Recently I found a software package called BuddyPress. It is built on top of WordPress Multi-User as a plugin and was created by Andy Peatling. Using BuddyPress you can start your own social network site almost similar to Facebook, Orkut or MySpace. It allows a user to host a network of blogs on a site. BuddyPress adds a large variety of new social interaction features to WordPress.

The salient features of BuddyPress are as follows ::

• A WordPress blog
• Individual profiles for members
• Private Message Functionality
• Friend Networks
• Groups, which include a blog, photos and other user generated content
• “The Wire” (like the wall on Facebook)
• Activity/Action streams of public actions on the site
• Forums using bbPress

BuddyPress is a suite of WordPress plugins and themes, each adding a distinct new feature. BuddyPress contains all the features you’d expect from WordPress but aims to let members socially interact. All BuddyPress plugins can be themed to match your own style, in just the same way as a WordPress blog. The BuddyPress plugins are bundled with a default theme to get you going out of the box. As all BuddyPress plugins are independent, they can be used in two different ways. All of the plugins could be used to create a complete social network from scratch, or you could use specific plugins to add desirable features to your existing blog network.

For installing the BuddyPress package, you need a server with a MySQL database and a mod rewrite module so you can have clean URLS. Andy Peatling has created social networking website called chickspeak on the WordPress mu platform.

See the demo of BuddyPress

Check out Andy’s slides to know more about BuddyPress.