A quick note here on some online tools I’ve recently come across:

Kaltura – a collaborative video making tool that another colleague brought to our attention (thanks Sam). I realize this is not new to bloggers and videophiles in the know – but its relatively new to us here and we’re considering ways to use it on a project… They also have an interesting collaboration with Wikipedia. Moreover the open-source tools they offer are things that it seems more content creators (and viewers) are going to be clamoring for in the days to come including: video mixing, annotating, and ad serving.

VuVox – this is a mega-mashup tool of sorts allowing for more ‘dynamic’ content (video, animation, sound, still images- let your imagination run wild). Their new tool Collage was unveiled at We Media conference I attended about 2 weeks ago. the exciting promo text on the site reads

“Any real world location can become the launching point for a rich media story that features live media hot spots and embeddable links. A COLLAGE can be published, embedded, and syndicated into any website, blog or social networking site.”

This is still in private beta but interested parties can request to become a tester here. This tool is certainly limited to people with good broadband connections who are looking to creatively use their media, create mashups of mashups (here’s an example done by fans of Sen. Obama). I’m wondering if human rights bloggers could use the tool to provide context to a situation as it happens (after they’ve uploaded the video or embed a live stream of video) and again, yes this wouldn’t be those in places where lack of access to internet is a reality.

Anyone using either of these tools who would like to share your experience? Please let us know here… and thanks.