PROVIDENCE – The Rhode Island School of Design has installed seven large-screen, digital bulletin boards that can be edited by any member of the RISD community.

The screens will display more than the usual details on film screenings and bake sales for worthy causes. They are also open to “musings, artwork, photographs and messages posted by anyone on campus,” according to the school. RISD says the screens offer the campus community “a highly visual and spontaneous method of connecting with one another.”

The digital screens are the latest in a string of early initiatives from RISD’s new president, John Maeda, a former associate director of MIT’s Media Lab. Maeda was inaugurated on Sept. 12.

The digital bulletin board system was developed through a partnership between RISD’s Interactive Media team, Samsung Electronics America Inc. – which donated the HDTVs – and Potion, a New York-based technology-design firm that is run by some of Maeda’s former students from the Media Lab. •