Comments on: The sorry eduspaces saga rolls on

By: PhD » Migration, migration…

PhD » Migration, migration… — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 12:27:52 +0000

[...] was a worrying time. Several people were concerned that TIG may want to have used their own Social Networking Software, rather than Elgg, others about the differences in privacy / copyright policies between Eduspaces & [...]

By: A. T. Wyatt

A. T. Wyatt — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 14:11:35 +0000

This post is quite interesting! Much food for thought.

http://pabspotpourri.blogspot.com/2008/02/any-elgg-users-out-there.html

By: Graham Attwell

Graham Attwell — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 14:12:46 +0000

Its an interesting one to call Terry. Am very pleased that TIG have stuck with Elgg. On one hand may see a splintering but on the other hand we may now begin to see a lot of opportunities for creativity in developing different forms of social networks. Yes, I think maintenance of Elgg classic is important - although of course we may get new OS applications based on the Elgg 1.0 code which can be installed out of the box.

By: Emma

Emma — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 14:11:08 +0000

I got mine this morning; hope yours arrives!

By: Terry

Terry — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 14:02:44 +0000

I think this is, on the whole, very good news. It will be interesting to see in what ways the TIG elgg installation is developed and if any of it will be a contribution to the OS project. In fact, with the announcement of Elgg 1.0 and it rationale, the whole developmental trajectory of Elgg is may splinter into many individual hybrids of OS and customised elements. I hope that Elgg Classic does continue and becomes a robust system as many non-techies may need something simpler to install and run (I’m thinking of myself of course).

By: Graham Attwell

Graham Attwell — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 08:58:00 +0000

Very glad to here that they will be using Elgg - haven’t got an email myself from TIG though.

By: Emma

Emma — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 08:46:39 +0000

Typical, I wrote a great long answer, and then the PC lost the connection when I tried to post it.

I’ll try again.

I agree with A.T. Wayatt, in that Eduspaces was an excellent example of an Elgg install, indeed, I had to get quite a lot of people to realise that there was Elgg beyond Eduspaces!

I’ve just read an email from TakingItGlobal, confirming that they’re going to be using Elgg, which is a good thing I think. As Nigel says, the community in Eduspaces was good; I liked the fact that the majority of the users were educational technologists (using technology for education’s sake, not technology’s sake); that, added to the ability to have great granularity of post visibility (not that I ever used it, but it was nice to know that I could have), and the fact I could import external blog posts, all added up to a great system for me.

I’m hoping that once it’s moved to TakingItGlobal (after all, we’ve already had one change of name), that the community continues and grows, and this is seen as a minor glitch.

By: Nigel Robertson

Nigel Robertson — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 11:07:26 +0000

Couldn’t agree more with your final comment, Graham, concerning the lack of communication surrounding the movement or demise of Eduspaces. Whatever the difficulties that the Curverider team may have had in maintaining the site, some simple emails out to users would make the world of difference. Communication is key to so much goodwill.

Elgg.net (which became Eduspaces) really felt like a community when it started. I’ve made friends and even found work through it. I somehow feel that it will never be the same and that much of the community spirit will be diluted and disbursed.

By: 益学会 > OLDaily 中文版 » Blog Archive » 2008年2月8日：EduSpace，SciVee，开放大学，虚拟援救，教授尝试Web2.0

Sat, 09 Feb 2008 05:03:57 +0000

[...] Attwell, Pontydysgu February 8, 2008 [原文链接] [Tags: Networks, Domain Names] [...]

By: A. T. Wyatt

A. T. Wyatt — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 12:36:13 +0000

I have to say that I think my “communities” have been wounded unto death! I am currently piping my feed into eduspaces from edublogs. The first time we experienced the dislocation, it was a scramble (because we thought it was permanent, and there was little time to find a new home). Since then we have had a relatively long holding period– no visible action and no information. Recently, there seems to be a bit of action, but the communication aspect is still quite limited.

For myself, eduspaces.net was a powerful example of ELGG. I would never have asked my institution to install ELGG had I not been able to “kick the tires” of a working instance of ELGG. I am sorry to see the demise of eduspaces in its original incarnation, but I suppose it should be no surprise. People have to pay the bills, and we/I have come to expect a lot from “free” services. Sometimes these services are not really “free” (i.e., Facebook/Beacon). Some are more “free”, (Moodle does pretty well with this). But any way you look at it, there has to be some kind of revenue production in order to sustain the product. I accept that, and as a user I either agree to it, or go elsewhere, or install my own, or purchase hosting.

My main complaint with the eduspaces situation is the lack of communication with users. It takes a lot of effort (read: resources) to manage relationships well. Especially on-line relationships. I wish we had been favored with a little more effort with respect to dialog! : )