Marseille 2007
Marseille 2007
Abstract book
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Abstract #205  -  AIDS Awareness and Prevention through Building Digital Archives
Session:
  20.4: New tools, new toys (Parallel) on Monday @ 14.00-16.00 in PR Chaired by John De Wit, Seth Kalichman
Authors:
  Presenting Author:   Dr Eun Park - McGill University , Canada
 
  Additional Authors:   
Aim:
The International Visual Methodology for Social Change Project has been worked for the AIDS presentation and awareness programs via photovoice techniques in South Africa in collaboration with the Canadian research team. The researchs focus was to teach a photo-taking method to children and youth in the rural areas around Durban in South Africa and let them to take pictures of their lives and activities in schools and around the community. Then, children talk about the taken photos to describe what they see on the photos and share their thinking and feelings to be aware of issues relevant to AIDS and HIV. This method was further adopted for reading, close reading, community involvement, small group interpretive approach, public exhibits, etc. (Stuart, 2004; Mitchell, 2004). In this way, more than 5000 photos have been accumulated over the last five years. The photos contain a lot of meaning and value to describe the communities vivid story and lives in the context of HIV and AIDS but also children and the community need to keep their photos continuously. To effectively manage, describe, preserve, and provide access to those photos, a digital archive is built in 2006. The purposes of building a digital archive are twofold: 1) to improve AIDS awareness and prevention through continuous access to photos; and 2) to develop a digital network for social scientists, practitioners and working groups through a digital archive.
 
Method / Issue:
Photos that have been drawn from the previous photovoice studies are built into a digital archive. The entire project is composed of the following processes: photo selection, scanning protocol, metadata protocol, scanning and description completion, web site construction and maintenance, and digital network building.
 
Results / Comments:
A sample photo set is selected by each photos unique features, e.g. size, color, age, gender, figure, location, geography, etc. The sample set is scanned to produce a scanning protocol and added with metadata to describe photos. Coding in metadata for photos is significant as an entry point to describe, locate, and understand what to be described by children and youth themselves. This stage makes it possible to engage children and youth in the project, play an active role in an interpretative process, and enable to deepen an understanding of issues related to HIV and AIDS. This will be further developed within various interpretive frameworks. Building a digital network construction is still in progress.
 
Discussion:
An interpretative process by metadata coding is a meaningful task for children, practitioners in the community and social scientists in research. Through the interpretation process, the completion of the archive can make contribution to help engage children and youth by participating in the see-themselves and realize better the importance of AIDS prevention. Additionally, building a digital archive and network of social scientists on the AIDS-related social and educational issues will provide a channel for social scientists and practitioners to increase communication, share their knowledge and experience through a virtual communication channel.
 
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