Introducing Scald for Social Media in Drupal

Multimedia on the web has grown from a gee-whiz feature into a mainstay of almost all web-based content. Video sidebars adorn all major online newspapers, all the contacts in our email have a photo associated with them, and podcast versions of our favorite blogs are available for consumption on the go. However, making use of this media in a meaningful way has continued to be a challenge for the average user. The combination of usability issues and the tricky world of licensing has meant that despite the promise of rich interaction, the world of online media has a long ways to go. Recently, the growth of social networks like Facebook has proven that the future is not in the "bucket" approach, but in the connection-rich world supported by a social network. In fact, Facebook has already surpassed Flickr as the #1 photo-sharing application in the world (based on comScore numbers). Drupal’s existing support for social networking is excellent and media handling has been advancing at a tremendous rate. Drupal has the potential to be an excellent platform for the emerging trend of social media. Scald is a unified approach to social media and provides the missing elements that are necessary to realize its full potential. Good user experience is the key to engagement so Scald offers both and a reference implementation that addresses common user difficulties and a framework to build unique solutions. File-format agnostic uploads, WYSIWYG editing, integrated (and enforced) licensing, contextually-aware display, and a tracking system which actively encourages remix and reuse of content are a few of the elements that we believe make Scald a powerful tool for Drupal developers and end-users alike. Scald is currently in its earliest stages, but we hope that by tapping into the amazing functionality already present, Scald can help take Drupal into the world of social media. Come learn what we’ve done so far, how you can take advantage of it, and where we as a community can go from here!