I've really enjoyed the collaborative components of this educationbridges.net elgg installation. I love that instead of my personal blog, I am part of a community. I don't feel like I really have to use my aggregator as much, as I can just hit this community of educators, see what folks are up to using the View all posts link.
I'm also excited to see folks starting to add to the community. Asking how it works, what they see improving the community (icons, communities, etc.). It's a neat place to hang out.
I can also have communities that I belong to, to filter some of the content (as we get really hot this fall!). As I listened the EdTechTalk interview of Nancy White's on online communities last week, I found myself thinking about this site being an important step for me -- away from the stand along blog and towards the community blogging experience. I would even call it a community learning experience.
So I'm thinking of moving over --- making the change. Redirecting Learning-Blog.org to my elgg blogg. I know that I don't have as much flexibility, but as the developers add widgits and other functionality, Elgg will be able to do much of what wordpress does and more.
So what do you think?
Keywords: blog, blogging, collaboration, community, EdTechTalk, elgg, Nancy White, wordpress
Posted by Alex Ragone |
Comments
Hi Alex,
Sorry the annoying back button bug is still there - we are working to kill this!
As for moving your blog over, it really depends - as a stand alone blog WordPress is king (in my opinion) however, for me, Elgg is not only about blogging - sure the blogging component plays an important part - but it just that, one part, this is much more about creating a space and then choosing how and when to interact with others.
Personally I love the community aspect that can grow very quickly and when we enable collaboration across different installs (a bit later this summer) that will be really exciting, in fact it will open up a whole new realm of possibility.
I guess it depends what you are looking for - certainly v0.7 will be able to do most of what WordPress does, plus all the extra functionality of Elgg, but I would still not like to say use Elgg instead of WordPress - Wordpress is such a great product and has a vibrant community producing excellent themes and plugins for it.
I guess it comes down to your needs. There is always the option of using your wordpress blog and porting in the content relevant for this community?
Sorry not to have any real answer :)
Alex, a bold step it would be. It is about taking that risk of not standing on your own, but standing in the community (usually the opposite, right?), identifying as a community member instead of a lone blogger. For one, it might make you committed to keep EducationBridges alive :) It would also keep fresh content coming on EducationBridges. I do think you would lose some of the fun of having your own blog, but like you said, widgets in Elgg might make it much more flexible in the future.
I am starting my having Elgg pull my blog in automatically (see one of Dave's earlier tips). Hasn't worked for me yet, but messing with it.
Thanks for the comments, Arvind and Dave. I was thinking about this move this morning, and although I am not ready to pull the plug yet, I do think it is a good think for the community. Having full time bloggers is key.
I too have been trying to import my posts to no avail. We'll get that working soon as it is important to keeping the community active and vibrant.