We have just opened up a new forum for those using Elgg. This will be used to discuss technical developments, install issues, coding suggestions etc.

Using the forum will make it easier to keep technical issues in the open for all to benefit from.

Elgg development forums

A quick heads up - next week we will relaunch Elgg.net with a new skin and default theme, the current look is a little tired and needs revamping. As well as the new skin there will be some nice features including a greatly enhanced search widget.

We will make sure that the new changes works with all existing themes including the current default so inconvenience will be kept to a minimum.

This is only the start - later in the summer a series of services will launch as well as some very cool developments, keep watching this space! 

http://elgg.net/dtosh/weblog/125762.html

As we get ready to relaunch Elgg.net with a new focus on providing a major networking site for education, the opportunity has arisen for those interested to get your business or organisation featured on the front page as a premium sponsor.

As part of the new redesign we are going to include two spaces each 120*120 just below the new login box - see screenshot below.

A couple of details:

1. Sponsorship will run month to month - we will offer better rates to those who sign up for longer periods.
2. We are looking for sponsorship from those connected to education in some capacity
3. At the moment we have 8100 users and growing quickly
4. Page views average out at around 3,100,000 per month

 

 

The coming months will see a lot of new developments which we are very excited about. These will most certainly shape the face of future learning technology and will place Elgg firmly at the forefront of this. Drop us a note at system@elgg.org if you are interested in becoming part of this as a sponsor.

http://elgg.net/bwerdmuller/weblog/125765.html

As Dave has just posted, next week we're relaunching Elgg.net as a fully-fledged community site for education. As part of this, there will be a number of sponsorship opportunities; more importantly, it represents a renewed focus on the site itself, and a commitment to maintain it as a flagship service.



So what else is going on?



In the next couple of weeks we're going to launch Elgg Spaces, a turnkey Elgg installation site. Anyone will be able to come along and sign up for their own private Elgg installation, which can either be a walled garden or public to the outside world. You'll be able to provide a default theme for the site, skin it how you like, and customise the system without any programming or pesky server configurations; hosted sites will always be upgraded to the latest version of Elgg and it'll be directly supported by the folks who wrote it to begin with. You'll be able to attach your own domain - e.g. yourinstitution.org or elgg.somecollege.edu - or use one of our subdomains. Should you then want to graduate to an installation hosted on your own servers, we'll help you move everything across.



Of course, the software itself will always be free and open source. There are major developments there too; Bill Fitzgerald wrote yesterday about the upcoming OpenID integration being headed by Kevin Jardine. OpenID is a lightweight, standards-based single sign on solution; it's already present in MediaWiki, Livejournal, Drupal and a growing collection of other software. You'll be able to use Elgg as your central identity, or log into an Elgg system using an OpenID based on another server. Once it's integrated into Elgg we'll roll it into an open source release, enable it on Elgg.net and allow it as an option on Elgg Spaces, as well as make it available in some very important forthcoming projects.



And let's not forget you can already hook it up to WebCT and Moodle.



As I hinted at above, there are other, very major Elgg-based projects in the works, which I'll be talking about as soon as I can. Watch this space ...



I'm really excited about where things are going, and what's really cool is that we're able to do it without losing sight of the ideals that got us here to begin with. The things that originally motivated us to work long hours for no pay are still motivating us now that this is our full-time job. From Dave and my original collaboration to a much larger group of people all feeding ideas and creating new implementations and ideas, this has been - and continues to be - one hell of an adventure. Thanks to everyone for sticking with us.

http://elgg.net/misja/weblog/125838.html

Although it may seem a bit quiet on the Elgg developers list and supporting forum actually quite a lot is happening in the background. Major happenings in the next few weeks will include the the revamp of elgg.net and, what I'm really excited about, is the launch of Elgg Spaces as Ben has already announced. I believe this will give institutions a safe place to experiment with the technology without going through the hassles of embedding it in their ICT infrastucture right away.

Looking a bit further down the road some projects will be announcing themselves which could very well change the face of learning environments and will affect thinking about e.g. portfolio's and the interaction with educational resources. Reading about the patent that was awarded to Blackboard actually made me think that they have done a very good job in framing the status quo and maybe even the past. Am I saying here Elgg will be the next big thing? Perhaps, but what I do see happening is that there's a renewed focus on the learner and the learner process and the notion that this process crosses the borders of institutions, faculties, courses, countries. It is indeed becoming distributed and Elgg is clearly at the forefront of these developments.

Dave has started with a series of posts which will clarify more how Elgg exactly relates to these trends and I believe will touch upon questions many will have. At the Curverider conference I, for example, will be telling about how a small university with campus sites around the world is thinking of new ways to support the learner. In this situation of course there still will be the need of some sort of course management system but the focus will be shifting to the learner and the learner community on a global scale. I've dubbed the presentation At the crossroads since it represents a shift from the grand unified learning management systems to more distributed and loosely coupled services centering around the individual. Elgg could be placed at the heart of such an environment acting as a hub, or PLE if you like.

So I think we have some exciting months ahead of us and the time is right for taking Elgg to the next level. Elgg.net will remain a flagship service and community site for education. Elgg Spaces will offer an opportunity for institutions to test the waters without the ICT infrastructure overhead and new technologies like OpenID that will get integrated will help build a true interconnected learning infrastructure. And don't forget there's already connections being made with Moodle and WebCT, with other systems like Blackboard and Drupal in the pipeline. Again, a lot of developments and also opportunies for businesses like the recently announced possibility of Elgg.net sponsorship which should be of interest.

On a personal note, during the past year I have become quite involved in this community and have enjoyed the contacts with various groups of people contributing energy and a wealth of ideas and thought into this. I'm really looking forward to the things to come.

http://elgg.net/dtosh/weblog/125849.html

I can now confirm the speaker lineup for the upcoming Curverider conference;

The revolution will not be televised: it is being podcast , Sept 4th, Edinburgh Scotland.

Keynote:

• Ben Werdmuller, technical director of Elgg
  
  The Internet is people: Elgg and a user-centred model for learning environments.

Speakers:

1. Misja Hoebe :: At the crossroads: supporting a global learner community at CHN University.
2. Miles Berry :: Personalisation, social learning and the e-strategy
3. Terry  Anderson :: Adoption issues in Social Software - Bridging the Innovation Gap.
   
4. Chris McKillop :: 'It's blogging Jim, but not as we know it': telling stories of learning in an on-line world
5. Kevin Jardine :: Integrating Elgg with other applications - a Drupal case study
6. Chris Sessusm :: Is there a community with this text?
7. Bill Fitzgerald :: title to be confirmed
8. Stan Stanier :: The Brighton experience

I am really looking forward to this event - it is going to be small and informal with plenty of opportunity for discussion. The conference is free so if you are going to be in Edinburgh on Sept 4th and want to come along, please let me know.