As 2010 approaches and I look back at 2009, I want to first share some of my new media lessons learned from HIV.gov.

The most important thing that I learned this year is that we still have so much more to learn! The good news is that as the AIDS community learns and uses more new media tools we are often extending the reach of our HIV/AIDS programs.

At HIV.gov, we've learned new media is about:

1. Extending our public health programs, through an integrated communications strategy.
2. Bringing up-to-date and accurate information to support health decision making where people are already spending time, and listening to what our audiences.
3. Repurposing content through free or low-cost open-source tools, often requiring minimal technical knowledge.
4. Knowing when not to use new media and revisiting our websites.
5. Understanding we need to learn more about the power of mobile.
6. Integrating new media into discussions on health information technology and health care reform.
7. Building partnerships.
8. Learning from our colleagues.
9. Having a two-way conversation and supporting peer-generated content.
10. Evaluating what we do and sharing our lessons learned with each other.

It's an exciting time for new media and public health, and we look forward to continuing this dialogue in the year ahead. At HIV.gov we are committed to learning from our colleagues and using new media tools to engage the public and build a “transparent, participatory, and collaborative” government through forums such as President Obama's Open Government Initiative.

Through this Initiative public health and other data are available in new ways to help us better serve the American public. In January, watch out for our blog post on this very important issue.

Interested in learning more about the Open Government Initiative?

Check out the Open Government blog.