The New Media Consortium (NMC) is an international 501(c)3 not-for-profit consortium of nearly 200 leading colleges, universities, museums, corporations, and other learning-focused organizations dedicated to the exploration and use of new media and new technologies. NMC member institutions are found in almost every state in the US, across Canada, and in Europe, Latin America, and Japan. Among the membership are an elite list of the most highly regarded colleges and universities in the world, as well as a growing list of innovative museums, research centers, foundations, and forward-thinking companies.

The consortium serves as a catalyst for the development of new applications of technology to support learning and creative expression, and sponsors programs and activities designed to stimulate innovation, encourage collaboration, and recognize excellence among its member institutions. Through its many projects, its comprehensive web site, and its series of international conferences, the NMC stimulates dialog and understanding through the exploration of promising ideas, technologies, and applications.

NMC’s mission is to advocate and stimulate the use of new learning and creative technologies in higher education; to demonstrate a true passion for learning and creative expression; to seek and build collaborations and partnerships that extend its work; and to understand and meet the needs of its members as it does so. As such, it will:

•	engage the organization in activities that influence the conversation and agenda within higher education;
•	involve the members in a range of substantive programs and activities;
•	increase the awareness and regard for the work of the NMC and its members; and
•	strengthen and grow the capacity of the NMC to be successful.

Four major initiatives organize the NMC’s work into clusters. Two of these support the NMC’s focus on stimulating innovation, and provide a framework for its explorations.

The Emerging Technologies Initiative focuses on expanding the boundaries of teaching, learning and creative expression by creatively applying new tools in new contexts. The Horizon Project, the centerpiece of this initiative, charts the landscape of emerging technologies and produces the NMC’s annual Horizon Report. The 21st Century Literacy Initiative, the NMC’s newest, is a multi-year effort to explore and expand the potential of new developments in visual and digital literacy. In 2005, this initiative replaced the longstanding and very successful Learning Object Initiative.

The remaining two initiatives provide the foundation for the work of the consortium. The Dynamic Knowledge Initiative provides a mechanism for the NMC to generate, distribute, and share knowledge on topics of interest to the organization. The NMC’s Series of Online Conferences, through which the NMC is building a web of knowledge and online resources, is the most visible expression of this initiative. The New Collaborations Initiative encourages collaboration, knowledge exchange, and joint projects between colleges and universities, museums, libraries, research centers, and other learning-focused organizations. The Pachyderm Project is its centerpiece and experimental test bed.

As a central part of its mission, the NMC encourages and supports innovation in the pursuit of effective collaboration, especially in the activities and projects in which it plays a leadership role.

The NMC brings all this work together each year in its flagship event, the annual NMC Summer Conference, which attracts nearly 500 participants each June. Regional and online conferences throughout the year bring members together for topically focused dialogs. These forums are designed to explore not only emerging ideas and technologies, but also the tough pedagogical, legal, and technological issues that often accompany them. An ongoing series of smaller projects and events target issues and technologies still on the horizon for in-depth exploration.

For more information on these and other NMC activities, see the NMC Events pages. To browse selected content from the 2004 Summer Conference, click here. For a sampling of presentations from the NMC's Online Conferences, see the NMC Breeze Collection.

Recognizing and highlighting the achievements of members is an ongoing priority of the NMC. The NMC has four ongoing recognition programs.

NMC Center of Excellence Award
The NMC Center of Excellence Award is given to a current NMC member institution that has had an exceptional record of success in the integration of technology with teaching, learning, or creative expression.

NMC Fellows Program
The NMC recognizes the lifelong contributions of key individuals to the advancement of teaching, learning, and creative expression with the NMC Fellow designation.

Five Minutes of Fame
Five Minutes of Fame is a trademarked event allowing academic members to show off their latest new media projects. Many Five Minutes of Fame presentations have been packaged as brief online reports. These reports are accessible through the Online Gallery or Click Here to watch the 2004 Five Minutes of Fame presentation in its entirety.

In the NMC Spotlight
In the NMC Spotlight highlights the activities of an NMC school or group of schools in a brief online report. These reports are accessible through the Online Gallery.

A basic NMC membership is $2,000 per year. A "Plus" membership is $2500 per year. NMC members receive a number of exclusive benefits that make this cost easy to justify.

The benefits include deeply discounted registration fees for the NMC's annual Summer Conference -- members save $400 per person on registration. NMC regional conferences and the NMC Series of Online Conferences are also deeply discounted for members. Each of these events is designed to especially highlight member activities, innovations, and best practices, and proposals from NMC members for presentations and papers receive preferential consideration. In addition, NMC members receive discounted rates for the programs and activities of NMC's partners and affiliate organizations.

Other benefits include preferential access to NMC’s publications and monographs, member-only access to its discussion forums, including access to detailed technical advice on almost any topic from nearly 1,200 experts via the Technology Forum (TAB), updates on NMC grant offerings and other opportunities via the NMC News list, and a variety of specialized project lists.

NMC projects are designed to provide members opportunities to participate and gain leadership skills. In 2004, more than $125,000 in grant or other funds flowed to members participating in NMC projects. In 2005, NMC members will be the first institutions to have access to Pachyderm 2.0, an open-source multimedia authoring platform designed by a team of NMC institutions especially for faculty.

Members can also take advantage of the NMC’s Custom Survey Service, access to the technical expertise of our corporate partners, and exclusive software pricing and special offers from corporate partners. A members-only website & online membership database facilitates member-to-member linkages.

For a detailed listing of member benefits, and a side-by-side comparison of the various membership levels, see the benefits chart.

The NMC offers NMC members and corporate partners a range of custom fee-based services. These include custom meeting planning and facilitation services targeted to the higher education market; conducting specialized focus groups; white paper conceptualization and development; and the design and management of proof-of-concept and other demonstration projects. For additional information, call the NMC offices at 512.445.4200.