The Knowledge Media Design Institute is an interdisciplinary unit of the Faculty of Information at the University of Toronto. Founded in 1996 by Professor Ron Baecker. The institute is U of T's first virtual institute. Our researchers and students explore, design, and critique the knowledge media that enable people to communicate, create, learn, share, and collaborate.

The current director, Professor Kostas Plataniotis, along with a distinguished executive committee work with faculty, students, and alumni from over twenty-five departments and eleven faculties. The KMDI community also extends to research and business in the public and private sectors to develop new projects. Our entrepreneurial operations team supports the research community by identifying potential collaborators and working to access new funding opportunities.

Today, the institute has a cluster of offices in the New College Residence building as well as a meeting room, classroom and lab in the Bahen Centre for Information Technology. We have the technical capacity to make it easier to work with colleagues across campus, across the country and globally. The challenges to build, support and sustain a social network remain, and continue to be a subject of our research.

Students in the Collaborative Program are a vital part of the KMDI community. KMDI's graduate courses bring together students from several different disciplines who are interested in the interaction between technology, media and society.