My final project is Elgg, which is also our claremont conversation's choice. First of all, it's really a comprehensive social software. It has built in blogs, groups, friends, file management, pages and a lot of plugins, which is also great. Then, it's really easy to install and configurate. The process of install is very much like other softwares we used in the class. You have a database script, then you ftp the pages to the server. It went pretty smooth so far.

I had a little trouble configuring elgg at first. I tried to follow the tutorials. Then I found it's for developers. Creating directories and files, copying scripts and stuff like that. I had a lot of trouble too make it work because I'm not really a php programmer and it's the first time I really use aspect oriented software. But then I found all the stuff I want to create is already built it. All you have to do is to go to Administration->Tool Administration and enable them, like blogs, pages etc. But it's a good experience to appreciate aspect oriented architecture anyway. I can see it's really powerful.

Then I have to choose a theme, because the original theme really don't look that good. My choice is Black Tech. After my green light for wordpress and carribean blue for phpbb, I think it might be time to try something dark:) And installing theme is really simple too. In elgg, theme is implemented as plugins. So download a theme, ftp it to server, enable it in Tool Administration. You are done.