Building social networking sites with Elgg

Packt is pleased to announce the availability of its new book on Elgg, the free open-source tool used to create social networks. Written by Mayank Sharma, the book teaches users to create their own fully customized, hosted social network for their business, organization, or group of friends.

Elgg is an open-source social web application licensed under GPL version 2, and runs on the LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP) or WAMP (Windows, Apache, MySQL, PHP) platform. It offers a networking platform combining elements of blogging, e-portfolios, news feed aggregation, file sharing, and social networking.

Elgg provides each user with a personal weblog, file repository (with podcasting capabilities), an online profile, and an RSS reader. Additionally, all of a user's content can be tagged with keywords—so they can connect with other users with similar interests and create their own personal learning network.

Because it's open source, and has many plug-ins, Elgg can be extended in unlimited ways. This book provides users with all they need to know to create safe, fun social networks. It is especially useful in education as it has many features making it suitable for e-learning, including groups, communities, and blogs that can be used for online classes

People teaching e-learning and those who are interested in social networking will find this book useful. For more information about the book, please visit: www.packtpub.com/elgg-social-networking/book