Elgg Jam 07 has concluded. I had to leave before the bitter end to wend my way home, which was a shame but the day has been very illuminating.
In trying to capture some first thoughts, especially the ones that are not very well thought through yet, I hope I don't end up with the messy end of the stick; things is one or two issues are really beginning to nag at me.
The question of ownership is really becoming quite critical I think. For me, it the biggest question that Elgg and owners of elgg installations need to address.
I now doubt that Universities and other centres of learning are actually the best place for an Elgg platform. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one thinking this too.
I asked a question of Stan regarding the Brighton Elgg community and whether or not students were free to continue to use their Brighton Elgg account after they finished their course of study; they are not.
If PDP/e-Portfolio/Lifelong learning et al are to be a genuine prospect then surely these accounts, and the evidence they amass (including aspects of Informal learning and Prior Experience) must be available, and be guaranteed to be available for as long as the learner wants it? Graham Atwell was his usual entertaining self and was forceful in making precisely this point (far more eloquently than this posting I must add); and I agree wholeheartedly.
I'm looking forward to the release of the Elgg 1.0 candidate. Ben teased us with his vision, not of a new fully featured software release, but the promise of a standards based architecture of interconnecting modules that administrators will be free to opt-in/out of and to connect in more stable and sustainable ways to other web-based services and sites. If this means that the data that a learner accumulates while at Uni with her Elgg account can be exported/transformed for use in another (employer?) version of Elgg then perhaps my own worries are unfounded - we'll see.
This has been a tremendously valuable day for me, and I'm sure for other Elgg administrators and developers. My conversations with others from far and wide (a great number of nationalities present!) have been both inspiring and informative.
Well done Brighton and looking forward to Elgg Jam 08!
UPDATE: Jon Dron has a very good run down of the day here:
http://community.brighton.ac.uk/jd29/weblog/15399.html
Filed under: 07, Elgg, Elggjam, ePortfolio, ownership, PDP, Presentation
