The becomes the during 2009

 

During 2009, the DVD Association will transition to its new identity, the IDMA (International Digital Media Alliance).

 

Why a name change? Well, actually, it's not the first time we've done this - our original name, CDIA (Compact Disc Interactive Association) was a fine name for the early days of interactive optical discs, but after a time, wasn't really representative of the scope of the task. In the early 1990s, we briefly adopted the IDMA acronym, (Interactive Digital Media Association), but as DVD begin to become a reality, we took on the DVD Association name and DVDA acronym, as befit our mission to evangelize the then-new DVD technology.  We've been the DVDA since 1992, but time has progressed, and things have changed. 

 

In the early 2000's, it became clear that DVD wasn't going to be the only optical disc format around (who could have forseeen this? We did, many years ago!) Rather than become the HD DVD Association, or the Blu-ray Association, we found that our mission had a longer timeline, and a larger scope than we initially envisioned.

 

For this reason, we have chosen to go back to our IDMA acronym, but this time as the International Digital Media Alliance, as befits the larger mission of promoting excellence and best practices in digital and interactive media. there are a few other IDMAs out there, but only the IDMA/DVDA represents the interests of digital media publishers and creators.

 

It's going to take a little while to get IDMA established (again), but it's an important change for our members, and constituents.

 

In 2010, we will celebrate our 20h anniversary as an organization, and regardless of which name we have had on the masthead,  CDIA, ICDIA, DVDA, or IDMA, we have always stood for the promotion of new technologies that facilitate audio and video publishing in the digital era.  We'd love to have you become a member or sponsor, and help us in our efforts.

 

Bruce Nazarian,  President, IDMA/DVDA.