Open Source Social Software

This week, a bunch of us from the Emerge project were invited to contribute to the OSS Watch expert workshop on profiling communities. I was asked to present, and as part of my talk looked at the current state of Open Source social networking platforms and tools. I'm hoping to follow up with an evaluation matrix of the platforms, but in the meantime, I'm happy to pass on brief details of the sites and services I looked at. This isn't an exhaustive list by any means - I'm happy to report that there is plenty of choice if you are looking to invest time, energy and resources in using open source tools. This list represents  examples of what's currently available & is not an endorsement of any particular product or company :)

Open Source Social Networking Platforms

All in one solutions for community hosting, providing user profiles, tools sets & supporting collaborative activity. 

• AROUNDMe  http://www.barnraiser.org/

Developed by Barnraiser a Swedish based registered not-for-profit organisation. AROUNDMe is suite of three social tools, designed to help users create their own OpenID-based services and tools for individuals and groups.

• Elgg  http://elgg.org/

Social networking engine Elgg coming soon in two flavors - Classic Elgg and the soon to be released Elgg 1.0. Elgg, developed by the UK-based company Curverider.

• Dolphin 6.1 http://www.boonex.com/products/dolphin/

One of a suite of tools from Australian based company BoonEx, who offer hosted options. A test platform is available at http://www.boonex.us/

• Insoshi http://portal.insoshi.com/

US-based Michael Hartl and Long Nguyen's company, project and product Inoshi. The Insoshi open-source social networking platform grew out of RailsSpace.

• LovdbyLess http://lovdbyless.com/

Like Insoshi, Lovdbyess is built with ruby on rails, by US-based developer team Less Everything, to provide a free, open source basic social network  platform that additional specific functionality can be added to.

• Mahara http://www.mahara.org/

E-portfolio social networking software developed for the education community, and including a résumé builder/digital CV. The Mahara project is based in New Zealand, with partner organisations in Japan and the UK.

Open Source Social News

Stand alone and built to work with existing content management platforms, these tools allow users to share content published online, and comment on there own or others contributions.

• Drupaligg http://drupaligg.com

A Digg clone built over Drupal

• Newscloud http://www.newscloud.com

Newscloud is an OS Media Platform, designed to support communities around news and discussion. Information about downloading and developing can be found here.

• Pligg http://www.pligg.com/

An OS content management system providing an interactive website for users to submit, vote and discuss web-based content.

Open Source Social Bookmarking

• GetBoo http://www.getboo.com/

• Scuttle http://sourceforge.net/projects/scuttle/

• Unalog http://unalog.com

Open Source Video Sharing

• Plumi http://plumi.org

• Showinabox http://showinabox.tv/ For creating WordPress video blogs

• FilmForge http://filmforge.koumbit.net/ Video for Drupal

Open Source Microblogging

• Identi.ca http://identi.ca/ Open Source federated microblogging

• Laconica http://laconi.ca/

Open Source Virtual Worlds

• Croquet http://www.opencroquet.org/

• NMC Open Virtual Worlds Projecthttp://www.nmc.org/news/nmc/nmc-launches-open-virtual-worlds-project

Extension of Sun Microsystems’s open source Project Darkstar and Project Wonderland

• OpenSimulator http://opensimulator.org

A Virtual Worlds Server which can be used for creating and deploying 3D Virtual Environments. Compatible with the Second Life client.

• OpenSource Metaverse Project http://metaverse.sourceforge.net/

Open Source Lifestreaming

• Mugshot http://mugshot.org/main

• Sweetcron http://www.sweetcron.com/

• SimpleLife http://kierandelaney.net/blog/projects/simplelife/

& many more at: http://lifestreamblog.com/create/

Projects to watch/Upcoming 

• Buddy Press http://buddypress.org/

Open Source project creating plug-ins to turn Wordpress Multi-User into a social network platform.

• Identi.ca http://identi.ca/ Open Source federated microblogging

• SocialLearn http://www.open.ac.uk/blogs/socialearn/index.php

The Open University's project is already picking up fans, and leaning towards OS. Fingers crossed.

• Wikia’s Social Profile extension for Mediawiki http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:SocialProfile

adding social elements including profile pages and friending to the popular wiki software

Comments

[Opensource Obscure]

Cool!
You may want to add to 'Open Source Virtual Worlds':

OpenSimulator
http://opensimulator.org
A Virtual Worlds Server which can be used for creating and deploying 3D Virtual Environments. Compatible with the Second Life client.

[Josie Fraser]

Thanks for the heads up:) I'll add in suggested extra software once I've had time to go check it out.

[dave cormier]

http://davecormier.com/edblog/category/opensim/ might want to start checking it out here J.

d.

[Josie Fraser]

Thanks for the links & the enthusiasm D :) I've amended the list.

[jdblack64]

Thanks for the wonderful list!! I wasn't aware of all the opensource virtual world apps/platforms. Wow! And of particular interest to me is Buddy Press. That's one project that looks very promising for those of us having groups of students contribute to one blog and yet, want a little something more. Nice work!

[yish]

check out http://osliving.com/index.php: an index of OSS, and itself an open-content, social platform.
Lots of stuff already listed and ranked, so in true OS spirit, maybe better to contribute than to compete?indexed

[yish]

there's also the growing wave of citizen journalism sites, e.g.http://www.nowpublic.com/

[Josie Fraser]

Thanks for the excellent links Yish - certainly not trying to compete, really just trying to provide something that's reasonably accessible to people new to OS social software, and run through the variety of apps out there :)

[David Adamson]

Considering that there are now so many social networks catering to such a wide range of niches, my biggest problem is finding ones relevant to me and related to my specific interests or product niches. Google seems to be inefficient and returns alot of irrelevant results. A good resource that I use to find them is this search engine for social networks called FindASocialNetwork.com

[Josie Fraser]

Hi David. Checked out your site but the results were only so-so for a search on 'Open Source', a lot of groups etc in there rather than actual platforms and applications. My ad rates are very reasonable however.

[Jay Neely - Boston Entrepreneur & Web Strategist]

Nice list, Josie. What are your thoughts on how this software has evolved, though? I've been thinking about it, and it feels like there's so much more progress to be made. I've written a post on what would happen if/when trends like emphasis on collaboration, increased bandwidth availability, and structured contact data all collide. I think that's when we get True Social Software: http://socialstrategist.com/2008/02/19/true-social-software-snss-of-2010-part-ii

I'd love to hear your thoughts.

[Josie Fraser]

I like your post very much - really thought provoking, especially for me as someone working outside of a FLOSS software community structure. Comments are switched off though! Would love to talk with you some more about the idea of a 'true' SS - is it useful/how useful is it to have one? What does it prohibit? etc :)

[Emil]

You may want to add OpenWack to your list: http://www.skalfa.com/openwack/

[Giovani Spagnolo]

Nice compilation... you might want to add the floss Social Networking software "Noosfero" to your list - http://www.colivre.coop.br/Noosfero/WebHome