40 Downloadable Open Source Social Software Applications
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Tuesday, October 02, 2007
While large scale social sites like Flickr, Digg, Youtube and Myspace have predominated the web-o-sphere over the past few years there still is a need for narrow content verticals in this arena. This list will give you links to 40 open source resources to get you started building your own social bookmarking, networking, filesharing or search application. The following is a list of what I consider the be the best open source social software that I've found over the past year.
Please let me know through email or a comment if you know of any other great social bookmarking, network, filesharing or search applications,
and I'll be glad to post them. Also special thanks to all of the folks who produced all of this great free software. All descriptions below are taken from the developers of the software.
Social Bookmarking
Akarru: Social BookMarking Engine
"Akarru is a social bookmarking engine, is used to build social bookmarkings sites, like
http://www.blogmemes.com. Users posts links and promote links to front page using voting system."
Bookmark4U
"Bookmark4U is an web-server application, which is based on Apache + PHP + MySQL. Bookmark4U is intended to provide a comfortable bookmarking environment for users."
CommunityNews
"CommunityNews uses social bookmarking and bayesian techinques to provide periodic postings to blogs. Users can vote for or against RSS sources ti increase the chances that the source is used again. Spam filtering (bayesian) is provided by spam bayes."
ContARTE
"ontARTE is a social bookmarking multiuser engine, is used to build social bookmarkings sites, like
http://www.contarte.info."
GetBoo
"Web 2.0 bookmarking system, both social (with tags) and private (with folders). Import and export your bookmarks from Firefox, IE, Mozilla, Netscape. Admin management section, translations, groups, bookmarklets, Firefox extension, RSS feeds, and more!"
Laicos - Social Bookmarking in ASP.Net
"Laicos or social backwards is a social bookmarking website development application. Use this project to create a Digg style clone. In asp.net and MySQL environment."
Scuttle: Open source social bookmarking
"Scuttle is a free open source software for creating social bookmarking sites like del.icio.us. You can create a social bookmarking site in minutes using scuttle for your personal or for community use. Scuttle supports most of the del.icio.us API, so you can modify the del.icio.us tools to work with scuttle. Import your existing bookmarks from browsers or from del.icio.us. Scuttle has several AJAX features and it generates an RSS feeds."
Taggly
"Taggly is an online social bookmarking software written with usability and scalability in mind."
Unalog
"Open source bookmarking software written in the Python programming. You can get an account and add your own links, and create and join groups. If you get an account, or create a group, either one can be made private, so nobody but you (if a private account) or your fellow group members (if a private group) can see your links."
Social Filesharing
Asmaan
"Asmaan is a multi-client chat software with built-in social networking and bitorrent filesharing with search, encryption and partial anonymity."
Bittorrent-2
"Define 2nd generation Bittorrent protocol with social networking, recommendation, tag-based navigation, distributed moderation, and real-time streaming. Remove .torrent, tracker, and website from architecture. Create reference implement. with ABC project."
Torrent Swapper
"Lightweight python based 4th. generation bittorrent client with social networking, recommendation, tag-based navigation, moderation, and real-time streaming."
Tribler
"Define 4th generation file sharing system with social networking, recommendation, tag-based navigation, moderation, and real-time streaming. Remove .torrent, tracker, and website from architecture. Create reference implement. with Bittorrent ABC project."
Social Networking
Affelio
"Affelio is open-source social networking software / architecture. It has following features: (1)distributed architecture (2)Internet-wide scalability, (3)Extensivity with opened Affelio API for developers, and (4)high custamizability with skins/templates."
AstroSPACES
"AstroSPACES is the world's first open source social networking solution. Coded from scratch, it is highly efficient and very easy to use."
blogBOX
"blogBOX is a free and open source social networking system written in PHP. Future versions will be written i Python/Django."
Elgg
"Elgg is an open source social networking platform developed for LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) which encompasses weblogging, file storage, RSS aggregation, personal profiles, FOAF functionality and more."
FlightFeather: Social Networking Platform
"FlightFeather's goal is "social networking for everyone". This means that anyone should have a chance to run a popular social networking site -- on minimal hardware, and without wasting bandwidth."
FriendPortal - An Open Source Friendster
"An open-source, Friendster-like social networking portal and news site written in PHP. Post and read news plus browse through contacts like you would in Friendster, Orkut, Tribe.net or Ringo with the knowledge that your personal information is safe."
Geek Grep
"GeekGrep is a Django based social-networking system designed to get geeks connected with each other. The main feature is a database of geek codes and the ability to search them. See our project web site for a design template of the future site."
Hiitch: The Social Networking Platform
"Hiitch is a secure and advanced desktop social networking platform. It allows you to build a focused and private network of communities for your family, friends, company and etc. It gives you total control and freedom for your social networking needs."
iSocial: Social Networking CMS
"Social Networking script written in PHP and MySQL. Designed for every kind of communities - can easily create their own social networking website for free with no ads."
Jahnet
"The JahNet framework is a Open Source social networking and asset management CMS that is focused on helping digital artists collaborate on a global scale. JahNet allows you to securely share your ideas, images and projects with users around the world."
Manusya
"The Manusya application is an opensource social networking application being built on mod_perl, Perl Template Toolkit, Postgresql, Apache and Linux. The manusya_web_core packages are required for the front-end."
Melt: Online Social Networking Software
"Melt is "social software" intended for NGOs to build online social networks, where people can announce events, create groups to organise those events, and add resources (files and web links) to support organisers. Everything can be tagged and linked."
OpenPNE
"OpenPNE is a Social Networking Service Engine written in PHP. It has many features(friend control,friend invitation,diary,blog feeds,message box,etc)."
Openpublic
"OpenPublic is an interest group social networking and collaboration platform. It provides a solution for mutual interest and special interest groups and membership based organizations wishing to create a knowledge network around their interests."
OpenVZ
"OpenVZ is an open source social networking system."
Phpizabi
"PHPizabi is one of the most powerful social networking platforms on the planet."
PHP-Spacester
"PHP-Spacester is a social networking script such as Myspace and friendster. It is a fork of astrospaces. It will feature the XDNS system (Xotmid Distributed Network System) which is a leaf-hub connection thus allowing anyone to run a leaf and connect to."
Pihook: Social Networking System
"Open source social networking system."
Snoss
"Social Networking Open Source Software, an open source social networking framework, written in PHP, Javascript and MySQL with an AJAX UI."
Tag Me
"Tag Me is a social networking application that allows people to send information about themselves via bluetooth or by mobile web browser you create an online wml website and create a url barcode that holds the link to your online profile."
The Apple Orchard
"The Apple Orchard is a multi-user, open source social networking web application with the ability for users to upload photos and videos, write a blog, have comments, personalise their page layout and appearance and sort multimedia by tags."
The Appleseed Project
"Appleseed is (augmented) social networking software, ie Friendster, only distributed. Sites running Appleseed will interoperate, and form the 'Appleseed Social Network.' Development is focused on privacy and security, as well as ease of configuration."
Virtual Learning Commons
"The Virtual Learning Commons software combines a web based content management system, academic tools and social networking to create a website. Can be used by groups to create web based content within an integrated social networking environment."
WorldSpace
WorldSpace is a user-extensible shared virtual environment, aimed at being a next-generation social networking system.
Yogurt: Social Network
"This is a Social Network module for xoops CMS. You have seen Facebook, Orkut, Myspace , try Yogurt for Xoops!"
Social Search
Facelift
"Facelift is a visualization and analysis software for online social networking services. It displays a given community as a node-link diagram and provides several search / filtering functions as well as cluster analysis features."
Social Semantic Search and Browsing
"S3B - Social Semantic Search and Browsing - is a middleware that delivers a set of search and browsing components that can be used in J2EE web applications to deliver user-oriented features based on semantic descriptions and social networking."
Comments on this post
John Doe on 10/02 at 07:22 AM
you shouldn’t just you use the project-description from sf. i thought this list of software is reviewed in some way from you. your earlier post were quite better!
max on 10/03 at 01:01 AM
All of my posts have been done exactly the same way. The descriptions have always been taken from the source. I spend my time finding the resources not writing the descriptions which in most cases is redundant since the developers have already done this. I have now clarified in the post that the descriptions were written by the developers and quoted the text. Thanks for the feedback.
Gustavo Machado on 10/06 at 08:25 PM
Thank you so much for sharing those fantastic applications.
Best,
G.
chris on 10/13 at 07:42 PM
wow, many thanks for this list Max. Do you prefer anyone software for social bookmarking?
Best greetings.
Chris
piers on 10/17 at 09:16 AM
Hi,
I am researching open source solutions for putting together a dating site. Do you have any recommendations for such a thing? I’m not looking for too many whistles and bells straight away.
Thanks.
John Eckman on 10/26 at 09:43 AM
The only one I don’t see here is NoseRub, which is an evolving platform for building decentralized social networks / lifestreams.
Check it out at http://www.noserub.com/
It’s PHP, MySQL, currently at version 0.4, under an MIT license
steve brown on 10/28 at 06:55 PM
Great list! Just what we were looking for.
For our purposes, the license and programming language(s) used are very important. If this information is useful to others it may be good to add it.
Again, thanks a lot for this superb resource!
Steve
ud on 10/30 at 04:15 AM
Hey , where can I download taggly ?
Cant find a download link for it !!
Rowan on 10/30 at 07:47 PM
Where’s Drupal?
Drupal is a free software package that allows an individual or a community of users to easily publish, manage and organize a wide variety of content on a website. Tens of thousands of people and organizations have used Drupal to power scores of different web sites, including
* Community web portals
Chris on 11/27 at 10:53 AM
I would have expected to see a product by BoonEx called Dolphin and the other suite of product offerings. This product appears to be very advanced, and also open source.
What’s your take on this product?
Thomas Sternagel on 12/01 at 06:30 AM
I’m wondering why I can’t find the following in your list?
Did I oversee something?
http://www.boonex.com/products/dolphin/
It seems that Dolphin is very known in the social network world.
Or does it have restraints in regard to Open Source?
Regards Tom
Ryan on 12/23 at 01:15 AM
LoL, wheres the most popular social bookmarking open-sourced script? Eh hem… PLIGG.... http://www.pligg.com There are many sites dedicated to selling templates/themes for pligg, as well as doing custom web designs and modifications. Just do a quick google on “pligg”.
Pligg now has a new competitor in DRIGG 
http://www.drigg-code.org and http://www.drigg.org for their demo. The “double GG” sites just won’t get old can they? Drigg the name is a combo of DRupal and dIGG. I’ve seen sites on the net that explain and give tutorials for creating a Digg-like clone on Drupal, well now you don’t have to create and code your own because Drigg is here. Its free open-source software just like Pligg.
I just found Drigg this past week, it looks like it was just released this month DEC 2007, or maybe NOV 2007. Its in fact being run on Drupal. It looks like Drigg is at least the 2nd best option aside from Pligg for free social bookmarking software.
Since its still new(no posts in their forum yet and only 36 donwloads as of today)time will tell if it stands up to Pligg or threatens to become even more popular and trendy than Pligg.
Smith on 12/27 at 01:08 PM
The only one I don’t see here is NoseRub, which is an evolving platform for building decentralized social networks / lifestreams. seo in iasi
AzazeL on 12/29 at 02:00 PM
Hi,
I am working on creating a mini-social networking site for my year end project. The one problem i have is i cant find a way to include a option on profile privacy, such that only my friends can view my full profile and not everyone else. So unless someone specifically adds me or i add them they shouldnt b able to view my whole profile just bits. Its an option available in friendster and myspace(i think).
Does it have to do something with the database schema? Any help/tips you can provide will be much appreciated, thanks.
Please email me
sandeep on 01/07 at 10:47 PM
this is handy information
Photofan on 05/06 at 04:35 AM
Is Social Filesharing use technology close to torrent ?
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