The aim of this page is to give a follow up on what is the current status on our search for the best social network for TheTransitioner. It displays current status of our search. Come back to this page often to check for regular updates.
TheTransitioner vision on social networks
We want to make possible that current Social Networks (SN) can turn into Global Wisdom Driven Organizations (GWDO). It means not only people can network, share ideas, get to know each other like in existing SN, but they can also operate together as a whole while individuals keep their sovereignty and uniqueness (holopticism).
We also want these next SN to be able to integrate the next Free Currencies, be it in their code, or more likely through widgetization.
Our strategy
Before we have the perfect SN that can embed the flowplace and the free currencies, we need a ready-to-use and easy-to-configure SN. We call it V1 (Version 1). Once we have a V2 (version 2) up and running we will ask our community to migrate there. Not a big deal.
Even this might be a temporary SN, we are very careful about which one we want to use. We are working on a comparison chart which we are about to share here.
So far the remaining candidates are: Ning, Grou.ps, Elgg, Dolphin technology
Some key features for V1
- Easy to set up and configure -- homepage, look&feel, features -- so that we don't have to spend too much inner resources on this
- Cool and easy end-user experience
- Cool dashboards (community and individual)
- Highly integrates widgets
- Good enough CMS, i.e. easy to publish html and widgetized pages, with active link management system (like in a wiki)
- Easy to harmonize with other sections of TT (wiki, flowplace, campus...)
Vision for V2
Same as V1, plus...
13 Feb. 2009
Here is a shortlist of how we see these technologies and choices... (check full ongoing, collaborative comparizon charge further below).
SN / Technology
| Advantages
| Drawbacks
| Comments
|
| Ning | Ready-to-use, easy, clean Great for event publishing Easy intuitive end user interface | Poor editors Poor CMS features Not open source Privately owned, they may change their policy when they want | Likely too big to partnership with TT because entangled in current paradigm. Might be difficult to see them understand the next free currencies. Still needs quite some css work |
| Grou.ps | Open source Great for CMS Active in forums | Beta User page (publishing, customization) still not reaching our standards Events publishing definitely poor People-to-people feature still alpha stage Still too young for our own requirements | Still small organization, ready to play with TT? Their level of commitment could make a difference. Still needs quite some css work |
| Elgg | Open source Huge dev community Tons of addons Highly, totally configurable | Couldn't see how to configure a home page and a community dashboard! | Might be a good candidate for V2, but definitely not as V1 |
| Dolphin technology | Open source Seems highly configurable Seems more advanced features | To be checked | At this present stage we don't know how much work is needed to configure it as V1 |
However, I notice a strong convergence of values and objectives (though the focus is different) between the Transitioner and WiserEarth (WE), a wider network. WE has already developed great tools on www.wiserearth.org Wouldn't it be also an option to contemplate to operate as a "group" on WiserEarth ?