We're in!

Flickr is an online photo-sharing community that allows anyone to organize and share their digital photos with friends, family, colleagues, and the rest of the world. The HIV community has embraced Flickr as a way to share photos from events, promote photo contests, and yes, Face AIDS. AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts' Flickr photostream has over 3,000 photos. Many organizations, like the Global Health Council and YouthForce have used Flickr for photo contests. We spoke to Michael Barron, Director of AIDS LifeCycle , about how Flickr has helped to promote their annual AIDS ride by asking participants to post photos from the event. He told us, "Our dedicated cyclists and volunteer 'roadies' share photos with the donors who rallied to send them on the road to raise awareness about HIV and AIDS all over California and beyond."

There are also a lot of exciting things happening outside the HIV community that we can learn from. For example, the Library of Congress (LOC) has partnered with Flickr to create The Commons , an archive of public photos from libraries and institutions around the world that the Flickr community is helping to describe and tag. Now there are 29 additional institutions that are participating in the Commons initiative. According to Michelle Springer from the LOC, "there are over 1000 records in our Prints and Photographs Catalog that have been enhanced by data provided by Flickr community members."

If you're new to Flickr, we've put together some steps to help you get started.

Create a Flickr account

1. Create a Flickr account . Once you've created an account, you can edit your profile, your screen name (you can use your own name or create an alias), and control your privacy settings.You can also create your own permanent Flickr address, for example, our Flickr address is http://www.flickr.com/photos/aidsgov (but choose wisely, it can't be changed later!)
2. When you sign up, you have two options, a free account (that limits the size and number of photos you can upload or post) or a Pro account that has unlimited uploads, storage, photosets, and does not include ads on your page. You can use the free account to upload photos to the Facing AIDS group.

Upload Photos

There are several ways to upload photos to Flickr.

1. Flickr website : Log into your account, select "Upload photos and videos", and follow the steps to choose photos from your computer to upload. Don't forget to describe them with a title, description, and tags. Then click "save" and you're all set.
2. Email your photos : Flickr provides you with your own unique email address to add photos to your Flickr account.
3. From your mobile phone : To upload from your mobile phone, either visit m.flickr.com or use your phone to upload photos using your unique email address .

Join the http://www.flickr.com/groups/nhas/ and upload your NHAS photo

1. Once you've logged into your Flickr account, join the NHAS group page by clicking "join this group."
2. Then select "add photos" and follow the steps to select, tag, and describe your photo. We also encourage you to caption your photo with the message from your sign.

Have additional questions about Flickr?

National HIV/AIDS Strategy Flickr Community Guidelines

* This is a moderated group-we will review all photos before posting them.

* We expect that members will treat each other with respect.

* We will not post photos that contain vulgar language, personal attacks of any kind, or offensive images or terms that target specific individuals or groups.

* We will not post photos and will delete comments that are outside the scope of this group or that promote services or products