Elgg and WP-BuddyPress - Evolving the Social Networking space

Image by Andy Peatling via FlickrScheduled for release on Aug 18, Elgg v1.0 is set to create a stir in the world of social networking scripts. With an open-source strategy, it has won the laurels of many. It already has a well established community for the Classic Elgg v0.9, and hopes to expand its market with the new release. The v1.0 is advertised to be more flexible and robust in design, and allows developers to create custom social apps with ease.

The best feature of Elgg is the access controls that empower users to control who can see their data. Elgg is used by a few Universities and large organizations, and thus demonstrates its scalability.

However, here are a few things to have in mind before you embrace it for your new webapp.

• The community is not as large as that of Wordpress.
• There are no ready-made plugins yet for integrating thirdparty components with Elgg (Ex: Integrating a MediaWiki or BBpress). You may expect them in future.
• Its hard to find developers/freelancers for developing with Elgg
• There are not many themes available out on the web.

Well... A good alternative to Elgg is BuddyPress, a project backed by Wordpress. BuddyPress is a set of WordPress MU specific plugins, each plugin adding a new distinct social feature. The idea of BuddyPress is to take a standard vanilla installation of WordPress MU and turn it into something that represents more of a community building tool, or niche social network. The new theme developed by Andy is awesome. See it for yourself on the sandbox.

BuddyPress is still new and half baked right now. Wordpress has promised to complete the project by the end of this year. The lead-developer Andy Peatling has done a terrific job of adding the social layer over WP-MU edition. He is now employed by Automattic, the company who makes Wordpress.

BuddyPress or Elgg??? Hmmm...

• Wordpress has a larger community, easy to find freelancers to work on it, plenitude of themes and plugins, and has a huge community.
• Elgg v1.0 on the other hand has the best access controls for users, more flexible in design, and has been well-tested for over an year.
• Developing on Elgg may require more work and tech knowledge to integrate various third-party components, build a theme, and configure it.

Next week, I will get my hands on both of them and test the waters. So until then, I cannot choose one over another.

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How to Secure Your Web Application

Disclaimer: This is a guest post written by Heather Johnson, who writes on the subject of dial up Internet.

Web applications will install firewall to restrict unauthorized access to ports 80 and 443. But these don’t exactly stop unwanted attacks that come over these ports. There is much more that a web professional should do in addition to installing firewall. We’ve come up with a list that should help you sew up any holes that may appear in your latest web application that you’re working on. Without further ado here’s our list that should help maintain the integrity of your newest program:

1. Limit access to your profile. One of the first things a hacker looks for is information regarding your web server. Be sure to take away the server header from the response of your web server. Go ahead and map out different paths to the file extensions of your dynamic pages. Take steps to ensure your machine isn’t named something that could identify its operating system. Take out your personal information from your WHOIS records that help someone in a social engineering attack.


2. Authenticate. Unfortunately you can’t always trust the users that visit your website. You need to have your users authenticate who they are and their intent for visiting your site. You want to try to separate legitimate traffic from traffic that can hurt you. We’re not saying that every user is evil, but you need to be aware that there are unsavory people out there that try to hurt people in your position.


3. Always be ready for the worst. If your server is compromised it’s important that you go offline and plug up any holes. You need to protect customer data such as credit card information and in order to do so you need to install security software that will protect this information.


4. Always be monitoring. Instead of waiting to take care of a problem after it occurs if you are constantly logging your website’s activity you can help avoid a problem instead of simply reacting to it. Make sure you pay careful attention to your server’s error log.


5. Don’t execute a poor request. There will be times when a user’s request is simply not good for you. Many attacks occur that attempt to modify the HTTP request that will end up create an averse effect. You should set up the positive model that will only allow what you want to allow; everything else should not be allowed to be processed on your site.
   

By-line:

This post was contributed by Heather Johnson, who writes on the subject of dial up Internet. She invites your feedback at heatherjohnson2323 at gmail dot com.

Its summer time - Its movie time!

The summer is a festive time for movie-freaks. I am no freak, but do enjoy watching good movies. A usual weekend during this time of the year is spent worthwhile by watching a movie a day. That means watching 2 movies in theatre every weekend.

Yesterday, I watched 'Jaane Tu, Ya Jaane Na', a movie by Aamir Khan Productions. Aamir indeed has a great acumen in selecting his movie scripts. This movie is fantastic with a fresh cast and a debut director. Genelia is cute as always, and the movie packs so much fun! The music is at its best as you would expect from the master Rahman.

Prior to this, I watched Hancock and 'The Dark Knight'. I liked both of them. Hancock was bit of a drag, and its good for a one-time-see. 'The Dark Knight' is a superb action-packed movie that is worth its hype. I regret not having watched it on IMAX. A couple other good ones I watched are Wall-E and Wanted.

Now, I'm waiting for the launch of "The Mummy", and that Steven Spielberg's upcoming movie (I forgot the name). Life is Fun!

Moving from Textpattern to Wordpress

Until recently, my website SanskritVoice was using Textpattern as the CMS. But now, I'm moving to Wordpress. Read below to know why and how.

I liked Textpattern for several reasons. I can have multiple Sections like Home, About, Articles, and Resources. Each section can have an assigned template, and I can publish blog-posts for a specific section. Under a given section, I can further classify my posts based on category.

The main drawback with Textpattern is the difficulty in moving the website to a different server. It has weak import/export features, and less support for unicode. It lacks a WYSIWYG editor, no widgets, and has relatively less number of plugins.

On the other hand, Wordpress has a huge community, excellent feature-set, and myriad plugins for almost anything. However, Wordpress lacks the concept of a section. It only has Pages, Posts, Categories and Tags. Ofcourse, I can assign an appropriate template to a page. I spent some time in reading the Wordpress docs on how to use it as a traditional CMS. I had to use custom-templates and custom-variables to match the URLs of textpattern and to create pseudo-sections.

Here is an overview of what I did. A traditional Page in Wordpress is static. So, I created a custom template (say "Featured Page" template) that displays the content of the Page, and reads a custom field "categoryid" defined on that Page. The template then displays all posts that were published under that category. Thus, I projected a Page that contain posts from a specific category as a virtual Section.

Capitalize on Confluence to create Synergy

Be it TOI's Teach-India initiative, the idea of FriendFeed, the concept of Alltop... All of them do one thing in common - Create Synergy. It is the creation of great value by bringing the appropriate resources together.

TOI' Teach-India project brings together several NGOs on a common mission of spreading education to the masses. It added more value by getting corporate companies into the mix. The heavy works are done by the NGOs and Corporates, while TOI is just an organizer/mediator. To oversimplify the story, TOI has done nothing but confluence of the right people. Now, look at the synergy that TOI has created - Its massive and effective.

FriendFeed is an aggregator of activity across several social websites. Though it currently packages several unique features, it started just as a confluence of social activity on the web. It thus achieved more fame with less work! Similarly, AllTop is just a RSS feed-aggregator to read several blogs in one place.

On the same lines, I created 'Sanskrit Voice Digest' as an aggregation of selected Sanskrit blogs across the web. Though I had spent less effort to create it, the value it offered to Sanskrit enthusiasts is huge. I only capitalized on confluence of the right resources.

So, Confluence is a smart act if done right, the remaining pieces of the puzzle will fall in place. Lets apply this idea for the growth of a nation. Bring together several charity institutions under one roof, and provide an easy interface for the rich and benevolent people to contribute. I think several nations including India lacks such Meta-Organization. Hope this becomes TOI's next social experiment. Click here to read more on this idea.

Analysis of TOI's Teach-India Project

'Times Of India' has struck the chord once again with its 'Teach India' initiative. Their previous project was 'Lead India' campaign, a campaign that encouraged entrepreneurship among Indians.

Purpose (Idea)

With a population of over 287 million illiterate Indians, we need motivated teachers in every corner of the country to go back to school. The aim is to bring together children in need of education and people who can contribute a little time towards teaching them. To begin with, the project is introduced in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata.

Execution

This mission would not have been possible without the partnership of over 60 NGOs, schools and companies such as Hindustan Lever, Aditya Birla Group, Nokia, Wipro, Reliance Communications, Barclays and Amex. The companies have come on board with the promise that at least 50 employees will commit two hours a week on company time to teaching.

TOI has made good use of its existing popularity in winning the support of NGOs, and tie-up with coporate companies. The partnership with right organizations is what I believe to be the first step in carrying out a social experiment. The NGOs know where to find people in need of education, the poor, and the illiterates. The corporate companies are the ones to fund the experiment and offer mass volunteers. So, TOI has done its groundwork perfectly with tie-ups.

We have seen the best of viral videos in TOI's Lead-India campaign. The videos spread all across the web and some on television too. I'm sure Teach-India project will also capitalize on social websites to go viral. Being a media company, no external PR or Marketing agency is required.

Teach-India project is an offline venture that gets the help of internet to speedup the process of volunteer registrations, etc. This is exactly how a successful experiment should be carried out. Especially in India where not everyone has access to internet, offline mode is very essential for the success of the project. So, it brings both offline and online worlds together. One without the other will have less impact and reachability to the masses.

Response

The highest response has come from the capital city, Delhi, followed closely by Mumbai, and then by Chennai and Kolkata. There was more than 10,000 people signing up to pledge at least two hours a week to teach a child in their neighbourhood, mostly for weekend sessions. This army of volunteers is a multi-lingual, multi-talented one drawn from diverse streams - doctors, lawyers, company executives, etc...

Business Plan

Lead-India and Teach-India projects are social initiatives by TOI with a business model wrapped around it. Truly, they are noble efforts with a worthy cause. But, they are not without a profit in mind. I love such undertakings that wrap a for-profit business plan around a noble cause. Its a win-win for all. For the same reason, I love the open-source companies like Redhat, Sun, Automattic, Google, etc...

So, How does TOI profit from these social projects?
First of all, these projects create a BUZZ in the media world. They have successfully created a topic of conversation for the bloggers and media to jump-on. Thus, getting the "Times of India" name to appear everywhere.

Secondly, they create a loyal readership and fan-following from most of the country-lovers and educated citizens who wish to see India grow. That includes a substantial percentage of the youth and NRIs.

Thirdly, TOI has partnered with several NGOs for these initiatives. Hence, the NGOs tend to spread the word and advertise 'Times Of India' for free. On the whole, TOI has acquired the title of being a dynamic non-evil media company in India. This means increase in reputation, readership and revenue.

Conclusion

Well Done TOI! Keep it up and continue to lead as an example to all other media companies in India.

Click here for answers to the following questions...
How do I apply?
How does Teach India work?
What kind of education will I be providing?
How long will I have to teach?

Refreshing trip to San Jose

Just the day before the long weekend, Karthik and I decided to visit San-Jose and San-Fransisco. On arrival, we met my friend Vinoth who lives there at San-Jose. We stayed there for a couple of days, went around the Silicon Valley and had a lot of fun. Just the three of us, it was like what you see in "Dil Chahta Hai".

On Friday (July 4), we had a walk on the Golden Gate Bridge at SF. The view was beautiful, weather was chill, and it never felt like summer. The next day, we visited the Napa-Valley Vineyards during the day, and 'Half Moon Bay' beach in the evening. Running the car through the cool breeze of misty-mountains to the beach was among the best rides I had.



We returned home on Sunday afternoon (July 6) to end a refreshing trip!

Destiny starts with a Dream

To phrase it in a line, here it is: The Destiny starts with a DREAM, and flows with COURAGE fueled by FAITH in the direction of ACTION. Let me explain it.

Watch your Dreams
They become your thoughts...
Watch you thoughts,
They become your words...
Watch your words,
They become you actions...
Watch your actions,
They become your habits...
Watch your habits,
They become your character...
Watch your character,
It becomes your DESTINY!

- By Frank Outlaw

In the movie GURU (Hindi), I love Bachan's starting dialogue "I always dream, and my Papa used to say dreams dont come true. But, I still continue to dream". Daring to dream is probably the larger motif of the movie Guru. We should dream BIG, and the dream should be followed-up with action. To perform such action, we need faith and courage. This courage holds the key to make the dream come true.

Faith and courage go hand-in-hand. When we lose faith, we lose courage. I hope you all agree with me so far. So, the topics to ponder are...
What should we have faith on?
How do we not lose faith?

There is just one answer to both the above questions. This answer is also the secret of "Success without Stress". It is the faith in the supreme self. If we exhibit our best effort and leave the results for the god to decide, we become more vivid. Whatever happens will happen for good and happens for a reason. That is the law of Karma!

Launching Sanskrit Digest

Guess what's new in the online space for Sanskrit enthusiasts? Its an Online Digest, that can give you a morning dose of Sanskrit articles written by qualified writers.

"Sanskrit Voice Digest" is started as an honest effort to compile Sanskrit related blogs and articles under one roof. Currently, it has partnered with nearly 10 blog-authors and a few organizations. With its magazine-like layout, the Digest makes it easy for readers to keep tabs on all Sanskrit related articles in one place.

India is a nation of several Vedic scholars, Sanskrit pandits, and Religious gurus. The need of the hour is to educate the people (esp. the youth) about the wisdom conveyed in the ancient texts, and revive Sanskrit for the modern age. This is also the mission of "Sanskrit Voice". In the latest effort to bring all Sanskrit readers and bloggers together, we launched the "Digest" today on June 18, 2008.

In the first week, the Digest has articles in nearly 10 categories that revolve around Sanskrit. It includes "Sanskrit Quotes" written by Kiran Paranjape, who was awarded Indic Blogger Award for best blog in Sanskrit. The wonderful 'subhashitanis' that includes verses from Panchatantra, Bhartrihari's Nitishatakam, and Bhagavadgita are written by Karthik Raman.

In the past two years, blogging in Sanskrit has been well practiced by the pandits and students of Sanskrit. Blogger Himanshu Pota focuses on teaching Sanskrit via his blog "Learn Sanskrit". He told us that his blog shares his Sanskrit learning experience with other Sanskrit learners. He hopes this will encourage the learners to realise that one doesn't have to be a Panini to start reading, writing, and talking in Sanskrit.

The Digest also compiles the articles on Sanskrit literature written by Kannan Srininvas (the author of Book "Vedic Management") and Venetia Ansell (an English girl from Oxford University). Adding Sanatana Dharma to the context, we hope to pass the ancient wisdom, along with Sanskrit language.

The advances in web technology facilitates the creation of a virtual community just for Sanskrit enthusiasts. The RSS feeds, Widgets and Campaign buttons provide easy ways for readers to follow the updates, or learn Sanskrit glossary every day. You will find all these features packed in the parent site "Sanskrit Voice" hosted on http://sanskritvoice.com .

"Undoubtedly, it is the greatest language ever, and I feel that more initiatives to spread the language, in a written or spoken form, through blogs etc are always welcome", says Karthik Raman - a PhD student at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.

Real Education can give you a new personality

What we get in today's schools is not real education. The real education should help in the wholistic development of oneself. There is a lot more than academic knowledge. A school should teach its students how to differentiate the good and bad, develop their vision, give clarity to their purpose, shape-up their character, and make them fit to handle life as it comes.

I recently read an article about "Chinmaya Vidyalayas - Schools with a Difference" written by Swami Tejomayananda. It was very well said that it requires hard work from all the four - students, teachers, parents and the management for educating the child. They should be taught not only academic knowledge, but also some values and ideals that will remain with the students through out their lives. Here is an excerpt from his article...

"If you don't stand for something, you will fall for everything". If you don't stand by some principle, value or ideal in life, you will fall prey to the innumerable temptations that are sure to come your way. This can be best explained by two words - Compromise and Sacrifice. Compromise is giving up of higher ideal for the sake of a lesser thing. Whereas in sacrifice, one gives up the lower things for the sake of higher ideals. It is always the person with sacrifice who is respected, and not the person of compromises.

Here is another one that is so true... In success - we should have humility; And in failure - have the enthusiasm to go ahead. We should be like a "Rubber Ball" that bounces back with more force after a fall.

Education is not about acquiring knowledge alone. The real education is about acquiring the knowledge and utilizing it for good. Though we have the Nuclear Science that is capable of resolving the energy crisis of the world, many have effectively used it for destruction purposes only.

The parents should make an effort to teach their children higher values along with rich knowledge, and thus shape up tomorrow's ideal personalities.