Dear all, In commemoration of World AIDS Day, Rising Voices (http://rising.globalvoicesonline.org) will be hosting a live chat on Wednesday, December 3rd at the 3 p.m. Nairobi time: 7am (New York, EST) 10am (Buenos Aires) 12pm (London, GMT) 2 pm (Cape Town, Beirut) 3pm (Nairobi, Moscow) 5.30pm (New Delhi) 8pm (Beijing, Manila) 9pm (Tokyo) 11pm (Sydney) To participate please go to: http://www.worknets.org/chat. Login instructions: Login using your name and then select the room you want to join by clicking enter. Once in the room, select a font color on the left side of the screen, then join the chat. The chat will be facilitated by Serina Kalande and Daudi Were and the discussion will build on a similar chat that Serina and Daudi organized back in April of this year which asked the following question: "how can citizen media be used to supplement and improve the mainstream media's coverage of the AIDS epidemic? This chat will start out focusing on two Rising Voices grantee projects, REPACTED in Nakuru, Kenya and AIDS Rights Congo based in Brazzaville. We will learn how both organizations have implemented blogging and video outreach programs to spread awareness about their initiatives in AIDS prevention and advocating for the rights of HIV-positive individuals. http://rising.globalvoicesonline.org/projects/repacted-kenya and http://rising.globalvoicesonline.org/projects/aids-rights-congo/ Other discussion topics include: What are the factors to weigh when HIV-positive bloggers go public about their status? How can blogging support networks form online? What about online forums? What are other new media tools, such as mapping mashups, that can be used effectively? If there are other topics that you would like to discuss during the chat, please respond with your ideas. I hope that as many of you as possible can make it. As a primer to the conversation I encourage you all to take a look at a recent post written by Juliana Rincón on Global Voices about AIDS awareness through video. Especially fascinating is a video podcast produced by QAFBeijing, which interviews South African grand justice Edwin Cameron, the country's only government official who has gone public about his HIV status. http://globalvoicesonline.org/2008/11/27/aids-awareness-through-video/ And here is a video of a fascinating conversation among the members of the Breaking the Silence in Kwa Mashu project about the fear of discussing HIV status in their community. http://rising.globalvoicesonline.org/projects/breaking-the-silence-in-kwa-ma... All the best, David Sasaki Rising Voices osopecoso@gmail.com