Over the next hour or so you may notice a few things changing - this is because we are updating the Elgg.net site. 

One of the most obvious changes you will notice is that the default theme has changed - if you prefer the 'classic Elgg' theme that used to be the default you can still access it by going to 'Account Settings' (top right) then selecting 'Change theme' and choosing 'Classic Elgg'

We will post a notice when all changes have been implemented.

http://elgg.net/bwerdmuller/weblog/126467.html

Quite a few people have sent me emails with links to the news that DOPA passed the House of Representatives by 410 to 15 votes, wondering how it affects Elgg. The Deleting Online Predators Act requires schools and libraries to prevent access to social networking sites. The big one the politicians no doubt had in mind is MySpace, itself for questionable reasons, but they've overshot a little.



Via the Ars Technica link above, banned sites are those that adhere to the following criteria:

(i) is offered by a commercial entity;

(ii) permits registered users to create an on-line profile that includes detailed personal information;

(iii) permits registered users to create an on-line journal and share such a journal with other users;

(iv) elicits highly-personalized information from users; and

(v) enables communication among users.

This is an insane piece of legislation that makes it illegal to provide access to basically any commercial site on the Internet. It's short-sighted, is underpinned by backwards ideas about the Internet, and needs to be fought, sooner rather than later.



However, it doesn't affect Elgg. (It may affect Elgg.net, which is a Curverider service and therefore technically commercial.) Elgg installations at institutions or hosted on Elgg Spaces are provided by the institution, and therefore escape the legislation. In fact, Elgg may be the only social networking system school-age educators can use within the law. The people it does affect are the US educators creating learning spaces in commercial services like MySpace and Flickr. There's no longer any question about whether or not it's a good idea - it's illegal!



Luckily for them, this is likely to grow the market for simple tools designed for use on an institutional network. It's about time that service companies started to look beyond redesigning the VLE for the nth time - particularly in light of another half-witted decision - and started providing other supporting tools that educators can use in their teaching.

http://elgg.net/dtosh/weblog/126991.html

This summer has been a busy one for Elgg and things are about to get even busier with the launch of Elgg Spaces.

"Elgg Spaces gives you all the power of the Elgg learning landscape software, without the hassle of running your own server. That means you get your own social networking system for learning with blogs, podcasting, fine-grained access controls, and everything you've come to expect from one of the world's fastest growing open source e-learning products - instantly. No technical knowledge is required."

We decided to build this service in response to the number of hosting enquires we received over the past 4 or 5 months. It has become clear that a turnkey solution, for those who want their own social learning environment, is required.

http://elgg.net/bwerdmuller/weblog/127403.html

Technology and learning has an article about Elgg online today:

Klein, an early adopter who licensed the free software for Saugus USD last year, says his school district's self-contained Elgg community has 169 members. Some teachers share lesson plans and photos through the file depository; others have developed informational podcasts that parents can subscribe to. This fall Saugus plans to pilot Elgg with its 6th graders and also form a community for grant writing. "We're seeing little islands of innovation being shared throughout the district," says Klein. "It's binding us together."

For the full article, click here.

http://elgg.net/dtosh/weblog/127473.html

Technology and learning has run an article on Elgg:

Klein, an early adopter who licensed the free software for Saugus USD last year, says his school district's self-contained Elgg community has 169 members. Some teachers share lesson plans and photos through the file depository; others have developed informational podcasts that parents can subscribe to. This fall Saugus plans to pilot Elgg with its 6th graders and also form a community for grant writing. "We're seeing little islands of innovation being shared throughout the district," says Klein. "It's binding us together."

For the full article,  click here.

If you would like to read the full interview you can do so here:

Inside the mind of a Web2.0 developer 

Elgg is one of the most widely talked-about e-learning applications around, and Elgg.net is probably the most well-known Elgg community. Some of the most important people in learning - both educators and students alike - have accounts here, and the community is linked to from across the web.

Our new front page design features two 120x120 sponsorship boxes which are available for purchase on a monthly basis. We have around eight thousand influential users and an average of approximately 14,000 individual visitors a day (we get over three million pageviews a month). We have received some press lately - see our Technology and Learning article and this article on Read/WriteWeb - and there will be lots more to follow, particularly in relation to some high-profile announcements later in the year.

If you would like to discuss this or any other sponsorship opportunity, please click here to contact Curverider Ltd, or contact Dave or Ben individually using the contact details on their profiles.