Hello all, I'm writing to let you know of an important development in the MediaCommons project, the media studies "press" that grew out of the meeting that we held on the future of scholarly publishing this past April at USC. The Institute for the Future of the Book (with the support of the MacArthur Foundation and the Annenberg Center for Communication at USC) has just launched making MediaCommons, a planning site where the project will begin to develop in public: http://mediacommons.futureofthebook.org making MediaCommons currently consists of three simple parts: 1) A weblog where Kathleen Fitzpatrick and Avi Santo, as founding editors, will think out loud and work with the emerging community to develop the full MediaCommons vision. 2) A call for "papers" -- scholarly projects that engagingly explore some aspect of media history, theory, or culture through an adventurous use of the broad palette of technologies provided by the digital network. These will be the first round of texts published by MediaCommons at the time of its launch. 3) "In Media Res" -- an experimental feature where each week a different scholar will present a short contemporary media clip accompanied by a 100-150 word commentary, alongside which a community discussion can take place. In Media Res is presented as just one of the many possible critical activities that MediaCommons could eventually host. With this feature, we are also making a stand on "fair use", asserting the right to quote from the media for scholarly, critical and pedagogical purposes. Currently on the site, you'll find videos curated by: Henry Jenkins (MIT) "Holding Out For a Hiro", Jason Mittell (Middlebury College) "The Third Kind of Heat: 30 Rock & Overcooked Synergy", Horace Newcomb "Deadwood: Reiventing the World" (University of Georgia and the Director of the Peabody Awards), Jeffrey Jones "The ESPN Effect" (Old Dominion University) There's an open invitation for more curators. Out of this site, the real MediaCommons will eventually emerge. Launch will be in 2007, as early as Spring and as late as Fall, depending on community response. I encourage you all to get involved in the various discussions, to let us know your desires for MediaCommons, and to take an active role in the network's development. Thanks for helping us get to this point. Best, Avi ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Avi Santo, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Department of Communication and Theatre Arts Old Dominion University Norfolk, Virginia 23529 (757) 683-6971 [log in to unmask] _________________________________________________________________ Be one of the first to try Windows Live Mail. http://ideas.live.com/programpage.aspx?versionId=5d21c51a-b161-4314-9b0e-4911fb2b2e6d ---- Screen-L is sponsored by the Telecommunication & Film Dept., the University of Alabama: http://www.tcf.ua.edu