{"id":312,"date":"2012-10-01T12:08:17","date_gmt":"2012-10-01T12:08:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rosarioconsulting.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/?p=312"},"modified":"2012-12-06T06:08:50","modified_gmt":"2012-12-06T06:08:50","slug":"how-do-you-build-a-social-networking-site-for-free","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/inspiredtoeducate.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/how-do-you-build-a-social-networking-site-for-free\/","title":{"rendered":"How to build a social networking site for free using Elgg"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<!-- Facebook Like Button v1.9.6 BEGIN [http:\/\/blog.bottomlessinc.com] -->\n<iframe src=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/like.php?href=http%3A%2F%2Finspiredtoeducate.net%2Finspiredtoeducate%2Fhow-do-you-build-a-social-networking-site-for-free%2F&amp;layout=standard&amp;show_faces=false&amp;width=450&amp;action=like&amp;colorscheme=light\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowTransparency=\"true\" style=\"border:none; overflow:hidden; width:450px; height: 30px; align: left; margin: 2px 0px 2px 0px\"><\/iframe>\n<!-- Facebook Like Button END -->\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/rosarioconsulting.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/elgg.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-314\" title=\"Elgg\" src=\"http:\/\/rosarioconsulting.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/elgg.png\" alt=\"Elgg\" width=\"250\" height=\"126\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest have disrupted traditional channels of communication. \u00a0 While these existing sites are useful, organizations often need to establish their own social networking platform. \u00a0 \u00a0Instructional designers often use services like Ning.com to enable students to learn and collaborate. \u00a0 Some corporations see potential in social \u00a0media collaboration, but do not want to encourage Facebook activity at work. \u00a0 In my case, I am interested in building social networks that support alternate reality games. \u00a0 \u00a0The platform needs to support customization, gamification, branding, and analytics.<\/p>\n<p>On a personal note, I have been moved by many of my friends who have been out of employment. \u00a0 \u00a0I believe it would be cool to design a social networking community that supported job seekers. \u00a0 \u00a0Great communities learn how to connect their strengths and gifts to opportunities. \u00a0 \u00a0I would like to connect job seekers to each other. \u00a0 I would also aspire to connect job seekers to great education and mentors. \u00a0 And the whole experience should be fun.<\/p>\n<p>Over the weekend, I reviewed <a title=\"Elgg.org\" href=\"http:\/\/elgg.org\" target=\"_blank\">an open source and free platform for building a social network, Elgg<\/a>. \u00a0 \u00a0On my existing PHP\/MySql hosting site, it was simple to install. \u00a0 Like WordPress, the platform features a number of themes and plugins. \u00a0 Plugins and themes can be installed simply moving the content into a &#8220;mods&#8221; folder.<\/p>\n<p>Here are my favorite features to Elgg so far .<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Community support and documentation<\/strong>: \u00a0Community support and documentation for the open source project is active. \u00a0 From searches on YouTube, you can find tutorials on setup and management of a Elgg website.<\/li>\n<li><strong>The Wire<\/strong>: How would you like to build your own Twitter? \u00a0 Elgg has this as a feature. \u00a0 140 characters. Hashtags. \u00a0It&#8217;s all there. \u00a0Enjoy!<\/li>\n<li><strong>Google\u00a0analytics<\/strong>: For the data geeks out there, you can install a plugin to measure the behavior and health of the site using Google analytics.<\/li>\n<li><strong>User registration using Twitter.com<\/strong>: Using a plugin, you can enable your users to sign into the social networking site using Twitter. \u00a0 This process involved registering the site with Twitter.com as an application.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Themes<\/strong>: \u00a0Theme support looks pretty good. \u00a0It will be interesting to learn how to create themes. \u00a0 The themes that look like Facebook look pretty amazing. \u00a0 I found a few issues which prevent me from using it. \u00a0In general, the theme capability is pretty awesome.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Gamification<\/strong>: \u00a0 I am using a plugin called &#8220;Userpoints&#8221; to add a basic points system to the site. \u00a0 As a user of the site, you can obtain points for certain actions on the site. \u00a0(Posting to the wire, posting blog entries, commenting, etc.) \u00a0 \u00a0The points values awarded per site action can be configured.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Plugin authoring<\/strong>: \u00a0At some point, I will need to create my own plugins to establish a system of badges or other game elements. \u00a0 From a quick review of the documentation, Elgg makes this possible.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div>Here&#8217;s another sample Elgg site &#8212; SwampBook.com<\/div>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/rPkSOFC13_g\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>If you could build your own online community, what would you build?<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n<!-- Facebook Like Button v1.9.6 BEGIN [http:\/\/blog.bottomlessinc.com] -->\n<iframe src=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/like.php?href=http%3A%2F%2Finspiredtoeducate.net%2Finspiredtoeducate%2Fhow-do-you-build-a-social-networking-site-for-free%2F&amp;layout=standard&amp;show_faces=false&amp;width=450&amp;action=like&amp;colorscheme=light\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowTransparency=\"true\" style=\"border:none; overflow:hidden; width:450px; height: 30px; align: left; margin: 2px 0px 2px 0px\"><\/iframe>\n<!-- Facebook Like Button END -->\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest have disrupted traditional channels of communication. \u00a0 While these existing sites are useful, organizations often need to establish their own social networking platform. \u00a0 \u00a0Instructional designers often use services like Ning.com to enable students to learn and collaborate. \u00a0 Some corporations see [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7,6,8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/inspiredtoeducate.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/inspiredtoeducate.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/inspiredtoeducate.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/inspiredtoeducate.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/inspiredtoeducate.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=312"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/inspiredtoeducate.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":317,"href":"http:\/\/inspiredtoeducate.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312\/revisions\/317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/inspiredtoeducate.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/inspiredtoeducate.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/inspiredtoeducate.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}