Mixpo-tential

We had another opportunity to Beta test one of the latest innovations out of the DEMO 07 Conference last night. Mixpro is a personal publishing tool that allows users to manage their video, photo and audio files over any number of web sites. The user can use Mixpo to publish their work and to maintain control over it from the central location at Mixpo.com. The site offers a reliable and free utility for people to distribute and manage multimedia on the web.

According to Technorati, millions of web sites, blogs and social networks have been dedicated to individuals across the web. There may be as many as 50 million (or more) blogs in existence on the web today. With the boon in sophisticated technology available to the individual, Mixpo feels there is a need for a centralized place for people and business to manage their media content.

“Rich media is an important way for people to share their stories with friends or the world,” said David Fortin, senior director of product management at Windows Live. “Mixpo offers users the simple tools for publishing multimedia they want to maintain control of, expanding the ways in which they can share their stories with confidence. Mixpo's use of the Windows Live Gadgets platform is innovative and showcases an important pillar of our strategy to create an ecosystem of partners.”

The Basics of Simplicity

The Mixcard - This aspect is a simple collection of the user's multimedia content manipulated by a nifty widget. Mixcards allow the user to compose a story using any combination of media. There are no file size restrictions or limitations and the user can customize according to their need or audience. Essentially the Mixcard is a form of digital business card or portfolio. Mixcards can enhance web sites, blog and social networks. The Mixcard is really where the digital media is maintained as in a folder or presentation.

The Mix Center - This is Mixpo's media control center. After publishing a Mixcard, the user can control what happens next to their work. Adding, deletion, changing and controlling these Mixcards is done from the Mix Center. This is a very simple and fast UI, and anyone will enjoy the flexibility of this aspect.

About Mixpro

Mixpo Portfolio Broadcasting, Inc. is a company out of Seattle, WA. Funding for the company began in May, 2006. The series A funding came from Madrona Venture Partners, Working Opportunity Fund, Yaletown Venture Partners, Springbank TechVenturesand private investors. The COO and Vice president of the company is Anupam Gupta.

The Take!

Mixpo is a highly useful and simple tool for managing media content to remote sites. The UI is one of the simplest and easiest to use I have seen. Video, images and audio can easily be added to a Mixcard to either send a message or make a presentation. The user simply clicks the bar to start a new card, and then uploads the media to the card. Once the card is made it can easily be published to virtually any place that can accept the code.

There are a host of Widgets that can be used to enable the user to place and maintain their data remotely. I really like the simplicity and quick nature of the utility. Mixpo is has a supported by Windows Live Media. I am sure other sites either support the tool or will shortly. All the user has to do is import the widget, paste the code, click save and it is done!

The bottom line is the gadget is really good for what it is. I emailed support because I wanted to know if I could loop audio over images in the Mixcard. They responded very quickly and told me that they were working on that aspect, and hoped it would be available soon. So, if you are looking to create video or complex portfolios, Mixpo is not really a media mixer in that respect. It is however, and excellent way to manage media content at different sites, and I expect they are working on making the Mixcard more like a true editor. The site does what it advertises, and you have to admire that in today's hyped up market. Mixpo is not for creating detailed multimedia presentations, but it can manage them and add them efficiently to your web site or bog.

This is a screen from inside Mixpo, and shows the simplicity with which you can publish your media.