We've been posting about some Elgg use cases recently, Community@Brighton being the latest. One other interesting and well designed Elgg site is paraglidingpilot.net, run by Sean Thompson. We caught up with him and asked him why he built the site, why he choose Elgg and about any future plans.
Why a site for paragliders? I am an avid paraglider and an active promoter of the sport. I wanted to give paragliders, hang gliders and other aerial sports enthusiasts a place on the web to call home, a highly accessible and much needed base from which to promote their sport/s, and the ability to have an audible voice in both online and offline communities.... But most importantly to show off your pilot stats, photos, videos and fantasmagoric knowledge of everything that ever flew ;)
What made you choose Elgg? Elgg seemed to have not only the social networking aspect which was my primary focus when looking for a social networking platform, but also the "information sociology" structure that I was looking for.
What was the most challenging and rewarding thing about Elgg? The most challenging aspect developing with Elgg was by far the task of deconstructing the script so I could work with and manipulate it. You must learn the "Elgg way" of doing things before making too many changes otherwise you get lost very quickly. So naturally the most rewarding thing about developing with Elgg for me was finding out the core works like a charm and does everything it's supposed to if you take the time to learn it and familiarize yourself with its operations/functions. The minor bugs I came across seemed to be just that, minor.
What about future plans? In relation to ParaglidingPilot.net, I am currently working on incorporating Google Earth which will allow pilots to upload and share their GPS trip logs/files via path-mapped GoogleEarth satelite photos. The Elgg system will be modified to link pilots with others who have recently flown in the same area or crossed one anothers flight paths at some point in time. This will add a unique element to our communities social networking algorithm.
I have another Elgg community which is still in development stages, it will be used to test and possibly release some very unique mods and plugins not seen in any social system before. Enough said... ;)
Comments
it will be used to test and possibly release some very unique mods and plugins not seen in any social system before. Enough said... ;)
Sounds great. I hope you would share the mods to the community?!
Nice implementation.