Social Networking

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New Elgg release dates

October 21, 2008 in Elgg, Social Networking, Technology, Uncategorized, open source | 1 comment

Tentative release dates have revealed for Elgg versions 1.1 and 1.5. Version 1.1 has a target date of November 3, 2008. Version 1.5 is due next February. Bear in mind these time frames are not set in stone.

Pete Harris, the Elgg dev team’s designer, has released a number of great themes requiring Elgg version 1.09. Currently, this version is only available in Elgg’s SVN repository. Users that reported they didn’t have the expertise to obtain the files via Subversion, were advised by Pete that the target release date is November 3. Those willing to learn how to use SVN can go to my blog post Elgg and Subversion.

The current Trunk of Elgg is labeled 1.09. Today brought another round of updates, while not major, requiring another database upgrade. The Elgg team is obviously focusing on this as each of the last three times I updated my Elgg files I have had to update the database.

Ben Werdmuller announced the roadmap for the Elgg 1.5 release with a list of new features. Some of these features appear to address concerns about performance and scalability including views and location caching along with the abiltiy to create multiple sites with sub-sites.

Others appear to be appearance and customization related. More themes and a basic mobile view are planned. Also mentioned were a selection of canvas layouts and improved front page layout.

User enhancements include simple media embedding into text fields. While this is currently possible through some extended tinymce plugins, they work outside the core Elgg files system.

I am sure the team will continually work to enhance database performance and usability. They have mentioned a query object allowing deeper database work and a drillable site-wide stream making it easier to hone in on what you are looking for. The metastring garbage collection will delete lingering database remnants.

Some new administrative tools are planned. They plan to further develop a submenu system with better grouping. A construction tool for form based plugins is also in the works.

Finally, we will be able to delete groups. A long awaited upgrade path from Elgg Classic will be developed, and there will be enhancements to OpenDD.

While we all look forward to these milestones, we must bear in mind that not all goes as planned. It is better to be a little later and more bug free!

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New bill mandates social networking safety instruction

October 20, 2008 in Policies, Social Networking, Technology | 2 comments

New legislation passed unanimously by the US Senate and headed for the President’s desk mandates schools to provide instruction about safety on social networking sites. The language was appended to S.1492 bill Broadband Data Improvement. While the thrust of the bill is improving broadband Internet access to Americans, SubTitle A: Promoting a Safe Internet for Children includes :

(iii) as part of its Internet safety policy is educating minors about appropriate online behavior, including interacting with other individuals on social networking websites and in chat rooms and cyberbullying awareness and response.

What better way to teach them than to use social networking software in instruction, rather than lecture them about online perils? A closed environment monitored by teachers would give students real life practice in a safer environment. It would add relevance and authenticity to instruction. Discussion of appropriate online behavior prior to actually using social networking software would have a positive impact on student learning and is more likely to have a lasting effect on student online behavior. Mistakes would have lesser repercussions than on a site open to the world at large. They could be powerful teachable moments.

I plan to use this to bolster my case for the use of social networking software in our school. What impact do you think this may have on schools and their potential use of social software?

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Elgg 1.0 Test Installation Updated

August 8, 2008 in Social Networking, Technology, open source | No comments

Elgg developers recently rolled out a new test installation of Elgg 1.0 with the new Friends features. Yesterday, they added the Groups. Between these features much has been added to controls over access to content.

Now friends includes the ability to create collections of friends from your list of friends. This allows you incredible flexibility in configuring access to any specific content that a user may create. These collections of friends then appear on the access control options when creating new content. For example, I created a collection of friends called “Elgg Developers” consists of Ben, Dave, and Pete. Now when I set access to a file I uploaded, for example, my access options include not only private, logged in users, and public, but also “Elgg Developers” or any other collection that I may have created.

Groups can also be created easily. Once created, a group has it’s own “Profile” page along with a forum and the option of creating additional pages for the group. Membership can be controlled just like access to a given file upload.

It looks like the features are coming together quickly now as we approach the August 18 release date. I see a robust, top-notch, open source, social network platform coming soon! I will post more details including screen shots shortly!

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Elgg 1.0 Release Date

August 1, 2008 in Social Networking, Technology, open source | No comments

Elgg just posted an August 18 release date for Elgg 1.0. Elgg core developers have been beleaguered by requests for releases and release dates for several days. I know some of the developers that have worked with Elgg in the past have had the code about a week and are making progress squashing bugs. Hopefully this will help clear the air.

Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge

There are also indications that some new features will appear when they update their test site in the near future. Core developer Ben Werdmuller stated that the site would soon feature groups and friends collections with an upcoming upgrade. Currently on the test installations users can set access to their content to:

  • Public
  • Logged in users
  • Private

This upgrade will give users the ability to add various friends collections and groups to these options giving incredible flexibility with access control. Once we see these features, we should have much more insight into the workings of Elgg 1.0. Here’s a link to what Ben says about access control.

I’ll have screenshots and an overview of the features as possible.

The Elgg Blog is also a great source of information about this upcoming release.

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Elgg 1.0: Screencaps 2: Navigation

July 13, 2008 in Social Networking, Technology, open source | 2 comments

Elgg 1.0 features a great set of navigation features. They are both practical and elegant.

First, elgg has an attractive navigation bar across the top of each page similar to that of the admin side of WordPress 2.5.(Click to enlarge)

Elgg Toolbar

It features links to the user’s profile, dashboard, message and settings. It also has a search and log out function.

The left side bar gives access to a variety of areas on the site including public areas. A simple click on any item expands to reveal a number of options.

The final, and most interesting navigation may be found by mousing over any individual’s avatar. When you guide your cursor over an avatar, and small triangle appears. Click on the triangle and a number of options appear regarding an individual user as seen below:

From there, you can add/remove an individual as a friend and view their blogs, profiles, friends, files, etc. You can also send them a message.

In future posts, we will view the forums, blogs and other areas in Elgg 1.0.

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Elgg 1.0: User Interface Screenshots 1

July 12, 2008 in Social Networking, Technology, open source | No comments

Developer Dave Tosh just contacted me to let me know that I could start publishing screen shots of the Elgg 1.0 user interface. Pete Harris, the Elgg design guru has done a great job! While it is still a work in progress, I’ve seen an evolution of design in the past week as the Elgg team drive the code toward release.

In an earlier post I discussed a drag and drop widget user interface through which the profile (public view) and the dashboard (private) can be customized. Here is a view of my profile:

One configuration of an Elgg profile

The main body and side bar can be configured in any number of ways using widgets. The only fixed features are the actual profile on the top of the main body and the left side navigation menu. The private side, the dashboard, has the same options without the profile section. The widgets may be accessed by clicking “Customise Layout” on the top of the right side bar.

User Widgets

To install a widget simply go to the widget gallery on the right side, click on the four direction arrow on any of the widgets and drag it to the main contnet area widgets or the sidebar widgets. If you are unsure of the function of an individual widget, simply click on the “i” icon. The widgets can be added, removed, and reordered by a simple drag and drop.

Once the widgets are in place, you can further customize them by clicking the edit button on the top right side of each widget. When clicked, aconfiguration menu drops done from the widget header bar with your options. Options vary depending upon the widget, but here is an example:

Edit window in an elgg widget

All widgets can be configured to be private or to various degrees of public giving the user fine tune to access.

That’s a first look at the Elgg 1.0 interface. More will be coming soon.

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Elgg 1.0: User Widgets

July 6, 2008 in Social Networking, Technology, open source | No comments

One of the new user features in Elgg 1.0 is greater flexibility with widgets. They can be accessed from either a user’s dashboard or profile page by clicking the “Customize Layout” link on either. Each widget has a link to a small pop-up that briefly describes the function. They work similarly to WordPress Widgets. Users have a “Widget Gallery” from which they can now drag, drop, and rearrange into either the main body or sidebar rather than just the main body as in elgg 0.9.1. In earlier version of elgg widgets were arranged by clicking arrows at the footer of each widget.

Users can arrange the widgets as desired for their dashboard and profile pages. Once they save changes, users are redirected to the page they edited. Widgets can be further customized by clicking the edit but on the right side of the widget’s header. You can configure it to display a certain number of items, and you can set access/privacy.

Keep in mind that this is an in-house development installation. Things are changing quickly as the developers working diligently toward the imminent code release.

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Elgg 1.0: User perspective

July 5, 2008 in Social Networking, Technology, open source | 1 comment

Several months ago, I installed and played around with elgg verion 0.9.1. I kicked it around a bit and liked what I saw. Once I discovered that a new drastically changed version was in the works as elgg 1.0, I decided to pursue other interests until it came out. While it is not quite out yet, the new version seems imminent and I volunteered to help them beta test as a user.

I’ve been busy checking out the nooks and crannies of the user interface helping them locate glitches along with a few other people. Now that I have started to use it as one of a handful of users, I’m starting to “get” elgg. Whereas much software starts with the group and works down to the user, elgg starts with the users and works up to the group. As one makes connections, an increasing rich web of interactions begins to emerge.

One of the main things that distinguishes elgg 1.0 from the earlier versions is Open Data Definition, a new format for importing and exporting data from within social applications. I don’t know who else has adopted this standard, but making an array of applications talk to each other is an intriguing concept.

The developers have been working diligently and hope to have the code out within a couple weeks. I’m sure that it will still be beta by then, but a public beta as opposed to a closed one. You can check on their blogs where they are keeping everyone posted on their progress. Ben Werdmuller, Marcus Povey, and Dave Tosh are the main developers.

I’m exciting and I look forward to getting my hands on the code so I can test install elgg on my own server and get a look at the admin interface. I’ll continue to blog about elgg as I learn more.

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Elgg: Installation and First Impressions

December 23, 2007 in Uncategorized | No comments

I just installed Elgg, the open source social networking platform, on our school’s shared server space. I really cannot speak to the feature set as of yet. This pertains to the nuts and bolts of installing, configuring, and customizing the site.

To begin with, automatic installation is not available through cpanel/fantastico, so a manual installation is required. This is no big deal. One begins by creating a mySQL database for Elgg on the server. Next, you need to download the software and unzip on your computer. Next, upload the Elgg folder to your server via ftp and change the permissions on a file and a directory. Point your browser to the Elgg directory and the installer appears. Fill in your database settings, passwords and email information.

With luck, you’ll have no errors and you can get to the configuration page. That wasn’t the case for me because the school web site is on a server with register_globals on. Once that was rectified, I was able to access the configuration.

I installed version 0.9 RC2, so there were a few bugs to be ironed out. It wasn’t any real big deal, but sticking to version 0.8.2 would make things simpler. That being said, most RC2 releases have been more reliable in my experience.

The configuration pages allows you to name the site and change the tagline among other settings. Of particular interest for use by schools are settings to allow or disallow public registration and invitations. Additionally, the setting Walled Garden allows you to restrict access to outsiders. You can also set it to force log-in to make comments.

If you want to customize the theme, you have a couple of options. First, you can upload a theme to the server and over-write the default theme. You can also access the theme files through “default template editor” to edit the page shell and css. This requires willingness and ability to work with some code.

The front page content is edited using the “frontpage template editor” which also involves playing with some basic html code. You don’t have to be an expert, but having a knowledge of html and css is certainly helpful. Alternatively a handy code reference book should give you enough guidance to make the modifications.

Overall, the installation and configuration is more difficult than many other scripts, in which switching themes involves a click of a button and front page content can be edited with a wysiwyg editor. It certainly is much more difficult to set up than a ning site. Support and documentation on the elgg.org site are also somewhat sparse. I wouldn’t recommend elgg to someone new to setting up websites using open source software. On the other hand, if you have some experience and are not averse to some basic troubleshooting, it’s worth a look.

The ability to install the software on our own server offers compelling reasons to look further into elgg. I’ll explore the software features in the near future and posting more information here.

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Ning in Education

December 10, 2007 in Uncategorized | No comments

NYSCATE created a social networking space on Ning for the 2007 conference. About 140 conference attendees have signed up and there has been some discussion of the conference and educational technology.

I did a little poking around the Ning site in general and I have found some other social networks that I have since joined. The first was Ning in Education. Ning in Education is a network dedicated to issues pertaining to using ning for educational applications. Issues such as Ning configuration, safety and privacy. It also appears to serve as a conduit for educators to express their concerns and needs to the folks that run Ning. A case in point, is that through the efforts of participants in the network, Ning will take the ads off Ning communities that serve grades 7-12. There are COPPA issues that they are working to resolve for students under 13. Ning in Education also pointed toward other great educational resources on Ning.

Classroom 2.0 is a very active community with over 4000 members. There’s really a lot of good information from other educators integrating technology in education–Web 2.o Technologies in particular. I recommend that you join this particular network.

I also set up a Ning social network so that I could get a sense of what can be done with the administrative controls. I was looking for reassurances that would help placate the fears of our tech committee. I discovered that you could make the site visible only to members and that membership could be on an invite only basis. Furthermore, it permits you to moderate and approve video and image uploads before they are displayed (although not text postings). Finally, as mentioned above, there is a procedure for getting rid of the advertising on school networks.

I will continue to explore the social networks on Ning, examples of school uses of Ning, and the ins and outs of administrating such a site. I will also be installing the open-source alternative Elgg soon and blogging on that soon too.

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Post NYSCATE 07 Tech Committee Meeting: Social Networking Software

December 8, 2007 in Uncategorized | 2 comments

When I brought up the idea of using Social Networking Software for our school, the first reaction was, “Huh?” After I described it as being related to MySpace, one committee member shot me a disdainful look and said, “Why would you want to do THAT?”

I explained that it is a tool for collaboration and interaction that our students already know and understand. Further, if we want he kids to use these tools that they are already using in a responsible and hopefully productive way, we need to demonstrate appropriate and safe use of these tools. I told them that we could set it up initially so that only our students and teachers have access to such a site through Ning or Elgg.

This allayed some concerns, but another brought up the idea that we cannot supervise what goes on in real time. I agreed that we would have to carefully monitor activities. I mentioned that my students already have the ability to message each other through one of my Moodle courses. This is monitored regularly as the teacher has full access to a transcripts and the same could be done with Ning or Elgg. Furthermore, we cannot monitor all student behaviors in the school itself and problems arise because of this. Just because there are problems from time to time, we do not prohibit movement through the halls. If there is a problem, we have to look into it and try to find the facts. Online, we have logs and transcripts that tell us exactly who said what and when they said it.

Finally, our superintendent came to my support, and the others gave reluctant assent. I have permission to investigate the use and try social networking on a limited and restricted basis.

I will probably install Elgg on our school’s webhosting account over the next few weeks. I like the fact that unlike  Ning, it will not have advertising.  After I get the feel of the environment, I’ll probably set up something with my fifth graders and those of one or two local districts for some kind of an on-line collaboration.

Here an interesting link to Wired Magazine’s website discussing the use of Elgg in education. I’m sending it to the other members of your tech committee to help answer the question, “Why would you want to do that?”

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