Green Elgg and Bam!   

         Alex Tanchoco

Case Studies

Lions Clubs International District 20-R1

Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center

Presented at Elgg Camp Boston 2009Harvard University

Purpose

To share with you my experience in the introduction of social media at two different

organizations, hoping that it may help you get started.

AgendaPersonal IntroductionThe Lions ClubsWhy Use Social Media? ChallengesWhy Elgg?Pilot Server Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer CenterSocial Media PilotTake Aways

IntroductionAlex TanchocoManager of Advanced Technologies Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer CenterPrevious Roles - Manager of Server Technologies, Team Leader for Server Implementations, Database Systems Administration, Systems Programming (MSKCC, Merrill Lynch, City University of New York) Professional Memberships Society for Information Management IEEE Lions Clubs District 20R1 - Technology Chairperson and Zone ChairpersonRockland Centennial Lions Club - Immediate Past President Social Network Presence Elgg/LinkedIn/Twitter, experimented with CollectiveX (renamed to Groupsite), CubeTree, Yammer. I have no Facebook account; my teenage son pleaded not to friend him. ;-)

Lions Clubs InternationalWhat is a Lions Club? World's Largest Service Club Organization ~1.3 Million Members Worldwide ~45,000 Clubs >200 Countries (On the web lionsclubs.org) The only major service organization where 100% of funds raised from the community actually goes to community service projects. Administration costs covered by membership and specific fund raising events.District 20-R1 - approximately 1200 members Serving Putnam, Rockland and Westchester Counties in New York State.

Why Use Social Media?

To improve collaboration within the districtEnhance the sense of communityFacilitate document sharing (flyers, newsletters)Provide calendar for clubs and district eventsShare photos/blogs from these eventsCollaborate on Joint projectsHelp promote Lionism

Challenges

Website Support - I'm the only resourceNo budget!

Stumbling Upon Elgg

Google Search: Open Source Social Networking Software

Green Elgg ($Zero Dollar - High Value) $0penSource Community $0 - Learning Curve - familiar LAMP platform $0 - Active Community $0 - Community Support (trac) $0 - Downloadable Community Plugins $0 - Downloadable Community Widgets

Prototype Server Platform

Created Prototype server using Intel Atom processorNormally Found on Netbooks.Cool Processor - no FAN required Power Consumption: ~20 Watts vs. ~65 watts or higher.

Pilot Server Platformwww.lionsclubs.me

~5 Watts running Marvell 1.2 Ghz processorUsing SDHC flash memory for storageRuns Ubuntu 9.04Boots with DHCPSSH to loginInstalled Apache, MySQL, PHPInstalled Elgg 1.5Subsequently Installed WebMin (web based Administration - webmin.com)

Other Hosting OptionsHosted Elgg Services (from Elgg.org website)

GoDaddy.com also provide Elgg hosting services

lionsclubs.me

Introduction to MSKCC

After experimenting with Elgg with the Lions Club and being impressed with it, I then introduced it to MSKCC.

Established in 1884, oldest and largest private cancer centerMission: progressive control and cure of cancer through programs of patient care, clinical research, and education2008 Stats

~$2B Annual RevenuesOver 10,000 Employees22,000 admissions, 466,000 outpatient visits2008 Annual Report http://www.mskcc.org/mskcc/shared/graphics/AR_2008/pdf/MSKCC08AR.pdf

Why Use Social Media at MSKCC? Improve collaboration using social mediaEnhance sense of communityEasy sharing of non-sensitive documentsComplements MS Sharepoint (for more sensitive docs)Some Potential Use Cases:

Clinical ResearchGraduate School/Post DocsStaff OnboardingVirtual Teams/Groups

MSKCC ChallengesDown Economy

Development Support - Zero Staff for ExplorationZero Social Media Budget!

MSKCC Pilot

Formed a multi-disciplinary committee Nov 2008.Elgg based pilot site in place November 2008.Running on Suse Linux Enterprise Serveras a virtual machine on a Xen Server.Zero Footprint Server (well sort of)Initial pilot started with about a dozen people.

MSKCC Status

Finalizing Policy/Guidelines on the use of social media.Staff education and awareness about social technology through meetings/presentations.Expanded Pilot - Currently about 300 pilot users.Approximately 50 groups.Submitted budget for a production system in 2010.Anticipates 1500 active users in production.

Take AwaysKnow Your Target AudienceDevelop policy and guidelinesIdentify Your Contributors/Leaders vs. Consumers/FollowersListen to users and implement feature requests and problem fixes quickly.Single Signon - not having to remember another set of userid/password.Elgg facilitated prototype/pilot at minimal cost.Production class professional support may be hard to come by (at least at the moment)

SummaryElgg's light footprint and community support has enabled us to experiment with social media at very little cost.Elegant, flexible and open design allows developers to continue to extend the Elgg platform. Integration with LDAP, OpenID, Twitter, Facebook will help with continued adoption.Community support is adequate for experimentation or small communities but availability of commercial support or trained staff will be essential for production corporate/enterprise deployments.

Q&A

Deferred to the next session which is a

Panel Discussion

THANK YOU!