Elgg

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Elgg is a open source social networking platform. It offers blogging, networking, community, collecting of news using feeds aggregation and file sharing features. Everything can be shared among users with access controls and everything can be cataloged by tags as well.

History

Elgg was originally started by Ben Werdmuller and David Tosh, who subsequently founded Curverider in order to provide Elgg-related services. It has been under development since 2004. In 2009, Werdmuller left to provide Web strategy services for anyone who wants to take advantage of his experiences working on Elgg, as well as to start OutMap.org.

Version 1.0 was released on August 18, 2008.^[1] This version was rewritten from scratch and included many powerful features^[2] including: a new data model;^[3] import / export;^[4] support for OpenDD^[5]) and more.^[6]

Elgg is licensed under the GPL, and runs on the LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP) platform. Details can be found on the main project website.

Elgg has a book titled "Elgg Social Networking" written by open source journalist Mayank Sharma which was published by Packt Publishing in March 2008 and applies to the 0.x versions of Elgg. The book is endorsed^[7] by Elgg's technical lead, Ben Werdmuller.

In August 2008, Elgg was named best open source social networking platform ^[8] by InfoWorld.

In education

This section's citation style may be unclear. The references used may be made clearer with a different or consistent style of citation, footnoting, or external linking.

Elgg has gained a lot of traction in the educational sphere, where it has been used to power social networks for these various institutions and organisations:

• EduSpaces
• Community@Brighton (University of Brighton)
• Claremont Conversation (Claremont Graduate University)
• One Community(Kingston University with St Georges and Royal Holloway College)
• Leeds Elgg (University of Leeds)
• Stoa (University of São Paulo)
• Commun-IT
• TU Graz (Graz University of Technology)
• HTIC (Hawaii Tokai International College)
• Redgloo (School of Systems Enginnering, University of Reading)
• Les carnets de Paris Descartes (Université Paris Descartes)
• Beaversource Social (Oregon State University)
• LTEver (Educational Technology Lab - University of Florence - Italy)
• VU Communities (Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia)

It is also being used in the academic research sphere to support collaborating researchers. * scispace.net

References

This section's citation style may be unclear. The references used may be made clearer with a different or consistent style of citation, footnoting, or external linking.

1. ^ http://news.elgg.org/pg/blog/Dave/read/47/elgg-v10-has-left-the-building Elgg v1.0 has left the building
2. ^ http://news.elgg.org/pg/blog/marcus/read/46/summary-of-elgg-1 Summary of Elgg 1
3. ^ http://docs.elgg.org/wiki/Engine/DataModel Elgg 1.0 data model
4. ^ http://www.marcus-povey.co.uk/2008/07/31/import-and-export-in-elgg-10-2/ Import and Export in Elgg 1.0,
5. ^ http://www.opendd.net/ OpenDD
6. ^ http://www.elgg.org/features.php Elgg 1.0 List of features
7. ^ [http://www.amazon.co.uk/review/product/1847192807/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?%5Fencoding=UTF8&showViewpoints=1 Elgg tech lead endorses Sharma book
8. ^ http://news.elgg.org/pg/blog/bwerdmuller/read/43/its-official-elgg-is-the-best-social-networking-platform Elgg named best open source social networking platform

See also

• Comparison of social networking software

External links

Official Elgg resources

• Official website
• Downloads page
• Elgg Community website
• Official Elgg blog

Elgg based website

Elgg now lists sites which have used Elgg as their core. These now range from sports based websites to general Social Networking resources:

• SocialTrak Elgg site
• Rucku The Rugby Social Network
• LifeWork Planning Services
• Social Believers Christian Network

News and press

This section's citation style may be unclear. The references used may be made clearer with a different or consistent style of citation, footnoting, or external linking.

• Elgg Social Networking CMS - Founder Interview with Ben Werdmuller
• RWW Interviews David Tosh of Elgg, The Open Source Social Networking Platform (25/09/08)
• Infoworld's Best Of Open Source Software Awards (2008-08-04) Elgg named as best open source social networking platform
• The writing's on the wall for paper and pencil (2006-05-16) and A space on the web that we control (2006-03-07), The guardian
• Run your own ‘MySpace’ with Elgg Spaces, ZDNet on 2006-11-10
• Elgg - social network software for education, Read/WriteWeb on 2006-08-11
• An open source education, Network World on 2006-09-25
• Community 2.0, TechLearning on 2006-08-15
• Don't Tell Your Parents: Schools Embrace MySpace, Wired on 2007-04-19
• Elgg was a finalist in the New Statesman New Media awards 2007
• Elgg second best Open Source Social Networking CMS
• Elgg wins best open source social networking platform 2008
• Elgg Article in German
• Elgg Article in Polish and polish translation