Slideshare Community on steroids - events, groups & contests; have them public or pvt; embed images, videos etc

For the last two months, we have been working to add a punch to our community section; finally its out on our servers, we’re happy to make the announcement now!

The slideshare community section is now on steroids; it encompasses groups, contests and events (which we have just launched). This expansion (& consolidation) makes the community more comprehensive/compelling than before; whats more, you can now control the privacy of your groups/events as well. Check out the screenshot for how the community landing page looks. Read on for the details:

Events: Now you can create your own events on slideshare…you can assign the event its category, mark its duration/date on the calendar, assign its geographical location, invite your friends to join it…other people can join the event and mark their status as “attending” or “watching“…isn’t that cool?. This is the landing page for all slideshare events..this is the calendar where you can browse upcoming events…You can post a slideshow to the event (both from the event page as well from the slideshow page); you can also add a quick comment as you post the slideshow….we think this will help in galvanising the conversation around the event.

Flickr images & videos : At the time of creating the event, you can specify whether you want images from Flickr (using the event tag) to automatically show up in your event (example here); also since many events record videos , you can also embed the videos (from popular sites like Youtube, Googlevideos, Metacafe, Viddler etc) into your event.. (video example here)

See screenshot for the event page below:

Groups: The group functionality has existed for a while, but it gets more muscle now. Groups are structurally like events, but without the duration, date, geographical location or the attending/watching distinction. You can also categorize the group while creating it.

For both groups & events, you can control its privacy; at the time of creating them, you can specify whether it is public or private; if it is private, whether it will be listed on our site or not listed at all. You can also decide how users can join a private group/event- i.e. can they request membership or they can only be invited?

For both groups & events, we have created a system of control through different user permissions & accounts. Every group/event can now have (besides its creator) one or more administrators or moderators who can be chosen by the creator. Users who join the group/event will be its members, and they in turn can be promoted to the role of administrator/moderator.

Do let us know what you thought of these new features…..