About the NMC Web Site

The current NMC web site is a second generation of the previous 2003-2007 one, as we embrace web 2.0 concepts of user-generated content, folksonomy, and social presence. The site is being run in the open source content management system drupal and was developed over a period starting back in the summer of 2006 with member input. We appreciate the technical help of the Longsight Group in helping us with the development of the back end of the site and the complex series of templates and modules that make it work.

Please provide us your ideas or thoughts on the new site, either via the web contact form.

Getting Started: Accounts

The majority of the NMC site is public and open, and where not explicilty stated, is licensed under Creative Commons. However, we do provide a number of tools, services, and resources that are available to those affiliated with NMC Member organizations. In the migration to this site, we have transferred our NMC members database.

Once you have filled out the profile information for an account on our site, you will not have to enter yourcontact details when you register for an NMC event-- because we already know that information!

A login link to the site is available in the top left of every page, or go directly to http://www.nmc.org/user. If you think you have an account with us, first try to request a password sent to you by entering the email address likely associated with your membership. Please note that all member account requests are verified for allifiliation with NMC member organizations, so please use an email address that is associated with your institution. People not affiliated with an NMC member organization can create a basic account for use in registering for our conferences and events.

When you create an account, you can choose any available user name-- this is how you will be listed anywhere on the site, so this can be as simple and recognizable as your full name (spaces are allowed).

It may take 24-36 hours (often less) for our staff to authorize your account. Once this is done, return to the site to log in.

The first thing you may want to do is customize your profile -- from the left side navigation, look for the My Accont link under the heading with your user name. There are four sections of content you may use to build out yor NMC profile. As an example, see Tom Hapgood's profile .

In the future, the "biography" content will be automatically used if you submit presentation proposal for a conference. By providing an account name for instant messaging services (currently we alow AIM and Skype), when logged on, other NMC members can start an instant chat with you via the links on the left side under "Who's Online".

Site Organization

The top blue buttons provide primary access to the main NMC web site areas, and each one in turn can draw from content anywhere else on this site. One of the new themes is our organization of information around the NMC Initiatives -- each one provides a brief descripiton, a set of examples of how the NMC addresses it via "4 Cs" : Convene, Catalyze, build Community, and Contribute. Below this will be a reverse chronological listing of NMC web content that is associated with the initiative.

In addition to some categorization, we have deployed a tagging scheme, where all content can be free tagged with descriptive words, which fuel the NMC tag cloud on the front page. As logged in users, you to can tag any content (via the "Tag it!" tab when viewing content). User tags sere dual purposes- they provide an NMC wide folksonomy but you can also use it to create your individual organizational scheme for NMC content -- once you have added at least 7 tags to the site, your profile will display its own tag cloud on the right sidebar. And... as more individuals add tags to the NMC site, thir organization will develops its own aggregate tag cloud.

Another organizing tool is you can mark NMC content as "favorites" - items you may wish to return to often. Your ten top favorites will be available on the left sidebar of all NMC web pages, making it easier for you to return to content quickly.

Types of Content

Another new aspect of this site is that logged in NMC members can, and are encouraged to, add content to our site. As a quick introdcution, on the new web site you will find:

• Member Project Spotlights - Any logged in user can add a project to the spotlight projects that are randonly displayed on the front page; unlike the old NMC gallery which only our staff could add, we invite all members to share a new media project -- see for example the Yale Galapagos Project .
• NMC Blogs - All logged in site users can use a basic blog tools to write a short summary of an interesting technology, event, or just an idea to share. Of course, many people already have a place to blog, but here is one more if you have something to share with other members.
• Member Organization Directory - List of NMC organizations is available in several different list formats, alphabetical, by organization type, or organizations can be found by search. Each link provides a profile of the organization, and this information can be edited and updated by the local NMC Director of that organization. In additoon, our data now includes geolocation data, which we use to dynamically generate an Organization Google Map -- if the location is wrong, an NMC Director can update the latitute/longitude!
• NMC Member News - All NMC Directors can post announcements, project updates, awards etc they wish to share to a collection of new items from members -- we then pull together content form this and other sources on the site for a main NMC News collection.
• NMC Feed aggregator - If your organization produces an update via RSS on its new media activities or has a podcast feed, your NMC Director can add it to our NMC News Aggregators
• Discussion Forums -We have heard many times a desire to move some discussions from the email listserv to a web discussion area - we have set up some topical areas to try this out. Only logged in NMC members can post to the discussion forums, but the archives are publicly available.

Members Only Content

As a benefit to members, we have a number of areas that are only available to people logged into our site, collected in our Members Only area .

• Member Directory - search for any NMC member by keyword, organization, or role.
• Member resources such as pricing from our NMC Corporate partners and instructions for using the NMC listservs
• NMC Sharables - anyone logged into the site can write a short description of a special web project, resource, software they wish to share with other members -- this content is only available to logged in NMC users.
• Job Board - By frequent request, we have a place where NMC members can add openings for New Media positions to our database - the job board lists the ones posted in the last 90 days, but we also maintain a list of all previously listed jobs.