Top ten reasons to become a member

Ten reasons to join and become a member...all at no charge!
Academic Initiative members enjoy many benefits and discounts while building collaborative partnerships with IBM and other institutions in the open source community. Membership is open to faculty and research professionals at accredited institutions, and to qualifying members of standards organizations.

1. Get thousands of software products at no charge
   You can download full versions of IBM products and technologies and make them available to your students in your classes and labs.
   
   
2. Download industry-proven courseware
   No need to start from scratch. Download professionally developed materials to teach a wide range of information technology (IT) and business topics.
   
   
3. Advance your technical knowledge
   The Virtual Innovation Center (VIC) has more than 800 online courses and materials supporting a wide range of software, hardware and services topics— and you can access them 24/7.
   
   
4. Teach Business Process Management with the INNOV8 game
   Hundreds of schools around the world are using this award-winning, serious game to teaching Business Process Management in their classrooms.
   
   
5. Establish your own virtual enterprise systems
   No need to install and maintain an IBM mainframe system or mid-range system. You can request virtual access for yourself and your students to an IBM System z or to IBM Power Systems.
   
   
6. Become a leader in Service Science, Management & Engineering (SSME)
   SSME is a growing multi-disciplinary research and academic effort. Use these resources to develop a program at your school and ensure that your students will have "T-shaped" skills.
   
   
7. Learn all about cloud computing
   Get involved in the "next big thing" - cloud computing. Cloud Computing Central is an excellent collection of resources for learning about and working with technologies in a virtual environment.
   
   
8. Encourage students to explore, compete, and get certified
   Our contests can help students go beyond the classroom to expand their knowledge, as well as their wardrobes. Many games offer a t-shirt to the first registrants! You can get also get a 50% discount for your students on many IBM Professional Certification tests.
   
   
9. Be a conduit to student employment
   You can give your students access to the IBM Student Opportunity System resume database and they can post their CV for IBM customers and business partners (thousands of companies around the world) to view. This can be as important as a good grade. If they get hired, they will love you. :-)
   
   
10. Join My developerWorks and connect with others around the globe
    Create your own personal profile and custom home page to get instant access to the people, feeds, tags, bookmarks, blogs, groups, and forums that you care about.