The NetAcademy is not only (1) a digital library, providing new opportunities for delivering information to students and researchers. It also contains (2) a living and growing on-line handbook. Its definitions (vocabulary) are linked to the libraries' contents. In this manner, the universe of contents eventually becomes a logically structured hypertext, adding more and more value to the original contents. This will not only support the platform's users, but also eventually provide space for different genre of the contents: Shorter blocks of knowledge, stripped away from accoutrements and other elements already contained in the NetAcademy environment, are then linked to the authors core contribution. The NetAcademy is an application of a media concept to the specific type of information, which scientific communities use and produce. Therefore, the NetAcademy contains as a third component (3) its organisation, which may be defined by the different types of agents (roles), using the NetAcademy, and the rules they follow (protocol). At present, several different communities are using this platform as their knowledge medium. One goal is to define organisational forms, which not only improve the quality of the contents but put in order the processes of knowledge production in the direction of increasing consistency and completeness.
The access site of the NetAcademy provides a directory for the contents of the entire academy, including all of its research fields. It currently hosts three research communities, about Business Media (E-Markets/E-Commerce), Knowledge Media and Media Management. This platform will be enhanced to Learning Communities by integrating existing isolated solutions (i.e. databases for virtual courses) and the NA Resources (for example, the glossary and the online library). Furthermore, it is a personal network for students, lecturers of a class, experts or researchers in this field. It should be integrated to foster then propel the learning community.
