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ABOUT and FAQ Founded at Tennessee State University in 2006, the Digital Media Sandbox Consortium (DMSC) launched the annual DMSC Governor's Challenge Digital Media Tournament the following year. In 2007, version 1.0 of the tournament reached state-wide and was judged by Nashville NPR station. 2008 brought 2.0 and the tournament's competitors included student, staff and faculty representing seven schools and universities in Tennessee, Virginia and North Carolina. The 2009 tournament boasted the volunteer participation of over 100 professionals, faculty, staff and student judges representing six countries in a peer review model of engaged scholarship. Direct and indirect partner donations and support over the three year period have topped $200,000.00 and have funded administration, marketing and prizes for year 1’s state tournament, year 2’s regional tournament and year 3’s national tournament. 1.0 --Spring 2007 State: 5 categories, 1 state, 6 institutions, 25 assets, (12 judges) 2.0 --Spring 2008  Regional: 6 categories, 3 states, 7 inst., 28 assets, (110 judges, 6 countries) 3.0 --Spring 2009: National: 6 categories, 7 states, 15 inst., 52 assets (60 judges, 4 countries) 4.0 --Spring 2010: National: ? DMSC looks forward to an evolving series of challenges to sustain its innovative work. Our open-source guided system of knowledge sharing looks at the Sakai Foundation as model for our growth: What Sakai does with code and systems, DMSC seeks to do with content.  Often referred to as the "NCAA of engaged scholarship," the Governors Challenge blends the intercollegiate sports model of tiered regional competition with the peer review model of the Academy Awards. The peer review model provides reciprocal value to both judges and tournament contestants and can be implemented by participants in courses or independently for improving skills and media assets for portfolios. OUTCOMES: The Tournament showcases a unique "sandbox" model of collaborative competition while providing the DMSC leadership with opportunities for valuable statistical analysis on judge and participant data. Although manifested in production of digital media, the data reflects skill levels developed in diverse fields of study and skill sets culminated in a common media set which has become the standard by which business and academia communicate. This data has the potential to convey measurable trends in social entrepreneurial enterprise and engaged scholarship as related to individual and institutional access to academic technology. Additionally, participating universities are able to contribute to the assimilation of Web‐based digital media libraries as well as hone the digital media production skills of their faculty, staff and student bodies. These collections remain public libraries available online to the general public. Individuals take away media portfolios that demonstrate capacity. POTENTIAL: The DMSC Governors Challenge Digital Media Tournament has the potential to fuel the development of a system by which students of all ages can "quantify the quality" of their educations by participation in an In‐Kind Economy (IKE). The IKE model dovetails perfectly with the national rise in investment by educational institutions in the service learning or "engaged scholarship" method of participatory education. By providing a means by which students can track and quantify their service learning experiences, the DMSC hopes to provide valuable experience to participating students on many levels: recognizing the value of civic engagement, building personal confidence and self‐esteem, raising the bar of professional accomplishment during the embryonic educational stages of professional development and providing an integral bridge between educational institutions and the communities to which they belong. SPONSORSHIP: Sponsors of the DMSC Governors Challenge have included Tennessee State University (founding institution), University of Memphis, East Tennessee State University, University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill), University of Tennessee at Martin, University of Virginia, University of Georgia, Louisiana State University, Tennessee Campus Compact (TNCC), the FedEx Institute, Apple Inc., echomusic, Microsoft, Targus, Cisco and EMMA. For more information, please contact Bob Bradley, Director of Technology Integration and DMSC founder at Tennessee State University by email at rbradley@tnstate.edu or by telephone at 615-579‐7446. Home : About : Blog : Resources : Affiliates : DMSC Governor's Challenge Digital Media Sandbox Consortium DMSC Governors Challenge rbradley@tnstate.edu Tennessee State University, founding institution phone: 615.963.5915 Frequently Asked Questions: (1) What is the DMSC Governor's Challenge project? The DMSC Governors Challenge 4.0 uses the NCAA athletic model to redesign the higher-education landscape to better empower all participating stakeholders for the real world challenges and opportunities we now face as students, faculty, institutions, citizens. Think of a Works Progress Adminstration (WPA) 2.0: A user-generated knowledge economy. Alternative answers:  1. a collaborative contest of educational, feature and Service Learning digital media  2. a flash-mob eco-system of the mind, datafying a learner's path from literacy to fluency to mastery  3. a real-time, virtual game simulation exploring frontiers of augmented reality 4. a guided system of collaborative assessment, etc. 5. a rolling measured inquiry of innovation concepts such Chris Dede’s take on augmented reality. (Research Project: Google: “Chris Dede and “augmented reality.” Submit 1 page report to rbradley@tnstate.edu ) As innovation is a key part of the DMSC work, part of what we call the Governors Challenge is knowing we can never fully answer all of the many questions that arise from our natural intelligence : DMSC respects the mystery of the inner and outer universes and honors the space from which innovation springs forth. In simpler terms, one might think of the DMSC as an NCAA of scholarship, collaborating and competing with the higher education affiliates. In addition, the DMSC seeks collaborations between higher education institutions and their local k-12 school systems. This collaboration establishes multiple opportunities to improve student success by aligning learners from k-20, a life-long learning cohort to engage the challenges to come. (2) Why should people and institutions participate?  People and institutions should participate in order to find their own authentic rewards, using education as fulcrum for getting better in a measurable way at doing what they love  (and maybe even making money at it!). (3) Who can participate? The DMSC seeks to network 50 state-wide Governors Challenges under one national umbrella. The DMSC GovChal seeks individuals, institutions and schools who will recruit their networks (higher ed., k-12 schools) to DMSC membership. Our foundation model will assist in developing resources for this growing constituency. (4) How can people, institutions and schools participate? As the Governors Challenge places itself squarely in field of innovation, its guided system seeks to create, develop, share and assess new ways of making knowledge for improving quality of life in community.   People can participate by: 1. Registering on the website to enter and assess media. 2. Registering to support the DMSC through our e-equity project. 3. Forwarding sandbox network communication to their personal and professional networks. 4. Email rbradley@tnstate.edu with questions and suggestions. 5. Living a life of joy.