inquiring of the original cause of the choice of corporate groups that are present on the elgg home page

evan 'moved' this question.. apparently to a non existing 'off topic' group, since it was actually deleted.

so i will start the thread here manually.

as i made clear in the previous thread about how free expression in a community is so valuable, i hold a strong desire for integrity based activity on this planet and i actually aim to make that the primary deciding factor in as much as possible in what i do. this is threatening to some people, i can assure you - since they do not yet have the experience of someone calling them on their denials and deceptions who does not intend to blame or persecute them, and instead offers compassionate understanding.

anyhow... as part of that intention, i am inquiring as to some of the background to the elgg platform and seeking to know more of who is involved, in what ways and what their agendas are. (truly i would have been best served to have done this due dilligence exercise before creating a site for 3+ years using the framework; however, i did not perceive this would be such an issue for me then.)

specifically i would like to know why there is a small list of corporate entities listed at the page at www.elgg.org, who are given 'pride of place' and who, as far as i am aware, do not participate in the community as contributers - while a growing list of more active members are present in the showcase and yet not on the homepage?
the motivation for the inquiry is partially to identify if any type of legal /lawful agreement (e.g. sponsorhip or some other type of arrangement) exists between these entities, the elgg foundation, the core team or any other related legal / lawful entity - such that would cause them to be highlighted in such a way?
partially, also, the motivation is to identify if they, whether through agreement or through 'team member' cross-over are influencing the project and it's direction in any way.

anyone know the answers to this?

thanks

  • The list of organizations is a very old list of high-profile organizations that run some kind of network on Elgg. They are not paid links, and there are no contracts involved. I don't even know if the list is accurate anymore. I'd like to see the list be generated more dynamically from info on the community site.

  • I think Evan answer is the right one, atleast that's how I always felt about that list.
    I seems a very old, not accurate list, made once and never really maintained, probably some of those companies moved forward by now and are not using Elgg anymore.

    I agree that Hill & Knowlton is a bit of a strange name there, but It's a kind of logical thing for Elgg to put some big organisations on their homepage that use Elgg, it's both a honor and it attracts people using Elgg, because if the big guys use it, it should be good, no?

    All the good software makers do so and I don't feel that there would be any contracts involved with being proud on your software, and I am not really a naive person, but something common sense is just what it has to be.

    Anyway, Ura, I understand your concern and I think we could get along very well in real life, but please be carefull that this is not becoming a wichhunt, that's not something Elgg needs.

     

  • The elgg.org site is indeed outdated. Core team hasn't been spending much time maintaining it because it's going to be replaced completely in near future. At this point our time is better spent working on the new version than updating the old one.

    AFAIK the new version will fetch sites from the community showcase.

  • thankyou for the responses here.

    WARNING: CONTROVERSY AHEAD.. MAY CAUSE HAIRPIECES TO FALL OFF. ;)

    as i pointed to in the other thread, at least one/two of the organistions on the homeage are towards the absolute bottom of my list of organisations on this planet in terms of their track record of (loss of) integrity. i can only think that the ones who put them up there on that page did not do any research into who they are and what they have been doing - since, far from having a 'wow' factor, for those who are aware, they have more of an 'ewww' factor. if i wanted elgg to be attractive, to expand, bloom and to demonstrate the intelligent design and wisdom that web groups usually seek to optimise and promote - removing these logos from the landing page would be one of my priorities - especially since it is such a simple task... deciding that the creation of the new version of elgg is a priority is not wrong; yet you may just find that by cleaning up the other areas through 'quick win' changes, the other areas become easier too since you may find you receive more assistance from others in unexpected ways.

    I agree that Hill & Knowlton is a bit of a strange name there, but It's a kind of logical thing for Elgg to put some big organisations on their homepage that use Elgg, it's both a honor and it attracts people using Elgg, because if the big guys use it, it should be good, no?

    size is not everything. in fact, the owner of godaddy definitely has an issue with size: https://twitter.com/BarnabyEdwards/status/408192337970753536/photo/1
    but hey, godaddy is big.. so using them must be good, right?


    Hill & Knowlton (from wikipedia):


    tobacco:
    "In 1953, members of the tobacco industry hired the firm to help counteract findings that suggested cigarette smoking led to lung cancer. As a result, a statement was released to nearly every major newspaper and magazine, which suggested that cigarettes had no verifiable links to cancer.[citation needed] The tobacco industry remained a Hill & Knowlton client until 1968.[5]"

    gulf war/ kuwait:
    In 1990, H&K led over 20 other American PR firms in a foreign-funded domestic campaign.[6] H&K earned over $10.8 million for their work, paid by "Citizens for a Free Kuwait," an organization heavily funded by the Kuwaiti government.[6] One particularly notorious event was the testimony of “Nurse Nayirah” to the Congressional Human Rights Caucus on October 10, 1990. Nayirah falsely testified that she had witnessed Iraqi soldiers killing hundreds of premature babies at the al-Addan hospital in Kuwait City.[7] The public was told her identity was concealed to protect her family. It was later discovered she was the daughter of the Kuwait ambassador to the US. Amnesty International originally supported her testimony, but Amnesty and other human rights groups later withdrew their support. She later changed her statement to saying that she was only repeating what she heard from a friend. H&K faxed the details of her speech to newsrooms across the country, and the story took off quickly. This testimony had an emotional impact on the decision in US-American politics and of the public to support the war against Iraq.[8] It was mentioned several times by president George H.W. Bush.[9][10] The Public Relations Society of America wrote a controversial letter to its membership defending the actions of Hill & Knowlton, claiming the criticisms amounted to criticizing the entire practice. Many professionals disagreed.[11]

    ----

    and i could go on.. these are not isolated incidents.. and from what i have seen these wikipedia versions of events are highly sanitised. patrick bateman would probably approve.

    "please be carefull that this is not becoming a wichhunt"

    i have nothing against the magical - just a strong passion to heal the planet and not to participate in helping those who would seek to kill and harm, period.. and who would, in fact harm me, given a reason to. i realise that a flipside to opensource / free software is that anything you create can be used against you in totally unexpected ways - yet steps can be taken to mitigate that. you may also learn from watching this documentary about the so called 'australian government' - another body on the homepage - if you want to see a real life witch hunt in action:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umVj5XQYAi8

    it is an unfortunate fact that a high percentage of humans are 'asleep at the wheel' and so from time to time, these types of conversations are a healthy way of stimulating positive change.

  • Sorry to barge in this discussion, but I was also wondering about the 'Listings' page in elgg.org

    Any updates on that?

    [Moderator: this comment was off-topic. It was moved to its own topic.]