Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2009. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
AEGiS News - January 23, 2009
AEGiS has long been one of the most well-known free-access HIV/AIDS web sites on the planet, logging more than 18 million visits in recent years. Its news database contains full-text news stories from local, regional, and International papers and wire services covering the pandemic from its very beginning. Many of the articles were transcribed into electronic format long before news organizations began storing their materials electronically.
AEGiS HIV/AIDS conference database is still under construction, but it already contains abstracts from a some of the earliest conferences, many of which are the sole electronic version available in the world. AEGiS has additional conference data to incorporate into the database, work that will hopefully continue in the coming months.
In short, AEGiS presents an intersection of HIV/AIDS data and history available no where else. It has long been a source of reliable information for those on the front-lines of the pandemic and at present time, it is in danger of having to close down.
The recession is taking its toll on many nonprofits, and although AEGiS tends to have a smaller annual budget than most nonprofits, we have been effected as well. Individual donations are at a all time low, and grant funding has all but disappeared. Our two remaining grants will expire in a few months. Our cash reserve will be expended about the same time.
We need to find at least $300,000 in annual funding to survive or find a permanent home for the database. The pandemic is far from over, so our preference of course is to find funding, so that we can continue to grow the database, a database rich in history and current clinical information.
Users should know that $300,000 is survival funding. AEGiS was build by a single individual, working mostly alone the first decade. In late 1999 AEGiS finally received adequate funding to expand the staff to two content workers. Over the next three years we expanded the staff to five content workers. Five content workers doing the work of 10. Last year we lost one of our staff. We were unable to replace her. On January 31st our first layoff will occur, reducing the staff to three content workers.
On average, 34,000+ people access the AEGiS database each day. If those 34,000 people each donated $10, our funding problem would be resolved for the year.
Why and How AEGiS Came to Be
In response to a lack of information outside large metropolitan areas, Orange County resident Jamie Jemison started an electronic bulletin board system (BBS) he named the AIDS Education General Information Service. The computer revolution, unfortunately, was in its infancy, and he closed the service 18 months later due to insufficient users.
In 1989, Sister Mary Elizabeth, an Episcopalian sister was sent to Stover, Missouri, to herd cows. The area was isolated, its residents insular, and she found people living there with AIDS, struggling on their own with the disease with little or no state-of-the-art information to help them. Television reception was very poor and newspapers scarce, but Sister Mary Elizabeth noticed that many of the area's residents had acquired personal computers. When she returned to California later that year, she began talking with friends about starting a free national AIDS information bulletin board.
A few months later she launched the HIV/AIDS Info BBS. By this time, there were numerous electronic bulletin boards operating around the world. An electronic network had formed called FIDO. FIDOnet connected more than 60,000 BBSs worldwide by 1990, and Sister Mary Elizabeth wasted no time connecting to it. In 1991 Jamie Jemison gave her the AEGIS acronym, and in 1992, it became the AIDS Education Global Information System.
During this time period Sister Mary was also contracted by the Clinton administration to update its new electronic bulletin board. From 1992 until it was shutdown in 1995, she maintained the NAPO BBS daily from her home in San Juan Capistrano.
In 1996, the National Library of Medicine and Roxane Laboratories (now Boehringer Ingelheim) approached Sister Mary Elizabeth, offering to fund the transition of the BBS and its database to the world wide web.
AEGiS Survival
AEGiS has survived on educational grants from a variety of sources, a contract with the National Library of Medicine and private donations. In many ways, the challenges we face today are unprecedented. AEGiS is not just another source of HIV/AIDS information, it is an institution. It is a repository of information about the pandemic that cannot be duplicated and must be kept alive.
As a regular user of the AEGiS web site, we urge you to consider donating $1.00, $5.00, $10.00, whatever you can afford to give.
If you have a credit card, you can donate by clicking here. While you're at it, please comment on how you use AEGiS, and what you would like to see most. Feedback is important to us, as well as your financial support.
If you're new to the AEGiS web site, the following articles will tell you a bit about our history, a history that extends more than two decades.
Holy Megabytes: In Her Crusade Against AIDS, A Social Justice Nun Goes Online to the World
AEGIS Network: Linking the World
News-Wire Nunsense--AEGIS vs. Reuters: A website fight
Treading the Boards: AEGIS BBS - Fowler Bids Farewell With a look at His All-Time Favorites
Nun Wins Fight to Liberate Treasure-trove of AIDS Data
UPI announces cooperation with AEGiS
AEGIS Nominated to UNESCO "Memory of the World"
Missing Conferences Followup: Four Meetings' History Found
Reaching out to the isolated AIDS affected
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Copyright © 2009 - Reproduced courtesy of copyright owner - listed on source line.
AEGiS is a 501(c)3, not-for-profit, tax-exempt, educational corporation. AEGiS is made possible through unrestricted funding from Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, Elton John AIDS Foundation, the National Library of Medicine, Pacific Life Foundation and donations from users like you.
Always watch for outdated information. This article first appeared in 2009. This material is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between you and your doctor.
AEGiS presents published material, reprinted with permission and neither endorses nor opposes any material. All information contained on this website, including information relating to health conditions, products, and treatments, is for informational purposes only. It is often presented in summary or aggregate form. It is not meant to be a substitute for the advice provided by your own physician or other medical professionals. Always discuss treatment options with a doctor who specializes in treating HIV.
Copyright ©1980 – 2009. AEGiS. All materials appearing on AEGiS are protected by copyright as a collective work or compilation under U.S. copyright and other laws and are the property of AEGiS, or the party credited as the provider of the content. .