"Diaries": The Future of Social Networking?

Well, Comcast is taking Ziddio.com's social networking capabilities to the next level, and they're doing it through the second-largest social-networking site: Facebook! The two sites will be integrated to allow users to create and share video content on both the websites and Comcast's On Demand service--again, crossing media!

The full integration will be rolled out in March with a contest to kick-off the project and get users interested. Short video submissions depicting users' life experiences will be selected to air on a 10-episode, half-hour TV show, appropriately dubbed "The Facebook Diaries."

Comcast and Facebook are pulling out all the stops in this deal. They even reeled in R.J. Cutler as producer of the new TV series, an Oscar-nominated producer currently known for his work on the show "30 Days."

I don't know who the bigger winner in this deal is. Facebook has the opportunity to spread its influence and reach even further, already boasting the second-largest photo-sharing site on the web and over 16 million registered users. On the other hand, Ziddio has the opportunity to tap into this network and get people talking about its user-generated sharing platform and the opportunity it provides to you and me to have our videos shown on television.

Depending on how the Comcast television community responds to this new form of social networking, both Ziddio and Facebook will have even more opportunities to expand. After all, Comcast has over 24.2 million cable customers to market this innovative sharing event to.

It's certainly a big leap for social networking. For more information on the story check out these articles on Streaming Media and iMedia Connection, or the Comcast press release.