7MUNCIE, Ind. — Sixteen universities and colleges are joining forces to create The International Digital Media and Arts Association and have named Scott Olson, Ball State University's dean of the College of Communication, Information, and Media, as its first chairman and chief executive officer.

Participants include: Ball State University; Carnegie Mellon; Case Western Reserve University; Columbia College Chicago; Florida State University; State University of New York; Stetson University; Union University; University of California, Los Angeles; University of Central Florida; University of Denver; University of Florida; University of Georgia; University of Montana; University of Warwick in England; and University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Olson said the association got off to a quick start last fall, after a preliminary meeting of academics at the Muncie campus who were interested in creating standards for evolving digital media curriculum. "The digital genie is out of the bottle," said Olson. "This is crossing all disciplines."

The new association has several goals and hopes to provide research, organizational and teaching assistance—particularly in setting national norms and standards for the tenure process. The group will also work to establish best practices, a certification program and targeted workshops for students and faculty. It will represent educators, practitioners, scholars and organizations with interests in digital media.

Members of the association's executive committee include:

• Jeff Rutenbeck, director of the University of Denver's Digital Media Studies Program, as president. The award-winning program launched at Denver in 1996 combines design, technical and critical approaches to the study and production of digital media. Rutenbeck came to the university from Microsoft and has also served as a consultant for AOL-TimeWarner, NORAD and the National Association of Broadcasters.
• Michael Niederman, chairman of the Television Department at Columbia College Chicago, as treasurer. He helped design Columbia's Interactive Multimedia program and assisted in incorporating computers into the department curriculum since the late 1980s. He has produced a number of documentary films and also writes for the National Realtors Association, BP Amoco, Andersen Consulting and Allstate.
• Scott Shamp, director of the New Media Institute at the University of Georgia and associate professor in the Telecommunications Department, as secretary. Shamp is helping students at the interdisciplinary institute carve out careers in the rapidly evolving field of new media and has provided consulting services to UPS and Coca-Cola.
• Olson, dean of the College of Communication, Information, and Media, Ball State, as chairman and chief executive officer. Olson has published numerous journal articles on global media, authored 20 books on media theory, and cowrote the university's iCommunication initiative, funded with a $20 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc.

Rutenbeck said the new group would help bring digital media into focus on campuses across the country, as well as provide a solid base for professionals. "The association is really being formed out of a growing sense of an unmet need in the academic and professional communities," he said. "No one has put digital media at the center."

The group's first annual meeting will be in March 2004. For more information online, check www.idmaa.org.

(NOTE TO EDITORS: For more information on this story, contact Kyle Niederpruem at (317) 977-2205, ext. 25 or kyle@hirons.com.)