As we've seen throughout this book, Elgg is a very diverse platform for opening up lines of communication where none exist. In this chapter, we've seen examples of Elgg deployments in very different continents to serve very different purposes.
Elgg's customizability is unique. Not only is it designed to add on new features, but as in the case of non-profits in Colombia, it can scale down its features as well. You can gauge its flexibility from the fact that its deployers in Colombia were able to iron it out for non-technical users—users who had never even blogged before!
Another aspect of Elgg, highlighted by its use in Colombian non-profits and underlined by its implementers in the university in UK, is the strength of its community. Like a true Open Source product, Elgg is developed for the community, by the community. Some of its very important plug-ins have been contributed by its users.
Elgg's third biggest strength, as appreciated by its use in the university, is its ability to co-exist with existing web infrastructure. Be it VLE's in an educational institute or Wiki's and Forums on the intranet or world facing websites, Elgg can fit nicely with the most popular ones.
The main aim of this chapter has been to demonstrate that Elgg can be used in any situation, by the people who've used it themselves. No matter what your constraints or how challenging your objective, Elgg's capable enough to handle it all.