The UC New Media directory was started in 2006-2007 to help confederate the substantial numbers of faculty, graduate students, research staff, and projects in “new media studies” that have gathered in the University of California system since circa 1994. The unique intellectual topography of UC–where multiple campuses contribute as thick nodes in a distributed network (as opposed to the hub-to-periphery pattern of other state university systems)–has been congenial to the growth of new media studies, in which “network” is both a theme and an environment.

The UC New Media directory was started by the UC Transliteracies Project (2005-2010), a UC Multicampus Research Group unit studying the problem of “online reading.” The project, which was homed at UC Santa Barbara, scouted for collaborators among faculty, students, and staff at other UC campuses. The number of such potential collaborators it found always exceeded expectations, leading to the start up of the UC New Media directory as a shared pool of expertise and resources.