Yesterday I had the chance to speak with Avi Muchnick, CEO of Worth1000 (check out their interesting galleries). I originally wanted to speak with Avi to ask his thoughts on social networks as platforms, and was curious about whether he thought the talented community at worth1000 might offer potential in that area.

It turned out to be a naive question because Avi began to describe Aviary (http://a.viary.com/) to me – one of the most ambitious Web 2.0 projects I’ve seen so far. Aviary is not just a powerful browser-based media creation suite, it’s an entire supply chain for creative media. The 18 tools includes things like an image editor, powerful pattern generator (see screen shot at bottom), audio editor, and even a 3D Modeller (amazing that’s even possible in a browser).

And because Aviary takes the media right from the point of creation all the way to a marketplace where it can be sold, there’s no pitfalls with copyright issues (i.e. you know the seller really authored the work they wish to sell). Just in case there’s any doubt, an application called Eagle will analyze tiny camera/image imperfections to trace images sources back to individual cameras!

Aviary is still in beta, but I can’t wait till it goes public. Check out their blog to learn more – even if it’s just to see their nifty homepage – I haven’t seen an intro page quite like it before (move your mouse over it to get the full effect).

Promotional poster for Aviary’s 3D modeller

Aviary’s pattern generator – reminds me of yahoo pipes