What is Elgg?
Described by its founders as a ‘learning landscape’, Elgg provides each user with their own weblog, file repository (with podcasting capabilities), an online profile and an RSS reader. Additionally, all of a user’s content can be tagged with keywords – so they can connect with other users with similar interests and create their own personal learning network. However, where Elgg differs from a regular weblog or a commercial social network (such as MySpace) is the degree of control each user is given over who can access their content. Each profile item, blog post, or uploaded file can be assigned its own access restrictions – from fully public, to only readable by a particular group or individual. [Ed: this is similar to the “smart” social networks described by Ken Yarmosh in another R/WW post] From a developer perspective, Elgg is built on LAMP and is open source – released under the GPL. The software has its own plug-in architecture, and supports a number of open standards including RS
