This past week, the Masters of Digital Media (MDM) program has been represented twice on Microsoft’s Channel 10 – a video blog site concentrating on the latest in technology news. MDM student McKane Lee performed two interviews with Channel 10 reporter Tina Wood on the subject of rendering. The first video, posted on April 9^th, is a three minute explanation of the rendering process using the 3D modeling package 3DSMax. The second video, posted April 11^th, focuses on rendering as well, but also on the short video developed by McKane and a team of MDM students during the autumn 2007 semester; the video – called Crossing – has been nominated for a Webby Award in the student video category.

These aren’t the first videos that Channel 10 has posted relating to the MDM program. Two other videos were posted on April 2^nd and April 4^th, respectively, dealing with Second Life and the type of blended reality events that the Centre for Digital Media is becoming known for; all of the events hosted by the Centre on the Great Northern Way Campus (GNWC) have both a first life and a ‘second life’ component. In the Channel 10 videos, Nadia Aly and Joanna Robinson describe some of the process involved in creating a blended reality event as well as details on how to get started in Second Life – one of the more popular virtual worlds available freely on the internet.

Finally, to get an idea what the MDM program is all about, a video with the MDM’s Executive Director, Dr. Gerri Sinclair, was posted on February 22^nd. Dr. Sinclair gives a great overview of the program, explaining some of the key founding principles that the Centre was built on, and describes the curriculum which was developed by the MDM administration in conjunction with industry advisors and faculty members.

All told, the video blogs focusing on the Centre and the MDM program on Channel 10 have garnered over twenty thousand hits. There definitely seems to be a lot of interest in the Centre and the MDM program!