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BuddyPress – build a social network on top of WordPress MU (Multi-User) blog installation

Apr 30, 2009 by Mircea GoiacloseAuthor: Mircea Goia Name: Mircea Goia
Email: mtb@mytestbox.com
Site: http://www.mytestbox.com
About: Mircea Goia was born in Romania and imigrated to USA in 2005. He lives in Phoenix, AZ and works as web developer. Aside, he works also on several entrepreneurial Web projects. He shows a keen interest in commercial Web development such as social networks, viral marketing, online video. His artistic hobby is filmmaking with special interest in directing.See Authors Posts (76) MyTestBox News

After months and months in development under Automattic umbrella (yes, the WordPress guys) Buddypress is, finally and officially, at version 1.0.

What is Buddypress?

It’s a set of plugins and themes (each adding a distinct new feature) developed originally by Andy Peatling allowing a WordPress MU (Multi-User)  blog installation to become a social network also.
All of the plugins could be used to create a complete social network from scratch, or you could use specific plugins to add desirable features to your existing blog network.

Later on, Buddypress was acquired by Automattic, the makers of Wodpress MU and WordPress blog software, and the author joined to their team.

The features Budypress has are:
* Extended Profiles
* Private Messaging
* Friends
* Groups
* The Wire
* Activity Streams
* Blog Tracking
* Forums

Some upcoming features in 2009 are:
* Status Updates (Mid 2009)
* Photo Albums (Late 2009)

To have Budypress running on your server you need to have the following:
* A working installation of WordPress MU, version 2.7.1 or greater
* PHP version 4.3 or greater
* MySQL 4.0 or greater
* The mod_rewrite Apache module enabled

Budypress might not be a contender now for Social Engine, DZOIC Handshakes, WebNetwork, Boonex Dolphin, Alstrasoft E-friends, Elgg, PHPfox, PHPizabi but in the near future it could be as new features will be added and, especially, because it can reach a good chunk of the market thanks to many WordPress MU installations which are already there.

Download Buddypress here  and don’t forget the installation instructions!

Tags: auttomatic, blog software, buddypress, dolphin, dzoic, e-friends, elgg, multi-user, mysql, php, phpfox, phpizabi, plugins, social engine, social network, webnetwork, wordpress, wordpress MU

WebNetwork – a white label social networking software

Feb 17, 2008 by Veiko HernecloseAuthor: Veiko Herne Name: Veiko Herne
Email: veikoherne@hotmail.com
Site: http://veikoh.wordpress.com
About: Veiko Herne is lifetime entrepreneur, currently working as Independent Consultant with over 30 years experience in IT and starting his activities in Internet since 1993. After establishing and managing one of the most successful IT companies in Estonia after the collapse of Soviet Union, he later managed worldwide interest to his analytical financial accounting and HR management software packages from New York until September 11th. He is currently living in Belfast, Northern Ireland.See Authors Posts (10) Social Networks

WebNetwork is a social networking software platform developed to communicate between fans, filmmakers and musicians. It is developed by Web Scribble www.webscribble.com

The system contains following areas: Profile, Film, Music, Blog, Groups, Events, Videos and Photos.

It has been developed by Web Scribble Solutions, Inc, a 15 employees company based on US, Upstate New York, Albany. Other products of Web Scribble Solution are: Web Date, Web Jobs, Web Store and Web Classifieds.

It’s written in php 4.12, runs in Linux and Apache servers and needs Zend optimizer 2.62 and MySql database to be installed in the server. Web Scribble promises free installation service when purchasing the license but I assume that the installation could not take more than Uncompressing the files and directories and creating the database.

Usability
Registering and creating the profile is simple but you need to decide, do you want to be a filmmaker, a musician or a just a member. Filmmakers and Musician profiles will appear on separate sections from members.
Personal profile will contain following areas: Basic Info (such as name, gender, birth date and address), About Me, Interest and Lifestyle questions. I didn’t find any customization features for those in Administration module so I assume the need for some Database and programming skills to modify the profile fields.
For profile photo you should upload it to your picture gallery and mark it as profile photo from there which was little bit odd as I had need to classify the description and search tags for it assuming that this photo will be also searchable.
Profiles can be set for Auto Approval or system administrators must approve pending profiles. Others where able to comment your profile which was a feature I wasn’t able to set off in the administration module and I wasn’t able to delete or moderate those comments. Anything once spammed will probably stay there forever.

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Tags: social network, software, web 2.0, web software review, webnetwork, webscribble, white label software