Free Buddhist Audio News – Launch of New Version!

Welcome to the news from Free Buddhist Audio,
the free download, podcast and streaming service from the Dharmachakra audio and text archives. To receive more regular updates on the site, you can always subscribe to our own blog.

Well, we've been absent from the FWBO newsblog for a while but it's great to be back. And we're absolutely delighted to be able to announce here the launch of Free Buddhist Audio – Mark II!

Since the service first began in December 2006, we've been listening to feedback on the site, dreaming up ways to improve it, and working away behind the scenes to bring you a whole host of new features. Today is just the start of a planned cycle of improvements you should see happening throughout the next year, but there's lots to tell you about right now...

The Sparkly Bits

If you're familiar with the site, you'll notice we've made some changes to the menu structure, introducing three new sections:

series      community      study

These kind of speak for themselves! Come and play... We'll be building on these foundations a lot in the next few months. Here are some highlights of what's in store:

Search and download whole series of talks at once!

Re-developed 'local' section for talks uploaded by FWBO communities all across the world

Social bookmarking (sharing) added throughout the site – tell your friends about your favourite talks with one click!

New social network presences on MySpace, Facebook and Second Life

Hosting of study materials for the new FWBO Dharma study course for Mitras, including content produced for use by people with restricted vision

Under The Hood

The changes aren't all glossy! We've also done some real engine work. Search engine, that is...

You'll notice, for instance, a re-designed audio search facility. Results come faster – and they're a lot prettier to look at.

And did we mention the beautiful, mysterious 'Rainbow Coloured Tag Cloud'?

We're also very happy to let users of our text service know that we've completely re-written the search facility for this too!

The new engine is fast, and extremely precise. There are lots of fancy options for those who need them. And we've integrated all the material too: so now you can search – and read online – all 17.5 million words by Sangharakshita and the many other members of the Order whose transcripts we are steadily gathering together. Give it a spin...

Into The Future

You'll find lots of other nice little tweaks and features around the new site. We hope in the next while you'll enjoy getting to know us all over again...

Keep an eye out for more news here in the months ahead – and watch for imminent transformations as we spring clean any and all dusty corners (hint: meditation)...

And if your Centre would like to know more about how to upload talks to your own special pages on our site, please get in touch!