All about Elgg, the new social media platform
You may have heard about the social media platform called Elgg. It is growing in popularity and everyone is puzzled by how useful it is and how smart it works. Now if you don’t want to be left behind and want to know more about it, read on and find out for yourself if it deserves so much attention.
What is Elgg?
Elgg is actually an open source social media platform that you can get for FREE. It was created by Dave Tosh and Ben Werdmuller and was first released in 2004. Last year, it underwent a complete code rewrite and is now available in version 1.6.2.
The Elgg social media platform is actually more than just a social network. It supports a wide range of other social media tools such as blogs, microblogs, RSS feeds, wikis, bookmarks, and more on one platform. For these reasons, it is definitely not difficult to understand why it is growing in popularity. It simply has everything everyone needs. Surely you don’t want to settle for less, right?
Elgg for collaborative work and social learning: Elgg rewards collaborative work and social learning. In fact, the founders call the platform a “learning landscape.” It is created specifically for education.
How is Elgg different from the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) ?: VLE focuses primarily on the course and its content delivery, while Elgg focuses on the person (learner) and their interactions. Elgg is more like an informal space that allows students to exercise their thoughts and let them flow freely. It’s about allowing you to reflect and make your own connections without the complex focus and structure of VLE. Elgg allows you to discuss and feel real life.
Why choose Elgg?
Currently, there are now different social media tools available to the public. However, not all users can keep up with the overwhelming task of working with a large number of tools. Although some people may find the challenge just fine, many just can’t get things to work and are overwhelmed by the tools. That’s why, in addition to the points already mentioned, here are other reasons why the Elgg social media platform is good:
o Allows you to create, manage and organize your own personal contacts and other resources. In addition, it also allows you to work with other users so that you can basically co-create and share content and various resources in groups.
o Since Elgg is used within an organization, you won’t have to work to put together a range of separate social media tools. Imagine how much time, effort, and emotions you would have to expend if it weren’t. Elgg saves you a lot of energy and does everything you need in a click away.
o It also allows you to get rid of security and privacy concerns. Everything in the organization is safe because you can choose your own privacy settings.
o Allows you to enjoy a perfect environment where you can use a wide range of social media tools that you can freely share with your friends whenever you want.
o It is not a centralized service unlike commercial networks that have a space mark. It allows you to customize your system according to your specific needs and requirements, while maintaining site-to-site connectivity.
How to access Elgg?
Since Elgg is open source, it is free for anyone who wants to install it on their server. However, you must have the basic technical knowledge on how to maintain your own web server. If you are looking for a personal space, just log in to Elgg.net. It’s a good place to start learning more about what the Elgg social media platform can do and how it can help you.