I have always liked Posterous, I like how it is based around e-mail, how easy it is to send rich media to my Posterous blog. How it handles images and YouTube links and so much more.

So I was very intrigued by Posterous Groups.

Today we’re announcing Posterous Groups, a new service for communicating privately with your friends, family and colleagues.

Sharing privately with groups is broken right now – the default option remains the same as it was 10 years ago: Multi-attachment, inbox-cluttering emails. Other groups services have cropped up, but they are too complicated to set-up, handle rich media poorly and fall way short in the privacy department.

Posterous Groups is the simplest way to communicate with your group.

I am thinking this could be an alternative to Ning type groups that I have been members of for a while. It could also be used for learning groups across multiple institutions. I can also see a use for it for fringe events such as F-ALT or the Pelican Fringe.

Creating a group is as simple as sending an email.  Just send an email to newgroup@posterous.com and you are off and running

No account sign up required.  This means no more waiting for Mom to complete the signup process; instead, just add her email address and she’s in your group.  Every time you post to the group, she’ll receive the full content as an email.  She can reply directly to your email and everyone in the group gets her update.

Brilliant handling of rich media.  To share photos, a video or audio file, just attach it to your email.  All photos are displayed in your emails without attachments and the group’s threaded web view will automatically host and embed videos, audio files  . . . any file that you send.  Just send it to Posterous Groups and it will do the right thing.

Private is the default option.  You have full control over who sees your photos and who participates in your group.

So with the ease of use of Posterous with the capable media capabilities I think that Posterous Groups could be really useful for educational institutions.