Library clips

Is it me or does looking at the articles section of a Zimbio Wikizines look like an awesome blog (and a communal blog at that) eg. Justin Timberlake/Articles just click on the Table of Contents to access other features or the front page to see all features within the one page.
Previously the front page was a startpage type display, whereas now they have gone for the magazine type of display, hence the new name wikizines.
I know what Zimbio offered (communal topic portals) was a great idea and they pulled it off better than others (Wetpaint being the closest), but now the presentation is amazing, I’m in favour of wikizines, love the name!! Check out the Zimbio company wikizine, I love companies that use their own product effectively.

What other blogging platforms offer not just communal blogging, but also sections for: pictures, video’s, link rolls (sets of links), feed rolls (sets of feeds displaynig latest content), search rolls (set of keyword searchers) trackers (displays content from blog, news and image searches), notes, forum, about, audit history, badges, widgets (via Grazr), and all the feeds and OPML you can poke a stick at…I guess your blog (well zine actually) is in a generic network, but still this is feature packed.

NOTE: I’d like to see the feed roll as a mini public RSS reader, and the search roll is kind of similar to the tracker in concept.

Also note on the front page they have active Writers, this kind of reminds me of CommonGate, roam around contributing to various blogs (wikizines) and collate it all in a user space.

I also like how a topic eg. Technology is almost a wikizine in itself; featured writer, news, new (video’s, pictures, comments, wikizines).

Bloggers can join and get their content automatically included into wikizines where seen fit.

Zimbio also has private groups, not bad for a communal community of practice page.

Splashcast MyPodcastNetwork is a new web-based RSS media player, kind of like a web-based podcatcher (without the downloading).

Widgets like Box allow you to place media files in a public space where they will appear in a widget, from here people can play or perhaps download the media files, this widget also has an RSS feed…Grazr also has media playing capabilities.

Then you have live widgets like kyte, cellblock and pickle where the latest photo’s you add to your user space appear live in the widget, I like the idea of real-time favourites of media clips in a widget.

The new player from Splashcast is a bit different, it is basicallly a media RSS Reader with widget available, so whatever items appear in your media feed subscriptions (channel) will appear in your widget, where people can play them directly from a startpage, blog sidebar, etc… Add feeds or check out their catalogue.
Since your RSS channel player has it’s own feed you could even subscribe to someone else’s channel as a feed within your channel.

Is Splashcast the new and improved Odeo…don’t forget the main deal with Splashcast was you could mash up media to create video stories, montage, clips…with these new enhancements thay are really leading the consumer media game, perhaps this is some sort of share feature that could have been offered by democracy and others, I think vodpod has RSS media player widgets.
Anyway the main deal is if you want to share your favourite items, or share the latest items from your media feed subscriptions, a media player widget is the way to go.

Widgets aside, is Splashcast a web-based Podcatcher, that is you don’t have to download an application and further more you probably are less inclined to download shows as streaming is becoming more advanced, this way you can play shows and favourite them in your personal collection instead of saving them (download).
But what about if you want to watch/listen on your mobile device, this is where Splashcast needs a mobile version for web-enabled devices, but then can mobile’s stream well enough…obviously the future is headed this way (web synching, streaming…no need to download).
[via TC]