learning, teaching and research (archive)

Interesting posts from Ben Werdmuller and the News blog on Elgg.net: Elgg 1.0 FAQ

Elgg will continue to be developed and maintained in something like its current all singing and dancing guise as Elgg Classic but version 1.0 will be a sort of bare bones social network engine with no user functionality except what the installers decide they need for their specific purposes. Everything is a plug in. If you don’t want profiles for example, don’t bother to install that plugin. Same goes for file storage and even blogs I guess. Perhaps you only want community blogs for instance. With an easier process for creating plugins this flexibility sound really exciting and may be what will perhaps keep Elgg ahead of the crowd. The news about Elgg is excellent, particularly after the Eduspaces scare and the, now obviously unjustifiable, fears we had about the consequences for Elgg.

I have 2 concerns. Elgg 1.0 will be a totally new, redesigned and recoded application. How easy will it be to upgrade to it and import data from legacy versions? My other concern is how easy will it be for individuals like myself with minimal technical skills and knowledge, to install, construct, configure and maintain an Elgg 1.0 installation? This last might sound like an unreasonable request but I think the full power and potential of systems like Elgg will only be realised when the technical obstacles disappear and systems can be installed by almost anyone. It’s ok if you work in an institution with technical support but I’m thinking of the club secretaries, the patient associations, the family networks, the Yorkshire Vernacular Architecture Society, the Armley Allotments Association and so on. But then I guess there is Ning, Google groups, and so on. I have lamented the passing of ElggSpaces before.