I think that Elgg has great potential, but to be honest I'm not entirely sure how to use it.
I dont know many people on the system and find it difficult to "make friends" as there is no direct interaction between users other than posting on their blogs, which seems a bit intrusive. Yet the potential to create a community out of disparate people with a common interest is Elgg's strength
One of the problems is that there isnt really a forum for direct interaction - such as a discussion space, a chatroom or a whiteboard, with blogs being used as the main expositive vehicle. Perhaps its my natural shyness
there is difficulty in knowing your audience with a blog.
Perhaps with a defined community (eg course group) set up in advance and taken in to Elgg, these issues might be lessened as the norms of the community and its objectives would be pre-determined, however to some extent that mitigates against the potential of Elgg for learners to create their own communities.
Use cases would be very welcome, as indeed would case studies. I also think that Elgg would benefit from some communication tools, such as discussion forum tools or chatroom tools inbuilt into the system, which I think would give people an opportunity to enter into the system and initially define their identity through dialogue with others.
Mhairi
