Pachyderm Accounts Available Online

Pachyderm Services is pleased to announce that subscribers may now activate new Pachyderm accounts online. Individual accounts are available on a yearly subscription basis and include unlimited authoring. Media and presentations may be stored on the Pachyderm server for any active account. Completed presentations may also be downloaded from the Pachyderm server.

Accounts are priced at a yearly subscription rate of $99 (Basic Account) or $149 (Premium Account; includes access to the Help Desk). To activate a new Pachyderm authoring account, or for more information, visit the Pachyderm Services Sign-up Page.

NMC Announces Launch of Pachyderm Services

Today the New Media Consortium (NMC) announced the launch of Pachyderm Services, a new suite of services which will provide colleges, universities, museums, schools and other learning-focused organizations access to a set of tools supporting low-cost web-based multimedia authoring.

The program offers two categories of services — hosted accounts for teachers, students, museum professionals and other individuals; and hosted server solutions for institutions and departments. The new unit will provide a variety of ways for individuals and institutions to have hosted Pachyderm authoring accounts on a yearly subscription basis designed to match any budget.

“Pachyderm combines interactive multimedia, digital storytelling, and clean, simple design in a way that lets authors focus on the content they want to share,” notes Rachel Smith, Vice President of NMC Services and Pachyderm Project Director. “Photos and video can be recorded with a basic digital camera, edited with free or low-cost tools, and placed into Pachyderm quickly and easily. This really is a tool for people who don’t have access to expensive equipment and software.”

Designed for people with little multimedia experience, Pachyderm is accessed through a web browser and is as easy to use as filling out a web form. Authors upload their own media (images, audio clips, and short video segments) and place them into pre-designed templates, which can play video and audio, link to other templates, zoom in on images, and more. Once the templates have been completed and linked together, the presentation is published and can then be downloaded and placed on the author’s website or on a CD or DVD ROM. Authors may also leave their presentations on the Pachyderm server and link directly to them there. The result is an attractive, interactive Flash-based multimedia presentation.

“Pachyderm is perfect for students, from grade school through college,” according to Kris Wetterlund of Sandbox Studios. “We have seen museums create kid-friendly pieces that blend art from their collections with classroom concepts in history, literature, mathematics, and science. Putting Pachyderm in the hands of the kids themselves is going to be a powerful way to let them express themselves and really work with the content they are learning,” she adds. “I can’t wait to see what they do with it.”

Edutopia, the online magazine of the George Lucas Educational Foundation, described Pachyderm as “multimedia authoring for peanuts” (“The Elephant in the (Class)room: Pachyderm’s Multimedia Tool,” Edutopia, August 29, 2007). Basic subscription accounts are available for $99 per year; premium accounts, which include unlimited Help Desk access, are $149 per year. No special software is required to author in Pachyderm—the service runs entirely in a web browser.

Dr. Larry Johnson, NMC’s CEO, notes, “The aim of Pachyderm Services is to provide options to schools and museums, especially the smaller locations that simply don’t have the technical staff to support an installation of their own. With Pachyderm Services, museums and schools don’t need to install a thing to be able to support multimedia authoring for the web—no servers to maintain, no need to train technical support staff—it’s all done for you.” Johnson also notes that organizations requiring large numbers of accounts can save money by leasing a dedicated Pachyderm server for as little as $5 per account per year.

Hosted Pachyderm accounts and server solutions are available immediately. For further information or to request an account, please visit pachyderm.nmc.org.

Pachyderm Council Plans 2.1 Release

The Pachyderm Council worked this week to finalize the specification for work to be done on the 2.1.0 release of Pachyderm.

The specification will be released on PachyForge in early November, and a call for developers will go out to the Pachyderm community shortly after that.

The Council is currently working on the timeline for the release of 2.1.0, which will include new templates, code fixes, and an upgrade path for 2.0 installations.

Learn more about the Pachyderm 2.1 specification….

New Community Website in Development

A new website designed to serve the Pachyderm community–both users and developers–is in development.

A joint effort of Pachyderm Council Chair, Scott Sayre, and lead developer Joshua Archer, PachyForge will host discussion forums, list current Pachyderm installations, and serve as a focal point to bring the community together. PachyForge is scheduled for official release in November 2007, but is available now for those who want a preview at http://www.pachyforge.org/

Pachyderm Conference Opens Today in Dallas, Texas

The second annual Pachyderm Users Conference opened today in Dallas, Texas.

The focus of the Pachyderm Conference is to bring together authors, developers, and others in an ongoing conversation about how to communicate effectively with digital media.

This year’s conference features keynotes by Scott Sayre and Susan Chun, special luncheon sessions by Holly Witchey and Kris Wetterlund, and a slate of breakout sessions on topics from best practices to current Pachyderm work at a variety of organizations.

Five Institutions Receive Pachyderm Servers Under Marcus Foundation Grant

Under the auspices of the Edward and Betty Marcus Digital Education Project for Texas Art Museums, five Texas institutions received Pachyderm servers this week.

Recipients include the University of Texas at Austin and the Blanton Museum of Art; Texas Tech University; the University of North Texas; the University of Houston; and the University of Texas at Arlington. The servers will be used to create digital storytelling projects at the universities and their associated museums.

Pachyderm to Visit MW2007

Pachyderm will return to the exhibit hall at Museums and the Web this year! Like last year, attendees will get to see the product close-up and find out how they can use this authoring and publishing tool in their museums.