<![CDATA[Common Public - Welcome ElggCampSF Attendees: Discussion topics]]> http://commonpublic.com/discussion/owner/204 http://commonpublic.com/discussion/view/248/why-common-public Fri, 23 Mar 2012 01:18:40 -0400 http://commonpublic.com/discussion/view/248/why-common-public <![CDATA[Why Common Public?]]> What is CommonPublic?  It’s an Elgg 1.8.3 site where Elgg enthusiasts can introduce their friends and personal networks to the advantages of Elgg.  Any ad revenue generated will be donated back to Elgg, or UNICEF.  As an active user of Elgg on MyFreePersonals.com, one of my concerns is that we need to fund more development of Elgg.  The Elgg Foundation needs sponsors.  Right now there are no large, famous Elgg sites creating buzz or interest in the platform.  I’m proposing that CommonPublic.com could be that site, if enough people help.  I’ll host it for free, but I won’t own it.

I created CommonPublic as an idea for a breakout session at ElggCampSF, inspired by the Facebook IPO and inevitable backlash as they exploit their users’ personal information more and more to add shareholder value.  Before too long, there will be a demand for a social network that is not run for profit. Germanyalready has a site called kaioo.com that was created by former Sony BMG Music executive Rolf Schmidt-Holz, where 100% of revenue goes to charity, but it never caught on outsideGermanyand it does not use open source software, so it definitely lacks some of the polished features of Elgg.  I suggested migrating, but no response yet.

Further evidence of the public desire for a not-for-profit alternative to Facebook is the growth of the Diaspora network of social nodes.  Their stated goal at joindiaspora.com is for every user to own their own data, but very few users are interested in hosting their own web server for their profile, so instead Diaspora has about ten central nodes like diasp.org.  When you join a node, you explicitly trust the node owner with your data.  Many of the nodes ask for donations, because they are not cheap to run.  Inevitably, they will need to charge a fee, or start running advertisements.  So the reality is short of the goal inspired by freedomboxfoundation.org.

However, Diaspora is a serious challenge to Elgg inOSSsocial networking.  With their headquarters in San Francisco, just down Market St from here, six full time employees, in addition to a vast developer network inspired in part by media attention, they are growing their platform very rapidly.  Of course, it is built on Ruby on Rails, and they are experiencing serious problems with the distributed aspects of their design, but they will adapt. 

The question is whether Diaspora will become the leading social network tool of the future, or if Elgg can step up to the challenge and fill that role. That is why I wanted to start CommonPublic.com.  There is no reason we can not build a great social network on Elgg and help donate back to Elgg.  If you agree, and want to help, register at CommonPublic.com or contact me at common@commonpublic.com.

]]> Mike http://commonpublic.com/discussion/view/238/facebook-and-diaspora Tue, 20 Mar 2012 03:46:26 -0400 http://commonpublic.com/discussion/view/238/facebook-and-diaspora <![CDATA[Facebook and Diaspora]]> Interesting article from PC World last year:

7 Would-Be Facebook Replacements: How They Rate

Diaspora

 

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Diaspora, for all the headlines it's gotten, is still not much more than an idea. Mind you, with almost $200,000 of support from thousands of donors at Kickstarter.com, it's also a very popular idea.

Technically, Diaspora sounds a lot like Appleseed. It's also going to be built from open-source software, and it's going to be a distributed network server application. More power to them, but at least Appleseed already has some code.

The first Diaspora code release is slated for September.

Elgg

 

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Along with these fledgling projects, there's an open-source social network software platform that's already available and working: Elgg. However, there is a fundamental difference between Elgg and these other networks: Rather than being a social network, Elgg is designed for companies and groups to run their own social networks.

You can either run your own Elgg installation -- according to the Web site, the developers will be happy to help you --- or you can host your site with a provider that specializes in Elgg sites. Starting later this summer, you'll also be able to host it on Elgg.com itself.

While businesses and social groups may find Elgg interesting, it's not really a Facebook competitor in and of itself. Of course, if someone were to decide to use Elgg as the foundation for a Facebook challenger, that would be a different story. I'd be very surprised if someone doesn't try it.

]]> Mike