The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation ( http://www.macfound.org/ ) has announced a public competition that will award a total of $2 million in funding to emerging leaders, communicators, and innovators shaping the field of digital media and learning. The competition is part of the foundation’s $50 million Digital Media and Learning initiative (http://www.digitallearning.macfound.org/), which aims to help determine how digital technologies are changing the way young people learn, play, socialize, and participate in civic life. The deadline for applications is October 15, 2007.

Awards will be given in two categories: 1) Innovation Awards of $250,000 or $100,000 each will support learning entrepreneurs and builders of new digital environments for informal learning; and 2) Knowledge Networking Awards of up to $75,000 will support communicators in connecting, mobilizing, circulating, or translating new ideas around digital media and learning. As part of their prize, awardees will receive special consultation support on everything from technology development to management training. Winners will be invited to showcase their work at a conference that will include venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, educators, and policy makers seeking the best ideas about digital learning.

The open competition will be administered by HASTAC, the Humanities, Arts, Science, and Technology Advanced Collaboratory ( http://www.hastac.org/ ), a consortium of humanists, artists, scientists, social scientists, and engineers committed to new forms of collaboration for thinking, teaching, and research across communities and disciplines fostered by creative uses of technology. Detailed information on the competition is available online at the program’s Web site.