• Wired, Friday, April 20, 2007 10:30 AM

Academia is a very different world today. College pofessors now have to compete with mobile phones, wireless Internet and colossal time wasters like MySpace and YouTube for attention in the classroom. In fact, Congress recently introduced a bill to stifle funds for schools that don't restrict access to certain Web sites on their networks. Naturally, there has to be an opportunity in there somewhere.

To that end, British-based Elgg, an open-source social-networking software provider, designed a platform with academic use in mind, connecting students, teachers, researchers, advisers and tutors, while offering social-networking usuals, like a profile page, a blog, photo-sharing and a buddy list. The idea is that today's college students have grown up using collaborative, conversational technologies outside the class, so it might be the best way for them to learn inside the classroom. Elgg's 33,000-strong network currently spans 50 schools and colleges across the globe. Its platform is being translated into nearly 40 languages.

E-learning will no doubt become a trend. Practitioners call them personal-learning environments, composed of mashups using del.icio.us feeds, blog posts, podcast widgets-whatever resources students need to communicate their learning across several disciplines.

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