About The New Web Site

Welcome to a new approach for the NMC web site! You may notice a drastic difference from the site that represented NMC from 2003-2007, as we embrace the 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.

In this process of changeover in April 2007, we assure you that our plan is to NOT break a single established URL or bookmark, and many of the nmc web addresses will automatically connect you to what is now the archive of the site at http://archive.nmc.org.

This new site take a different approach to content; rather than a site of static web pages organized into files and directories, content here is managed in templates, and we are able to recombine it into a variety of formats. Until we can finish a more formal users guide, this document is meant to get you oriented and started in the new NMC or what we have called "NMC 2.0".

Please provide us your ideas or thoughts on the new site, either via the web contact form or via the discussion forum set up to share feedback

Getting Started: Accounts

The majority of the NMC site is public and open, and where not explicilty state, 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, and if you have ever had access to the members area of the old site, or had participated in a recent event, it is likely that an account already exists for you.

A login link to the stei is available in the top left of every page, or go directly to http://www.nmc.org/20/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. If that fails, you can simply create a new account -- this is what is very different from the old site when NMC staff had to create accounts for members, on the new site, this is self service via http://www.nmc.org/20/user/register. Please note that all account requests are verified for allifiliation with NMC member organizations, so please use an email address that is associated with your institution.

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.