Global Youth Demand Action

Where were you 15 years ago? Maybe you were already working or looking for work, maybe you were in college or grade school, maybe you weren't even born yet.

But officials from 179 countries got together in Cairo, Egypt, in the fall of 1994 and promised to change the world in 20 years. The result of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) was a ambitious plan that would, among other benefits, give universal access to services and information to improve the sexual and reproductive health of everyone by 2015.

Fast forward to today, with just over five years to go, and we have a lot of work to do.

Using technology that was just a glimmer in some developers' eyes 15 years ago, young people around the world are taking their sexual health and their future in their own hands. Earlier this month, the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) launched the 15andCounting campaign on social networking platforms MXit, Facebook and Twitter - urging young people around the world to call their governments to task and demand action.

According to the campaign, "too many governments have failed to make good on their promises. This failure puts the lives and health of tens-of-millions of young people at risk." To put this in context, those born in 1994 form part of the largest group of young people the world has ever seen – some 1.5 billion. With these numbers, as I'm sure we all know, their health and wellbeing affects all of us.

Toward this end, the campaign offers a petition that will be presented to the United Nations to demand governments act now to "fulfill their promise to provide better access to sexual and reproductive health services for all young people."

More than 25,000 people from around the world have signed it so far, mostly young people. The campaign has a goal of "hundreds of thousands of signatures representing every country on the planet."

From their website: "We are asking all governments around the world to prioritise [sic] young people’s sexual and reproductive health and rights, including comprehensive sex education and information and youth friendly health services."

For more information, check out these links:

15andcounting
Join 15andcounting on Facebook
Follow 15andcounting on Twitter

Sex::Tech 2009 Media Buffet

Sex::Tech 2009 was beyond superfragilisticexpiali- awesome! Really, it was and we have the video and photos to prove it. Head over to ISIS’ YouTube Channel and Flickr to get a taste of Buckworld One’s edgy, high energy performance.



You can also see what Dean Eckles from Nokia Research Innovate Design Experience Animate (IDEA) Team and Kevin Bertram of Distributive Networks said during the 2nd day keynote!

The presentations of our Sex::Tech attendees are also available for download here. We hope you enjoy all these tasty media morsels and REALLY hope you’ll come out for the next Sex::Tech! Don’t forget to add us on Twitter!

Utterz-ly Amazing

One day humans and computers will merge into one beautiful new super life form á la Battlestar Galactica. But that will undoubtedly end in some cataclysmic hellfire war that will redefine what it means to be truly human. This, thankfully, is still a long way off. Until the end days are upon us, isn't it fun watching technologies merge and reshape how people can communicate? My latest curiosity is a the site Utterz.com, which seems to up the ante on my beloved Twitter.com in the mobile posting game.
With Utterz you can post pictures, video, voice recordings and text straight from your mobile phone all via MMS which means no going online, no clunky cell phone browser and standard text messaging rates. At first glance I was in love because I mistakenly thought I could post my MMS messages straight to my blog/site/social network. I was wrong. Like Twitter you set up a profile page that houses all your Utterz and you can network with other Utter-ers. In order to post your MMS content you have to embed an Utter widget to receive and display your utterz on your personal blog/site/social network.

Check out my Frak montage Utter, I know... I got a little stage fright and couldn't think of anything to say... but the true nerds out there will smile with me.



The direct connection between Utter-ing and sexual health remains to be seen but suddenly there are amazing new vehicles for communication and public and private domains are merging. It is interesting to watch the technologies that will reshape these boundaries.

Pick your pleasure, the Sex::Tech Program is up!

You've all been waiting, and I'm happy to be able to say that the Sex::Tech program has been posted!

We are thrilled to be offering attendees two full days of diverse expert presenters ready to share their projects and ideas!

View Day 1 - January 22nd
It's going to be a tough call between panels, but you have to choose! We had so many amazing submissions that we had to stack them up pretty tight.

View Day 2 - January 23rd
Our keynote on the second day will be a discussion with Anastasia Goodstein of YPulse and a yet to be announced technology guest, moderated by technology writer Janet Kornblum of USA Today!


Two important reminders:

1. Book your hotel room at the JW Marriott for January 21st and 22nd. We cannot accommodate everyone. The government rate will vanish in to thin air December 31st.

2. Sign up for Sex::Tech updates on Twitter. Find us here. During the actual conference we may use Twitter as crowd control so don't be left out!

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.

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.