[Rachel] Oh my gosh, who doesn't know about DMAC, right? [Pennie] I didn't realize it had such a long history. [Charlene] Stress. [Sean] Stress and the panic and the chaos. [Travis] I feel like it's honestly been like comp summer camp. [Sean] Like summer camp, or it's digital media boot camp. [Rachel] I would liken it to summer camp because, you know, you've just made buddies that you don't really want to leave. [Narrator] Officially, Ohio State University's Digital Media and Composition Institute is described as an opportunity for scholars across the country to "explore a range of contemporary digital literacy practices--alphabetic, visual, audio, and multimodal--and apply what they learn to the design of meaningful assignments, syllabi, curricula, and programs." Based on this official label, one might think that DMAC is mostly about learning digital tools and technologies, and then applying these tools instrumentally at individual participants' home institutions. Although this technological immersion is one perspective on DMAC's mission, and a vitally important component that explains its thirty-year history, it does not completely encompass the spirit of DMAC experienced by individual participants. [Lanette] I was hoping DMAC would give me some additional depth in being able to use tools that I was already using, and give me some fresh ideas. [Charlene] I knew that I would come and meet tons of people who were already part of the conversation. I would learn kind of the vocabulary. I would learn where the gaps were, also, in scholarship. [Sean] My primary learning goal throughout the process has been just to sort of observe how DMAC is run and how it works, and how Cindy and Scott and others involved create a sense of community among the participants. [Narrator] In addition to the specific technological skills that the participants want to learn while at DMAC, there is a shared desire to engage with other people in order to practice these technologies. Unlike some professional development opportunities that tend to be temporally and spatially bound seminars structured around experts disseminating knowledge to passive listeners, DMAC encourages active involvement with the other participants as a way to continue learning and engaging with issues surrounding digital media and composition well beyond the physical setting of the two-week institute in Columbus, Ohio. This DMAC experience is summed up in founder Cindy Selfe and Scott DeWitt's mantra: [Cindy] ̉Here at DMAC, people come first, teaching and learning second, and computers only come a distant third." [Narrator] When examining the social atmosphere surrounding digital media and composing practices at DMAC, we find that Etienne Wenger's concept of a community of practice is a useful framework. This concept is grounded in Wenger's theory on learning as social participation, in which participation is understood as an "encompassing process of being active participants in the practices of social communities and constructing identities in relation to these communities." We consider this model of both acting and belong particularly appropriate for a group organized around the activity of digital composing. In this project, we use the concept of communities of practice in order to analyze how a group of individuals develop texts, practices, relationships, and literacies in order to engage in group learning. Our analysis is guided by questions such as, "What does viewing DMAC as a community of practice help us to understand about the types of social relationships and spaces that are most effective for engaging individuals in digital media and composing issues?" "How can aspects of DMAC be implemented in a variety of institutional contexts in order to encourage digital professional development?" We close by offering suggestions for developing communities of practice around digital composing.