In July, the Institute for the Future of the Book announced plans to build MediaCommons, a new kind of scholarly press for the digital age with a focus on media studies -- a social network in which academics, students, and other interested members of the public can forge critical pathways through a mediated world and publish dynamically in a mediated environment. Today we are pleased to announce the first concrete step toward the establishment of this network: making MediaCommons, a planning site through which founding editors Kathleen Fitzpatrick (Pomona College) and Avi Santo (Old Dominion U.) will begin to develop the project in public.

making MediaCommons currently consists of three components:

1) A weblog where founding editors Avi Santo (Old Dominion U.) and Kathleen Fitzpatrick (Pomona College) 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. Sort of a "YouTube" for scholars and a critically engaged public, 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. On the site, you'll currently find videos curated by Henry Jenkins of MIT, Jason Mittell of Middlebury College and Horace Newcomb of the University of Georgia (and the founder of the Peabody Awards). 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. We heartily encourage the Kairos community to get involved in these discussions. In many ways, this is a community and publishing model that we want to emulate.