Building a social networking framework in CodeIgniter

[eluser]Stu Green[/eluser]
We are thinking of developing our own social networking framework in CI. We are just not sure about one thing,

"Are social networking sites still in demand?"

We have already built our own website-in-a-box system called Halogy which you can read about on our blog, and there is a definate demand for applications like these, but social networking?

We have had a client request it, but I just wondered, if we made a framework on CodeIgniter would anyone else use it? Would there be a demand for it?

What do you all think?

Thanks

Stu

[eluser]drewbee[/eluser]
I personally think a 'do all' social based sites are soon to meet their ends. Niche social networking is where it is at, and I am not sure how you would design a do all application for the specifics. (Think Oracle ERP, without a million bugs).

hrug: I am not a big fan of those sites though.

[eluser]Stu Green[/eluser]
Yeah I'm thinking a white label social networking framework that could be re-used for niche social networks.

If that makes any sense at all...

[eluser]Jay Logan[/eluser]
Why not just make some custom libraries to drop in our current CI applications. An entire framework just for social networking web sites seems like overkill.

[eluser]philmctim[/eluser]
If you want to confirm demand for niche social networks, take a look at Ning. They have around 750,000 social networks (in around 2 years), with 3,000 being added each day.

[eluser]Hugh Fletcher[/eluser]
Check out http://elgg.org/. Its not CI based but has an awesome api.

And the web is going social, if not already there. The most effective will be making their site work and integrate with other social platforms.

[eluser]Phil Sturgeon[/eluser]
Integrating social concepts into existing sites with integration for existing social networks is where its at.

Don't bother building it yourself as people wont want to sign up to a new site to add all their friends. Look at digg and blip.tv for some great Facebook Connect examples.

[eluser]xwero[/eluser]
SocialEngine is another php solution to build a social network.

But i wonder what a social network site is, technically speaking. Isn't it just a CMS where the admins provide content for other admins to see/react on/collaborate instead of the traditional admin-visitor roles?

[eluser]Natebot[/eluser]
Ning is a "make your own niche social network" tool. It's written in PHP, and you can be given the source files for our own network so you can modify it. (or at least you could branch the last time I checked so time ago.)

[eluser]munnu[/eluser]
i have worked on drupal,elgg and also explored cakephp so now i know making social networking site in cms is not a good appoach in a long run.So now i have decided to start one oon a framework. Right now i am confuse between CI and cakephp both are great but finding who is scaleable ......??? these are the questions revolving around my mind