The WordCamp Report

Andy Peatling doing sort of a State of the Buddypress Speech.

Where it is, What it would be useful for, and where its going.

What is BuddyPress?

The Aim:

BuddyPress will transform a Vanilla installation of Wordpress MU into a Social Network Platform.

Where did the idea come from?

Chickspeak  -  http://chickspeak.com

A Social network aimed at college aged girls, built using Wordpress MU.

Is BuddyPress some HUGE plugin?

• The Core - The only required plugin
• personal Blog
• Groups
• Extended Profiles
• the Wire
• Proivate Mssaging
• Ststus Updates
• Friends
• Albums

Extended Profile: Complete Custom Profiles pages with fields set by site administrators.

Plus you can set the blog as front page or the profile.

Private Messaging: internal site mssaging between friends as well as site wide notices.

Friends: Search for other site members and create connections

Groups: Allows you to create groups and invite emmebers

Wire: Let other friends or members leave comments on profile pages

Status Updates: Post status updates

Albums: extendeds galleries, assign photos and tagging

Why do we need another social network?

BuddyPress is not another network.  It is a platform.  Gives people more choices and greater support for open standards. We need better control of our own data.  Plus it allows for more choices in Social Networks.

Potential Uses of BuddyPress:

• Busienss or internal School Networks
• Niche Social Networks
• Adding Social Network features to large Blogging networks
• WordPress.com

Why use WordPress

• Fantastic Application framework
• Easy Database Access and Manipulation
• User and Access management
• Powerful XML Support, importing & Exporting, XML-RPC
• Active and supportive community
• The Biggest Reason ->
  • Existing plugins and Themes
  • Add new features with exisitng plugin
  • use any WordPress theme (with a few extra template tags)
  • A Completre developers Platform already exists - If you can write a WordPress plugin, you can write a BuddyPress plugin

How Far along is BuddyPress?

Each “plugin” is is at a differnet stage.

You can test parts now on existing WordPress install.

Filed under WordCamp Live.
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