The AIDS PPSA – a Mobile Media Experiment in Philly (11/7/07)

Can little media make a big difference? That is what a lot of people in industry and academe are asking. Ring tones, games, YouTube – they entertain us. But can mobile media make us better?
On November 7th in Philadelphia, we are going to find out. We are going to challenge mobile production teams to use mobile technology to document the lives of people living with AIDS. Their video is going to be transmitted back to a remote producer somewhere else to assemble into a new type of persuasive mobile media message – a Personal Public Service Announcement. And the whole thing will happen in just one day!
This is built on the Positive Power Mobile Media Workshop (http://www.nmi.uga.edu/mmworkshop/) we hosted in Athens in December of 2005 – but this one is going to even bigger and more fun.
The whole point of our AIDS Personal Public Service Announcement project is to encourage people to be tested for HIV. Today over 250,000 Americans have HIV infection and don’t know it. They aren’t taking advantage of the treatments that can extend their lives almost indefinitely. Plus, the unknowing infected are more likely to infect others.
We are signing up people to help out. We need volunteers, ideas, and, ok, funding. You can learn more at (http://www.nmi.uga.edu/AIDS_PPSA/). And if you are interested in participating, contact me (Scott Shamp, sshamp@uga.edu) or Karla Berry (kberry@sc.edu).