Pro's and Con's with the Ning Platform

[Nascent Dynamics ( )]

Hi there, I welcome any conversation concerning the Ning platform. I think it's great and I want to get the word out to anyone who doesn't know about it yet. Now to begin, I did my research and found some issues. One of them being SEO. I guess there is an issue with search results showing irrelevant information- not necessarily the network description you put in. However, the platform is relatively new and i think they will work that out.

I also get the feeling the platform is better for networking. I am setting up on Facebook too and was playing with their new page layouts. I still think Ning is superior. I intuit networking will do more for people to get higher on search results because networking implies link backs and reciprocation on eachother's sites. I think that affects search engine results more than a catchy name or even some of the other techniques being employed. Furthermore, I think the volume of activity on a site increases it's rating/ list position. So the more people we get on Area Light, the better our chances of being at the forefront of searches.

[Nascent Dynamics ( )]

So far so good. I like the ease with which you can install widgets and RSS feeds. I think this outclasses blogs by a mile, but am unsure how compares to other social networking platforms. The fact that it is a networking platform supports separating areas of interest by group rather than presenting a single subject RSS feed on a blog. Should work out great for Area Light to have a diverse subject mix. Today we added UFC and Olympics groups as good examples of the Widget/ RSS feed capability available to our community when setting up their own pages, groups, or even when they go on to set up their own social networks on Ning.

[Nascent Dynamics ( )]

I'm going to add an RSS feed for Ning status to the Area Light Member Services Page. The posts include notices for scheduled updates and maintenance etc. I think I'll RSS feed the Ning Creaters Blog onto my own page. They have a good section on featured social networks I expect to be looking into. One of the concepts of my social group is to introduce people to the Ning platform, get them familiarized with it, then see them make their own.

[Nascent Dynamics ( )]

Conferencing Options: O.K., I told some of you I was going to start commenting on specific use issues. Really, these are just things that have crossed my mind trying to make the most out of this Ning platform. So you are all invited to share here in this group by starting your own discussions.

Ultimately, I hope to attract a lot of Ning users and creators to dicuss and offer support to newer users. Therefore, I'll just introduce ideas I intend to address here on the Pro's and Con's discussion.

Today I'd like to cover something I've been noticing in comment wall use. My framework is from the perspective iof the new user- how does the platform make it easy and enjoyable. Also, what issues are in need of improvement in order to meet that standard.

First, when you comment on a message wall, a notice is sent to the wall's host by default. This let's them know there has been some activity they might find interesting. If they look in, their immediate options would be to either reply back to the sender or post a new message on the wall. This is just one scenario. This dynamic would seem to apply to everybody.

When you reply to a comment wall post, that reply ends up posting on the author's wall. This would likely create an auto- alert message to that author. However, if you just post a new comment on a wall, rather than replying directly, then that message remains on the page you are commenting on.

The problem is deciding how you want to use your wall and how to make sure people are aware of their choices. it's only natural to post a response for everyone to see your answer in context. Then realize the response could go unnoticed by the author of the comment you are responding to. Rather, that page's host would get an alert.

I'm currently "programming" Area Light Member Services to interact with members on walls. After sending a friend invite, we present a standardized message- much like a calling card to introduce ourselves and direct the user on how to get started enjoying this network. I'd like to station ALMS in the group Area Light Home. There, we can initiate some discussion on the site features, etc.

[Nascent Dynamics ( )]

O.K. there is a big event going on in the Ning Network Creator community. This barely affected us but represents lessons learned I wanted to share- especially for those of you who go ion to set up your own networks.

Widget Laboratory was a very nice service to find associated with Ning. I wasn't sure if they were directly affiliated or not. They had some free site features and others they sold. So we took advantage of their chat option and tried it out. For some reason, it seems WL violated terms of use on Ning and were removed. The consequence of this was subtantial to a lot of network creators. For one, those who used chat understood the need for people to interact real time and to show activity on site. Others took advantage of their ad hosting features etc. As soon as WL was taken off, all those features became innoperable.

Coincidentally, or perhaps not so coincidentally, Ning had been going through some technical difficulties. There is some discussion whether this might be the reason for removal of their scripts. Other considerations include how this problem was handled. Suggested solutions include Ning versions of these apps or an approved vendor list. The point here is WL was a third party code/ feature provider. It may not have appeared so, but use of third party coding and services is really at your own risk. You have to pay attention to the terms of service whether you are offering something or using something. As a general rule of thumb, a lot of people have decided not to use third party features anymore. Others stand by widget/ feature services they have used without problems and incident. We will certainly be considering our decisions for Area Light.

[Nascent Dynamics ( )]

I just received a member notice from LinkedIn they are introducing "discussion" feature to groups. I had set up a group wondering what kind of platform I would have to work with only to learn I had to link to a site. I sampled another group in LinkedIn that was using a Web 2.0 platform and had assumed that was the platform they were using. Now they have suggested theri new feature includes a home page, discussion feature, and searchable member list. Interesting. Not too long ago, LinkedIn was featured on the news discussing their competitive standpoint with FaceBook- who has also recently done some upgrading. When it comes to first impressions though, I think Ning won me over right away and left the others lacking. Of course they will be upgrading to remain competitive. People are going to probably make some decisions on who to go with or focus on. I've mentioned that I'm on all of them including MySpace. However, Ning will be a primary focus for me. I just like it better. I return to the point of "Why Ning?"- that is, why would anyone want to set up their own social networking sites? I've got nine others I am developing outside of Area Light focussing on specific interests I doubt everyone would be interested in. Area Light is intended to be more of a directory or hub where network creators can gather. It's not exclusive, members can join without their own network. The point is you can really grab some high quality internet real estate and applications through Ning. I think this totally outclasses most website offers. Whether it's a site or Ning, you should be able to represent your interests in this community. So, yes, there are a lot of con's to setting up your own network- especially if you have any hope of networking with other people who may or may not share your interests. Then again, I think that's precisely one of the main points of Area Light and why I think this just might be the next big Ning.

[Nascent Dynamics ( )]

Nice to see Ning respond to the issue I mentioned previously by releasing their own chat feature. I think it looks great and, of course, works better than the previous free version I had found from a third party who is no longer on Ning.

Today I'd like to comment on a few things on my mind with the platform. First, social networking can easily turn into a time buster. The fact is everyone seems to want to have others join "their" Ning or other platform rather than join others. It's sort of logical to have everyone come to you and I take no exception to that same preference. I created Area Light for this and I think the catch is that I am gearing it up for the same use by others. Ning acknolwedges the challenge of cross-platform traffic yet I think they also highlight the fact that people do cross over to different networks anyway- sort of a defiance to the logic.

Something else on my mind recently was the use of premium services. Ning might get angry at me for this, but I can actually see a way to prefer the non-premium services- with the exception of purchasing additional storage and bandwidth as becomes necessary. I like how they itemize the different premium services so I can choose what I want when I need them. They are also very clear on the affordable pricing which I think is great. To many people offer stuff without price transparency until you contact them. I generally never contact these people. Now I have something to consider for a while.

Take a look at their ads feature. You can pay a few dollars (basically) to get the ads removed and the best advantage of this is reclaiming territory on your page/ legitimizing your business to a degree. You also have the option of installing your own adservers which i guess can create a revenue stream for you. For Area Light, I like to showcase how all of this can be done for free. It serves my interests to show I am just another guy doing this for free and the ads really aren't that bad in terms of space and content. Yes the right panel is premium but with some creativity can be disregardable. What I am really pleased with is the close relevance a lot of the ads have to do with the theme of yoiur site. Right now i see Pimp My Profile- I looked into them on MySpace. I also See Ning Network Merch Store. Both of these are either directly or indirectly lead ins to the theme of this site. Even the ads for abs have a value in discussing there is obviously some kind of script tagging location of ads to certain sites- and it's not perfect.

As I study Ning, I just may venture into some of these ads to see what information and resources I find. Ad the service component of Area Light and I can see a value in exploring ads, initiating discussions/ reviews etc for the benefit of our members. Most likely, if the ad leads to anything worthwhile then the coverage they get here will be greater than the ad itself and lead to more clicks by members. If it's lame then at least they got our click and our members can be afforded the benefit of our review to decide that particular ad isn't worth the time/ effort of a couple clicks and page changes! Since the theme of this site is so broad and inclusive, almost anything we look into can lead to a conversation and support the stimulating activity of our community. More to follow.

[Deborah J. Boyd]

The reason that Widget lab was removed was probably due to mining. You will notice that there are 2 ways you can belong to NING, free and have adds along the side - NING's choice. Or you can pay about $30/month and collect your own funds. Each web site sets their own rules. Some want no merchandizing and some are straight up business recruiters, coaches, networkers, etc. Now from a business standpoint you want a certain amount of quality control on your network to attract the maximum quantity of participants. There is porn on NING, but I do not have a problem with it because it is obvious and as soon as you open the first page it asks if you are over 18. Anybody offended by porn can go to another site. I have also noticed that the few I have checked out of curiosity said no pedophilia was allowed. Just like most sites ban profanity and vicious attacks. I wish we could select a "Home site" and get all mail and accept/decline friends at that one place. I belong to about 50 sites so I get tons of duplicate mail because you can send out a news mail. I am not sure how we could eliminate duplicate mail. I guess it would entail some sort of registration which would have to come from admin for NING Central. I think NING is a great incubator. Blogs never interested me. I really love the graphics here. The videos added a lot. I am very fond of www.xing.com too. They are more into micro-management though. It started in Germany. You can search all 7 million members there.

[Nascent Dynamics ( )]

Interesting insights. Regarding the abuse, consider what I'm doing here. I simply say if I don't like a member I'll boot them. I also have mitigated my own micromanagement by encouraging members to make this their own while intentionally not insulting their intelligence by laying out too many guidelines. This serves to attract and maintain those who share my own preferences. I've heard of xing a couple times. Guess I'll look into it. One of the other concepts at play in Area Light is the example I set by not mass messaging a lot. I've also put a lot of thought into making this a network directory or hub. In this way sites can be represented and members would be able to laterally explore without all the registration and page set ups/ maintenance. Better to learn about and interact with a site representative to learn whether it's a good mutual fit- thus drawing in those who really want to be a part of a site they are also welcomed to.

Great. Thanks for the comment Deborah.

Anthony

[Nascent Dynamics ( )]

So it looks like Ning is about to do an upgrade. I wonder how smooth these upgrades go. Hope we don't get downtime. The skill with which upgrades occur gives me a sense of the organizational knowledge-base underlying a platform. There are so many things that can go wrong. A solid planning methodology really sets apart those who can and those who try. Needless to say, the endless complexity of online environments almost certainly implies some hickups along the way. How those are handled and the turnaround time involved can say alot too.

I'd like to remind those following this discussion that ning has their own Ning Status Blog. I've got an RSS feed to it on the Area Light Member Services Page. It's useful to actually visit it directly at some point so you can lock it in to your favorites or links. Otherwise, what do you do when the entire site goes down, right? They've been real good at posting periodic updates every half hour when things go down.

The new upgrade has just been postponed which is kind of interesting. I guess the main features will be changes to how your friends features operate- where they used to be on your ning Bar now should be somewhere on your page. I actually like it the way it is now. On the other hand, I bet this change is a small step in the direction they need to address the challenges of navigating/ messaging across different networks. This kind of thing makes me consider the dynamics of planning my own services. I usually look for ways to utilize things as they are. When there is a change, that can effect what I have in mind. In particular, I'm usually stretching the limits and utility of apps beyond what's really intended. So when common sense upgrades are done I'm at higher risk for being seriously impacted than others who simply go with the grain.

[Nascent Dynamics ( )]

Hmmm...thought I would test out a blog feature. I use a blog on MSN spaces.live and kind of like how the most recent post goes to the top of the list. That's good for my publishing style since I'm always evolving and posting my current impressions of things. Here on Ning, I'm seeing the blog posts shown from earliest first. Sometimes you have to navigate to next pages until you get to the latest post and I wonder who's going to take the time to do that? On the other side of that coin, the original post does serve to establish the topic- so long as it is a clear enough copy. If you build your content progressively, this could serve interesting enough for people to follow. The other plus that accomodates for this may be the recent activity feature. So I'm pretty sure this blog post will reflect momentarily under recent activity and someone might look into it. I'm just not sure where following the link will take them- to the recent post or to the header topic. Right now I'm doing a quick test to see if replying to my first reply will reflect just below it rather than at the end of the thread. I typically reply to my own discussions from the main view field and this time I am choosing a response to reply to. I've seen this work in other communities and be announced as a reply within a discussion.

Ning has some interesting features to consider for managing content. If I have a series of points, someone might scan through to one that interests them and remark directly to it. If that's the case then discussions with an informative intention might serve some utility. Otherwise, the best you can hope for is a snapshot of the progression as comments are made in sequence- so you can see the lifecycle of some topic and the contributions in a chronological format.

I play around with my options perhaps more than most people.You'll find me responding to my own discussions as series where most people probably put up a post and leave it to be responded by others. I'm trying that with the "First Impressions" forum discussion. I hate the feeling of leaving people hanging when they provide a positive feedback. At the same time I don't always want to crowd the comments of others with my own responses. That discussion in particular serves as a good testimonial reference where my own contributions would surely get in the way. Protocol wise, I can still follow up with those contributing members by a private message or public thank you on their comment wall.

It's kind of interesting to see how others exercise their options withing the available features and guidance within certain areas. For instance, I set up Area Light Home as a group where people can discuss what they want out of this community. One member recently put up a post regarding using Ning for organizing content. That fits within this group and could serve the expectations of members following this discussion. At the same time it fits within that group's dynamics. In another network I'm on, I had a guy carry a back and forth conversation with me using the comment walls. That wasn't too efficient but did give rise to the subject of how to carry conversations with the tools for different purposes.

Plenty to discuss on this group regarding Ning. I'm also rolling out a wiki as a compliment to this community to help us categorize and direct people through all the references and information we cover. So I created the group Holonic Organization. Surely enough, I found myself posting information regarding Ning's utility for managing information. Given the pro's and con's, I see the wiki as a terrific compliment. We've got other aspects to explore such as the tag/ search features. I haven't been tagging. I bet there are some tricks to that to make it work and more pro's and con's to learn about.

I'll reiterate this group is open for comments. You can comment to my discussions or generate your own discussions. Keeping my involvement clean, I've decided to limit my contributions to this thread so others will show rather than be crowded by distinctly separate discussions of my own making every time I post. Perhaps that's why on my personal page I start with a header in my text box suggesting I'm just playing around with Ning.

[Nascent Dynamics ( )]

Thanks for turning me on to XING. I took a look but did not go so far as registering. I can see they have a targetted concept for professionals and businesses- what I refer to as an organizational level. Kind of interesting because I intend to do some of the same things. However, I might do better with our full transparency so visitors can see everything we are and offer in detail without joining. I also noted their advertisement deal had some major names. I want to help businesses advertise but I think we'll do something more innovative and off mainstream discounts etc. I liked how they mentioned you can market job opportunities to professionals that are currently employed. This is going to be important in the emerging knowledge-based economy. I didn't like the pay-per-click pricing. Maybe that's good and competitive for an established business but I don't have the money for that yet. I'm more attracted to the free platforms and thing businesses that can count on their actual activity and interaction to attract, promote, and sell can do better while sinking or swimming on their merits. It's good to have a profit model but mine will likely be based on actual results and gratuities from cleints who want to pay for more of what I can do directly. It's an interesting platform you've introduced me too. I noted they claim 300 million page views per month. That kind of put's sta.rtup.biz's boast of 1 million per month in perspective. Kind of interesting too how they position themselves for a professional market- much like LinkedIn. I'm also a bit fascinated by the fact XING is european based. It's enough to attract my interest further and I'll revisit them at some point now that I know they are out there. I've heard the name mentioned on a few occassions. We've got some forums on MySpace, Facebook, and LinkedIn. We'll probably add XING to that list. Thanks.

Deborah J. Boyd said:

The reason that Widget lab was removed was probably due to mining. You will notice that there are 2 ways you can belong to NING, free and have adds along the side - NING's choice. Or you can pay about $30/month and collect your own funds. Each web site sets their own rules. Some want no merchandizing and some are straight up business recruiters, coaches, networkers, etc. Now from a business standpoint you want a certain amount of quality control on your network to attract the maximum quantity of participants. There is porn on NING, but I do not have a problem with it because it is obvious and as soon as you open the first page it asks if you are over 18. Anybody offended by porn can go to another site. I have also noticed that the few I have checked out of curiosity said no pedophilia was allowed. Just like most sites ban profanity and vicious attacks. I wish we could select a "Home site" and get all mail and accept/decline friends at that one place. I belong to about 50 sites so I get tons of duplicate mail because you can send out a news mail. I am not sure how we could eliminate duplicate mail. I guess it would entail some sort of registration which would have to come from admin for NING Central. I think NING is a great incubator. Blogs never interested me. I really love the graphics here. The videos added a lot. I am very fond of www.xing.com too. They are more into micro-management though. It started in Germany. You can search all 7 million members there.

[Nascent Dynamics ( )]

Several years ago, I used to be an active contributor on msn groups. When I was doing some research for the development of my Nascent Dynamics ( ) business projects, I thought having the group/ message board utility could be useful. So I decided to look back into it and set up a new group. I quickly lost interest in that though when I discovered Ning shortly thereafter. Ning totally outclassed msn groups which I thought was a shame. I have been enjoying use of Microsoft Small Business and the spaces.live apps. These are still fairly ahead of the curve in my book. Yet the msn groups was so far outdated, I just knew Microsoft was going to have to address it. I recently received a notice to group owners that Microsoft intends to disband the msn groups in February 2009. They're going to be replacing it with an upgraded Live platform that includes some form of group collaboration. I'm sure it will be much better, however I'm interested to see what they come up with. I've been playing around with their SkyDrive and Workspaces BETA's and not been super impressed. There's a noticable commercial interest behind Microsofts strategies and they mention their new groups will not be set up as well for mass applications/ large network groups that at least msn groups satisfied. It seems they are going to target niche groups- smaller networked user bases I suppose like you see with FaceBook or LinkedIn. To accomodate their msn networks, they have chosen a host called Multiply which will be assisting owners who want to migrate.

How interesting it is that Microsoft chose Multiply. I took a look at the interface and it has most of the conventional applications and a few proprietary twists. It didn't look half as impressive to me as Ning though and I was wondering why they didn't choose Ning as their partner in this. Microsoft has also been doing some interesting things with their I'm a PC campaign. I looked into the site for that and thought maybe they are really moving forward with an upgraded social networking application. However, it seemed to be more directing people into the microsoft services, which are still pretty impressive in their own right, but not necessarily a social networking medium like Ning.

Some thoughts that crossed my mind were the fact Ning is a privately held firm still. When I did my research into Ning, I learned they had received somewhere over a couple hundred million in private investment to drive their initiative. I caught a highlight of one of their blogs recently that hinted at the direction they're planning on taking the platform. All in all, I suppose taking a closer look at what's going on and what is ahead in the context of the social networking phenomena and major players could give me a better picture of just what pro's and con's are ahead for me. A little faith and commitment on my part might be sufficient for sticking with Ning. I wonder what happens if they were to go down for some reason. What would they offer to help me migrate all the work I've put in here? There is a level of uncertainty I think we have to accept as a con with Ning. At the same time, what I've learned and enjoyed so far is a matter of a pro in my book. I think it is worth the risk. I certainly hope so!