At next week’s Learning Technologies Exhibition Saffron Interactive (Stand 33) will be demonstrating Saffron Share, a corporate social network, personal portfolio and community knowledge base for collaboration and ‘just-in-time’ learning. The product is based on the open-source Elgg social networking engine.
‘There are two key advantages to basing this new product on open source technology,’ says Toby Harris, LMS product manager at Saffron. ‘The first is that our clients can choose every aspect of the design and functionality: every instance of Saffron Share is a bespoke build.’
‘The second is cost-effectiveness. Just like our bespoke e-learning courses, the source code becomes the property of our clients and we won’t charge any fees per user. Essentially, it’s a Moodle approach to the corporate social network with clear benefits for global organisations with tens of thousands of learners.’
Below are just a few of the features offered by Saffron Share:
- Social networking including chat, user profiles, blogging and image uploads
- A news feed to allow users to ask the advice of colleagues, comment and ‘like’ posts
- Groups for collaborative working and content sharing within project teams
- Events management to facilitate live training and social events
- Navigation of content through searching, categories and tag clouds
- The ability to easily build both personal portfolios and shared knowledge bases
- Easy content curation via social bookmarking and web browser extensions
Saffron Interactive has developed custom open-source platforms for public and private sector organisations for several years. Next week attendees will also be able to try out Saffron Grow, a new LMS offering based on Moodle 2.2.5 which has a radical new design philosophy and is mobile optimised.
‘Integrating Saffron Share with Saffron Grow is what really excites me,’ says Toby. ‘The idea that formal learning activities, just-in-time learning, resources and personal portfolios could all be hosted and tracked via one social and mobile platform has game-changing implications for our FTSE 250 client base.’
You can visit Saffron at Stand 33 and get in touch today to arrange a time during the show to demo these new products. The Learning Technologies Exhibition is free and takes place on 29 and 30 January. Register for your free place here.
