EduSpaces news :: Blog

As some of you will have noticed today, we have been upgrading and rebranding EduSpaces. The new site is a marked improvement with many new features as well as enhancements to old favourites.

It is well worth trying all the new features out including video processing, easier embedding of content into blogs, photo galleries, bookmarks and much more.  It would be cool if you could share your thoughts in the new forum.

For those who are not sure what EduSpaces is; EduSpaces is the largest social network in the world dedicated to education and educational technology. 

Cheers, the EduSpaces team. 

Thanks the guys over at the Graz Technical Institute, EduSpaces now has bookmarking. This is a neat feature that you can access on your toolbar at the top of the page.

Shortly, we will be upgrading EduSpaces to the latest version of Elgg (v0.8) which will bring with it some cool features such as; generic comments and a recent activity river.

The eagle eyed among you will have noticed that doing a search on Edu Spaces now pulls up results from Explode - this is a very significant development!

Things are only in Alpha at the moment, but soon you will be able to friend these people and communicate with them, essentially creating your own meta-network of friends, regardless of which network they are on, from your presence here on Edu Spaces.

Watch this space. 

A few new features have been added to Edu Spaces.

1. New widget based profiles. You can add various content to your profile via the widgets including a comment wall which is quite cool to just post short messages on to peoples profiles
   
2. The presentation tool - just select 'Your presentations' from the top menu bar and begin building away.
3. A large profile picture - this is a great way to make the profiles more personable
4. Private messaging
5. The search has been integrated with Explode so you can find others who share your interests but might not be on Edu Spaces (this is still very much in the testing phase)
   

1. Elgg.net is now EduSpaces.net

You've probably noticed, because we changed the domain over last week. As promised, all your old links still work, but starting today, if you visit http://elgg.net/ you'll be directed to the Elgg software site. Your internal links, e.g. http://elgg.net/news/, will still work fine.

2. RIP dashboard, long live profile 2.0!

The dashboard was a proof of concept in the Elgg software, and has quietly been put to rest in favour of a new profile format. This highlights the most-used profile fields on the site and allows you to host a wider range of widgets underneath. A prominent link still leads to your old, extended profile - but we think this new one will allow for a lot more freedom and interaction. If you've used Facebook or Explode, you'll be pleased to see a comment wall appear here soon. Thanks to Kevin Jardine for making the new widgets possible; if you'd like to program your own, see Elgg.org for details about the API.

The profile also has an easy way for you to display a larger photo of yourself. Just click the 'edit profile' link and upload to your heart's content.

3. The presentation tool

We've had this in the works for a while - some of you may remember us talking about it last year - but the presentation tool is finally up and running. Designed by Dave and Ben, made possible by the University of Brighton and programmed by Sven Edge, this allows you to showcase content you've created or uploaded as part of a continuous portfolio. To read what the University of Brighton's Stan Stanier had to say about it, head over to http://curverider.co.uk/blog/2007/03/16/presenting-your-activity/.

Some of you will have noticed that Elgg.net is no longer - the service has now been renamed Edu Spaces with the url http://eduspaces.net

The change over is nearly complete and there will be no disruption to the service or your site.

Thanks to a plugin developed by Diego Andres - elgg.net now has private messaging. You can send messages to your friends or to anyone in a community which you are a member.

Select 'Your messages' from the toolbar at the top. 

Actually, you've been accustomed to change throughout the existence of the site since we started it in 2004. New features pop up all the time, and we think you'll be pleased to hear that this isn't going to stop soon.

However, we're going to change the name. Next Wednesday, Elgg.net will become Edufilter.org.

This is because, for a lot of people, Elgg.net *is* Elgg. Granted, it's a confusing name. But Elgg is a free, open source, white label social networking framework that anyone can install on their own servers. Want it running at your institution? Point your elearning folks at http://elgg.org. Elgg.net, meanwhile, is a social network for education - and therefore, we think Edufilter is probably a better name.

You've probably got concerns, so let's deal with the most important:

#1: We're not going to break any of your links. While the front page of Elgg.net will forward to the main Elgg software homepage, anyone visiting elgg.net/your-username will still get to your page. We have no plans to end this, so if your address is printed on materials, don't worry: everything's fine.

#2: The site will not be discontinued. It continues to be our flagship installation.

Furthermore, making the site overtly educational means we can give you more directed content and features. Sponsorship opportunities are available; if you'd like to promote your product or service available to some of the world's leading lights in elearning, let us know.

Well, wonder no more - the Elgg name generator is back and all suggestions are welcome :)

Elgg name generator

Thanks to Tim Hawes, Elgg now has a cool plugin that turns the collaborative blog in Elgg communities into a forum layout. This plugin is an exellent example of how it is possible to refactor what already exists in Elgg to meet different needs.  If you still prefer the collaborative blog approach a menu option exists to toggle between the views.

This is very nice - thanks Tim!