BuddyPress - Bringer of Open Social Network Bliss?
Having become somewhat disillusioned with the mainstream social network fair on offer these days, and having seen one too many targeted ads for my liking (yes, I like Guitar Hero/no, I don’t want to buy the T-shirt), I’ve been eagerly following the developments of BuddyPress, the Free open social network that’s powered by WordPress (MU version).
Since the original announcement of Automattic’s involvement in the project, it looks like things have progressed nicely in a relatively short space of time. There’s a comprehensive feature list available, and early adopters can download the BuddyPress source code to toy around with.
I think it all looks rather appealing. WordPress MU itself has a proven track record, being the technology that powers the marvellously succesful wordpress.com blogging platform. BuddyPress is, and will likely remain, open in the original spirit of the Internet. No more intrusive ads and no more concerns over the ownership of your personal data and who exactly gets to look at it.
I’d like to think this will usher in the final days of the walled-garden social networks that currently have us locked in their grasp. I’d like to think this will bring us freedom to relate online, without being tied in to one particular network. I’d like to think this tool will enable me to befriend someone who doesn’t happen to share my social web app preference.
Maybe BuddyPress is destined to remain firmly in the domain of the geeks and hard core web enthusiasts. But maybe all it will take is a few visionary schools, colleges and other pioneering organizations to get the ball rolling and build their online communities around this promising tool to pave the way for others to follow suit.
The optimist in me likes to think so anyway!
Steve wrote this on 01.04.08 –
It's filed in the Internet, Social media, Social networks box
On April 2nd, 2008 at 9:17 am, Trevor May responded:
Oddly enough (for me, at least!) I hadn’t read about this until today. Rather nice that it’s being brought under the wing of Automattic, though, ensuring (one would hope) a level of UI consistency and security robustness with the latest version of WordPress.
On April 2nd, 2008 at 4:07 pm, Michael responded:
Have you seen LovdByLess (http://lovdbyless.com/)? Its a new open source social network app built in ruby on rails.
I haven’t used it but I think the fact that it has been built from scratch as a social network generator rather than trying to add those features onto a blogging platform must give it an advantage.
Plus, being written in ruby on rails makes it cool straight away :)