New Media Awards 2007 Atos Origin

Elgg OS

Nominated in Education award category.

Curverider/Dave Tosh and Ben Werdmuller are the UK-based development team behind Elgg OS, an open source, white-label social networking platform which is being used to support a range of international education-based communities and networks, including Brighton University, JISC's Emerge project and the eduspaces.org community.

1 nomination from readers

  • 1. Elgg represents a critical development in educational software. Origionally designed to support learner-centered e-portfolio's, Elgg has functioned as the only working prototype of a Personal Learning Environment - an important conceptual development in supporting learners, which the platform has enabled to practical development of (google PLE or personal learning environment). The team have also been involved in supporting the use of Open ID and Elgg is just about the only software which recognises and works with learners distributed learning practices and identities. The Curverider team have shown passion and dedication in their commitment to improving the internet based tools available to learners - not only is the platform Open Source, it's development has not recived direct or substantial funding from either education or the private sector.

    Nominated by Josie Fraser, 19 May 2007

5 comments from readers

  • It is great to see Dave and Ben receive some long overdue recognition for their work

    Submitted by Graham Attwell, 19 May 2007

  • I couldn't agree more - these guys are real visionaries and absolutely deserve recognition for their work on Elgg and the emerging Explode which has the potential to radically change the face of social networks.

    Submitted by Stan Stanier, 19 May 2007

  • I fully agree - it's incredibly useful - while I still see it as an Educational Tool, it's also good to see something moving from an exclusively education field to a more general one.

    Submitted by Emma Duke-Williams, 19 May 2007

  • All power to Dave and Ben. They so much deserve recognition. Elgg has begun to transform the way we work at my University and has inspired exciting and innovative thinking about the use of e-portfolios, social networking and personal learning environments.

    Submitted by Terry Wassall, 19 May 2007

  • Elgg is not only suited to formal educational settings. We are using it on a social networking project for Women in IT

    Submitted by Frances Bell, 24 May 2007