Interactivity
How to Empower Your Community
We all wish we acted in accordance with our beliefs. Similarly, we wished our community did as well. For example, we wish we had the self-esteem to demand safer sex or avoid drugs, but after floods of homophobia, racism and sexism and its corresponding lack of resources, safe space, community and loneliness this is not easy. How do we build self esteem? Community? Overcome isolation? How can the web be used for this? Interactive features on websites can build community, empowerment, identity and self-esteem.
Interactive features:
(All taught to and created by clients)
E-Lists:
ex. www.galde.org
Edutainment Games:
www.imanihouse.org/hivgame1.html (by Dawn)
Third Party Sites (by large teams)
Run a Prisoner of War Camp by the Red Cross that teaches about the The Geneva Conventions and human rights.
Vitamin B1 Games Before the 20th century, no one had heard of vitamins or knew some diseases were caused by vitamin deficiency. Play and learn!
Medical-Related Educational games. Learn about how our ears work, DNA, Pavlov's Dog, the Immune System, malaria and much more!
Body by Milk- technologically much easier as it is a series of Flash movies; cool site to encourage milk drinking
E-Stores:
www.cafepress.com/brgny
www.positiverelationships.org
Animated graphics:
www.BRGny.org
Photos & Video (by Dawn):
www.vownyc.org/12-1-04worldaidsday.htm
www.dawnreel.com/pridefest.html (By Junior Garcia, GALDE)
Online donations:
www.rainbowheights.org/donate.html
Online auctions:
www.marennparenn.org/bidform.html
Sign up forms:
www.crenyc.org/dtp-signupform.html
Chat Rooms
www.hombreslatinos.org/chat.html
(under development)
Message Boards
(coming soon)
Blogs
www.brgny.org/blog
not active, most active ones are password protected...
Flash Movies (by clients, Dawn put on web with Flash8 Video encoder)
Ignite Project
SMART Youth NYC
Virtual Worlds
These are online communities using the latest technology where you create your own online character and interact with other people and their characters. These 3 communities are educational where you can make choices and build things without getting STDs or going broke. No, this is not taught at CRE or any nonprofit schools in NYC! Learn the basics of photoshop and web design first then learn Flash and game design. Watch a presentation on the history of game design.
My Sexy City- website geared to young adult MSM (warning, explicit, not for kids; great technology). Made by consultants for GMHC.
Teen Second Life- A virtual world for teens only created by Global Kids, NYC. Designers of this virtual world have an interesting blog.
Ayiti: The Cost of Life- This game was created by Global Kids and GameLab and you assume the character of a poor family of 5 trying to live in Haiti. Harder than you think!