ELGG

Draft

ELGG is a social software system that has gained quite a lot of attention in the educational community. Elgg is an open source social networking platform developed for LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) which encompasses weblogging, file storage, RSS aggregation, personal profiles, FOAF functionality and more.

In education it could be used for e-learning 2.0 scenarios and personal learning environments.

For more general information see the french article about Elgg.

Features

ELGG Environement

ELGG Environement

ELGG Environement

ELGG Components

ELGG Roadmap:

ELGG Roadmap

(There is also a bigger picture, but it seems to be corrupted)

ELGG features include:

• Blogging
• Social networking
• File repositories for individuals and communities
• Podcast support
• Full access controls
• Supports tagging
• User profiles
• Full RSS support
• RSS aggregator
• Create communities
• Collaborative community blogs
• Create 'friends' networks
• Import content
• Publish to blog
• Multilingual
• Branding/customisation

The elgg-developer-community is growing. A lot of additional plugins (modules) are available in the elgg-plugin-repository: some examples:

• MediaWiki-Integration
• Presentations
• Blog-Categories
• Messages
• Activity-overview
• Ajax-Drag-and-Drop for widgets

....

OpenID

The development of an openID-Login for user-centric Digital identity is comming.

e-Portfolio

By using the combination of all these features users are able to build up dynamic, plat-form-crossing e-Portfolios.

References and links

• Richle, U., Schneider, D., Betrancourt, M. & Gavota, M. (2008). Social Software in the Context of Vocational Training. In Proceedings of World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia and Telecommunications 2008 (pp. 1329-1340). Chesapeake, VA: AACE. Abstract/PDF Daniel K. Schneider and colleague's own little experience with ELGG.

• O'Hear, Steve (2006). Elgg - social network software for education, Read/Write web, HTML

• Wageneder, Günter / Jadin, Tanja. eLearning2.0 - Neue Lehr/Lernkultur mit Social Software? HTML

• eduspaces.net. Virtual space for educators created with ELGG.

• This video gives a short introduction to some of the basic features.

See also

• Explode is a social search tool that lets you find others online irrespective of which network they are on - managed over OpenID as it's planned for Elgg