AIDS blogs at IAC2006

The blogosphere has finally arrived in the AIDS world and the number of blogs being set up in relation to the 2006 International AIDS Conference is mushrooming by the minute - great!

Note: I will update this post and give a short review of each of the blogs I come across, and will also add new blogs to my links list (on the right) for convenience. For what it is worth, the list of blogs below is presented in my personal order of preference/usefulness. If you have an AIDS-related blog that youwould like me to review, please let me know.

1. International Collaborative Blog

The first posting on this blog appeared on 1 August 2006 and it seems to be aimed primarily at covering the Human Rights Watch advocacy priorities and activities during the conference - or that could be just because someone from HRW is active early. It is linked through the HRW site.

What I like about this blog is that all posts (so far anyway) are original text and include personal views and opinions. They clearly have 'higher' goals for the blog too, and say at one point:

"In addition to the extensive coverage of the conference by mainstream media, we think it is important that the perspective of bloggers be heard, and the voice of civil society from around the world – both those who are participating at the conference, and those who are not in Toronto, emerge."

They don't yet make clear whether they are inviting contributors or whether 'civil society' is expected to add their thoughts through the comments function only.

Good stuff. Watch this space.

2. TimetoDeliver.org

This is shaping up as the activist blog at the Toronto conference. The blog is organised really well and they accept postings from anyone. they describe themselves as follows:

"TimeToDeliver.org will provide highlights from conference sessions and related events, bring reports and materials from direct actions, rallies and community efforts, and talk back to coverage of the conference. We will expose misinformation and hypocrisy, promote open debate, and bring the real voices and images of people with HIV and allies at the conference through multimedia postings"

This site could get extremely busy during the next week or two and the 'Issue Beats' section will be a useful tool to navigate through what could be a lot of content. Some of the early content is focused on shifting the US AIDS policy, but a nothern focus will be difficult to maintain once folks get blogging on this essentially open system.

It's not really clear who is 'behind' this, so I guess everyone is. The site looks good too and will probably long outlive the IAC.