open source social networking with elgg

if you are planning to create your own social networking website, instead of working from scratch, check out Elgg. Elgg is an open source social networking platform.

from their website:

“Elgg is an open, flexible social networking engine, designed to run at the heart of any socially-aware application. Building on Elgg is easy, and because the engine handles common web application and social functionality for you, you can concentrate on developing your idea.”

Elgg can be extended through plugins, plugins provide ways of adding functionality to Elgg like facebook applications.

encouraging FOSS adoption

this blog talks about how to get more and more FOSS exposure in schools and organizations.

from A Quantum of FOSS:

I believe it is important for every parent and taxpayer to contact their school district’s superintendent and/or IT department and voice their frustration over the money spent on a fairly useless education tool like MS Office when entirely sufficient free replacements exist. Parents and taxpayers need to make it known that wasting public funds in this way is not appropriate and may very well impact their votes on future funding efforts like bonds and mill levies.

Read full post here.

facebook chat plugin for pidgin

pidgin-facebookchat plugin connects open-source IM application Pidgin with facebook’s new instant messaging service, previously this feature is being provided by Digsby, a new IM application with emphasis on social networks integration with Instant Messaging. pidgin-facebookchat plugin is available for both windows and linux users. you can get it here

facebook chat for pidgin