those who seem offended. Andrew at CheckTonight is willing to work with organizations to make his organization more open and honest in it's presentation..."

Love affair in under 140 characters

OurChart, a kickass networking/blogging/multimedia showcase for queer women and their friends, is using Twitter (microblogging tool extraordinaire) in the most delicious way. UnCharted, a soap opera inspired love story in installments of 140 character or less, is being updated every 15 minutes. And because this love story is twittering on throughout the day, you can easily follow along on your phone.

Sneak peak for geeks:
"katrina: @allie: What's your special talent?"

"allie: @katrina: multi-tasking? right now i'm running a mtg, browsing threadless.com and flirting with you. is it working? wanna go out?"

...

Read the OurChart interview with Popnography blogger Shana Naomi Krochmal, or check our the All Things Considered piece on NPR for more.

Myspace to remove registered sex offenders

The New York Times today published a story about Myspace's plans to rid the networking site of known sex offenders. Myspace says this will hinge on whether state officials subpoena the names...something the said officials don't think is necessary. It seems that there are two different goals here. Myspace wants to keep the so called predators off their site, and the attorneys general want to find folks and prosecute them. Perhaps that's why there has been a cooperation lapse between the two parties.

Connecticut attorney general, Richard Blumenthal says, “We have a valid and viable need to know about convicted sexual offenders who may pose a threat to children.” The problem however is that using Myspace doesn't necessarily mean using it in a threatening way. And how do you suppose that will be proven? By eroding the privacy of everyone using the site for its intended purpose?

Check out Myspace's safety tips or tips for parents. It does seem like a better approach to educate the majority of users about staying safe, rather than booting every register offender who may just be connecting with friends after time apart.

In related news: U.S. soldiers worldwide can no longer use Myspace or Youtube to keep in touch with their friends and families, although the Marine core is using the networking site for recruitment. Pftt!

Multiple ways to (learn) Wiffiti

I just wanted to give a little Wiffiti update and share the varied ways folks are explaining how to text to their Wiffitis (since a lot of my friends were having trouble).

Wiresounds: Make a text message like "@WIR35 Hey Max, how's it going?" and send it to "25622"

Pixelpixel: To make me happy text me starting with @pixelfly then your message to 25622.

Itoldyoutherewouldbebacon: Because I'm something of a moron, it took me forever to figure out how to send a text, what with the "text @whatever message" instuctions. It made zero sense to me. ... 1. If you want your name to come up on your texts, as opposed to the wiffitiXXXX (XXXX being the last four digits of your phone number), you should first create a test message thusly: name (insert name here), then send the text to 25622. ... 2. Any other text you should with to send should essentially be the same: @bacony and then whatever you want to say, then send.

Here are a few more Wiffitis to play with:
Criticalfluff
ar11.net/blog
heehawmarketing
followme.vox.com
podsquadhq

As far as my own Wiffiti/public health exploration goes: SVGL (hey there) felt that using Wiffiti in a classroom setting could be a good idea. A nice way of submitting questions or having a discussion about sensitive topics. A public health friend who shall remain nameless felt that Wiffiti would be way too disruptive. As in people texting all sorts of rude sh*t during a lecture or something. Others needed help or two tries to get it right. That might mean that it needs easier instructions. Getting rid of the pink arrow step would be nice.

Oh, also, if Wiffiti isn't showing up on your computer, you may need to update to Flash 8 or higher.

What can we do with Wiffiti?

If you're reading this, I hope you didn't miss the Wiffiti on the right side of this page. Too many people today have asked that the hell it is. I'm starting to wonder myself. Regardless it's fun, and could have some powerful uses in public health/health communications if executed correctly (I think).

So what is it? It's a screen that you can put anywhere that people can send text messages too and have them be visible to anyone who is watching the screen. Right now it's embedded in my blog, and if you click on the mini version in the left sidebar you'll be taken to a larger screen on the Wiffiti sight. If I wanted I could feed it to a gigantic screen at an event, or display it on a laptop at a coffee shop. Get it? The Wiffiti blog explains it better than I do.

How do you use it? Send a text message to 25622. In the body of the message type @isisinc. After @isisinc add your message. If I wanted to say "what's up?" the body of my text message would read: @isisinc what's up?

So what can you do with it? Lots of things I suppose, but are there uses in public health, particularly STD and HIV prevention? Sexual health? Here are some of my ideas. Please add yours.

1. Text the location of services at large spring break events, such as where condoms can be found, or clinical services like STD testing.
2. Use in a classroom setting as a silent brainstorming tool.
3. Embed in a website and use as an easy way to get feedback from people about your projects, artwork, web design, etc.
4. Use as a billboard in an urban area with designated people updating it with prevention messages. Perhaps using a health department sponsor.

Are these boring? What do you think? Post your thoughts here or on my Wiffiti. Click the pink arrow to activate.

Planned Parenthood Pill Patrol

A kick ass move by Planned Parenthood's Save Roe campaign. The Pill Patrol is a an action tool that anyone can use to expose pharmacies with bad emergency contraception policies.

First: Find a pharmacy in your area (or several) with a simiple zip code search.

Second: Put on you secret shopper hat and ask for emergency contraception (Plan B) at that pharmacy using your downloadable Toolkit guide.

Third: Report back what happened on the Pill Patrol site. Eh em, "when we verify that a pharmacy refuses to provide EC, we'll alert you immediately and ask for your help. We'll demand meetings with the offending pharmacy. We ill apply pressure through rallies, letter-writing campaigns, and advertisements in local newspapers. We will make sure that women everywhere have every chance to prevent unintended pregnancy. "

The site has a Toolkit that can be downloaded that has a sample dialog to help seek the information that will be important to others, including tactful ways to ask why a pharmacy MAY NOT be carrying Plan B.

You can sign up for alerts via text message or email or both. I signed up with my cell to see what their text strategy is all about.

Kink.com sponsors ASACP

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

I'd call it "Where is Sick?"

Who is sick? is a website that allows anonymous posters to link their symptoms with a geographical location on a googlemap. When you go to the site you can see all* the runny noses in LA and coughs in Berkeley. The tool was designed to help provide people with current local sickness information.

The creators say:

"Who Is Sick was started in 2006 with a mission to provide current and local sickness information to the public - without the hassle of dealing with hospitals or doctors. With a strong belief in the power of people and a faith that user generated content can be extremely valuable, our team set out to create an entirely new system for tracking and monitoring sickness information."

"Given the relatively slower adoption of internet and "web 2.0' technology by much of the healthcare industry, our team of healthcare professionals, technology entrepreneurs, mothers, fathers, and caregivers set out to create a simple, user-friendly, and valuable website for the average consumer. We are currently building out our team and expanding our technology breadth across new and exciting areas of healthcare with Who Is Sick as our first offering. Stay tuned for more!"

The tool could be used to communicate STD hotspots in the future. *However, posters to the site are most definitely a biased sample of the ill.

The mapping tool is will be easy to use for anyone familiar with googlemaps, and the little pies...well, they look like Trivial Pursuit pies.

As for the slow adoption of Web2.0 to the healthcare field. They nailed it.

Update: BioSense, a CDC project makes much more sense, particularly because you have to apply to participate.

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.

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.

NTEN Innovation Plaza

ISIS-Inc. has been selected to participate in the Innovations Plaza at the NTEN 2007 Nonprofit Technology Conference! We are very excited and plan on showcasing several of our projects: InSPOT and SEXINFO. We'll of course be able to answer questions about some of our other projects too: Eavesdrop, Californiamen, Massmen, Hookinguponline, STDtest.org.

So far nearly 1000 attendees are listed for NTC, along with numerous exciting guest speakers. Among others, we're excited to meet the following speakers:

Heidi J. Boisvert, Suzanne Seggerman, Benjamin Stokes, Barry Joseph, Karen Michaelson: "Video Games for Social Change: a New Movement"

Jonathon D. Colman: "Using Online Social Networks to Build Buzz..."

Beth Kanter, involved in 4 different sessions: widgits, Flickr, vlogging, etc.

Dale L. Larson, "Think Mobile! More than Text Messaging"

Look for ISIS at the Innovations Plaza on thursday April 5th.

Dodgeball. In your face.

Your Friends. Friends of Friends. Crushes. I'm not sure where to start with this one. Dodgeball, a google toy, is a networking site for mobile phones.

First off, you can send messages to your friends. So, I can usually handle texting my friends myself, but this feature adds a middlemachine to relay your texts to everyone on your friends list. (or the ones you set to receive messages online). It goes like this (pretend I'm billy): "Hey I'm at Clooney's," to 30 people's phones.

The friends of friends feature alerts you (by text) when you are within 10 blocks of any friends of friends. You'll get a message that says something like: "Billy is at Clooney's. You know him through Jill."

The crushes feature allows you to select up to five people (only five because they "are not a brothel") that you have a crush on. You select them from the Dodgeball site. Then when they are within 10 blocks of you, you will get a text message that says: "Billy is at Clooney's. He has a crush on you. Valencia at 25th"). And, if you are able to receive pictures on your phone, you'll get one of the person who is crushing on you.

Oh, I should say, Dodgeball works in 22 cities, and you can change your city as you travel. You can also find venues by texting in the name to "DODGE" or 36343.

Fake friends really helped me get laid

A recent New York Times article titled "Too Few Friends? A Web Site Lets You Buy Some (and They’re Hot)" takes a gander at some grand/gross ideas for managing your online networks, which in reality (I guess this is reality) might make me sad if they ended up popular.

Bright idea #1: fakeyourspace.com lets you buy MySpace, Facebook, Consumating and Friendster friends for $.99 a month. You can even see which "friends" have been bought the most times...and are therefore more guaranteed to help you get popular. You can even have a fake friend pretend that they are dating you by sending all sorts of messages/comments. Hmmm. The last time I logged into MySpace there were three friend requests from fake profiles trying to befriendme for free. Are these services really necessary? View a few of my fake friends here: Autumn and Red Hot'n'Sexy Tommy's chicks. Or check out this great story about kicking some fake-friend ass by blogger Micheal D. If you really think that having hot friendsters will make you popular, why not create profiles of fake people by yourself and make them virtually fawn over you?...at least it would be more creative.

Bright ideas #2: MobileAlibi.com lets you select a time to be called so that you can exit unsavory situations. You can choose from Chris or Samantha's voice. The problem is, when I tried to test it out, it wouldn't work. Popularitydialer.com offers a similar service. They also suggest that recieving calls in public or while on a date can actually improve your popularity because others overtly or inadvertantly listen in. In their own words: "Have you ever been in a situation where you wished your cell phone would ring? Maybe you wanted to look extra important or popular on that hot date. Or maybe you just needed an excuse to escape from an unpleasant meeting." If my new date answered their cell phone during our date and chatted with someone else because they tought it would make me like them more...I'd go home and have a beer by myself.

And lastly, the same people that brought you Fakeyourspace.com, now offer Breakyourspace.com. Now you can easily break up with any or all of your online friends and avoid the pain of doing it yourself. My favorite part of the site is a little FAQ: "Can I break up with my significant other?" Answer: "Yes you can. While although we do not recommend using our service as a means for breaking up any of your real life relationships, we do provide the service." The redeeming quality about Breakyourspace is that you can choose a themed messenger to deliver the bad news. My favorites by far are: "I want a divorce," featuring a broken wedding band, "I'm suing your ass," featuring a little wooden gavel and "I blame you," with some lovely finger pointing.

Webcam meets social networking sites

The New York Times recently featured an article about several news social networking sites that combine a youtube free-for-all mentality (although youtube is cracking down) with the personal touch from Myspace and Friendster that excited us all back in the day. So how much is new here?

Stickam: Out of L.A., Stickam allows users to build profiles (nothing new there), post videos of themselves (nothing new there) and add a live webcam feed to your profile! Stickam's first project was to create a product that allowed for the addition of webcam to myspace profiles...they were blocked pretty instantly. One good thing about cams however is that you know who you're talking to. Seems like a bit of extra insurance to me..better than the Kids Act of 2007 that I blogged about a few days ago that basically offers an old gummy bandaid to the let's-protect-minors-from-scary-internet-predators craze. Stickam also doesn't have the staff (nor the desire) to censor what's posted, or fed to the site. Hmmm...the possibilities are endless.

Dailymotion: Out of Paris, allows nudity (it's French!), puts no length limits on videos, and also allows a "videoroll."

Liveleak: Out of London, seems to be mostly a site for news...war footage, and heavy stuff. But, I also found this -->

Paltalk: Another live video chat service. The Times article i cited above mentioned that because Paltak charges for some features, minors may be less willing to choose it. That doesn't mean they won't go elsewhere...but whatever.