An interesting (geek) video that walks you through the evolution of the Ning Content Store (by Brian McCallister, Distinguished Engineer @ Ning):
Ning Tech Talks: Brian McCallister on The Ning Content Store, Architectural Evolution from Ning on Vimeo.
A friend of mine posted this quesiton on Quora: What is the best platform for creating a niche social network on? Here’s my reply:
I would recommend one of three options:
1) Ning: if you want to scale your network. They offer three plans (all paid), the least expensive of which lets you really get a good feel for the platform at a very low price. You can go with the full feature set and premium support for just under $50 per month.
We have been running two networks on Ning, with nearly 19,000 and 13,000 members respectively, since 2007 with very good results.
Pros:
Cons:
2) Buddypress: I can’t talk about scalability with this platform (I don’t have enough experience with it), but to the extent that Buddypress is a plug-in that ties in so well with the world’s best blogging platform, I can’t think of a better option if you prefer not to use Ning.
Pros:
Cons:
3) GroupSite: If you don’t have plans to grow your niche network too much, I can share the experience I have seen with a 30-40 member network of artists that runs on GroupSite and works beautifully for what they need. It is a platform that is best for you if you need your members to not just interact and connect but also actively collaborate.
They still run under a Freemium model (a free option that is ad-supported… which I am sure will disappear eventually for the same reasons that Ning’s free option went away). The paid Pro option for small groups (under 50) is competitive in pricing with Ning.
For even more options, I suggest reading this list. In the list you will find many other options, most of which are variations on the same themes.
Fresh into the second quarter of 2010, we were faced with news about the change in the Ning business model. It hasn’t been even a year since this news… yet I felt compelled to write about the way Ning looks moving forward.
This morning, I got an email from Ning titled What’s in Store for 2011, with information about features on Ning that have been rolled out in the past few months and plans for coming quarter or two. And something dawned on me: Ning is really laying out their product roadmap for users (and competitors) to see. In the words of their Chief Product Officer:
There are several reasons why companies don’t do this: It might reveal too much to the competition. It might force commitments and limit flexibility. It may feel like a burden. Plus, don’t customers like to be surprised when they sign in and spot a shiny, new feature? Under-promise and over-deliver, right?
There are several ways to look at it. But there’s one extremely good reason a company like ours should publish a product roadmap: Quite simply, it will make our customers happy. Making customers happy is a core part of our business.
Know what? I loved that they did it! It helps US (network creators) plan for the future, knowing what will and won’t be available and when (at least in the coming six months). As for competitors, they seem to be moving forward not minding as much that competitors may know what will they be doing or when. As long as Ning delivers on their promise (roll out functional features according to their product map), the moment features become announced on the Product Map, they are being put in the open, so… I don’t think they are losing that much competitive edge by opening up their six-month product map to the world.
Another thing they are doing very well is to help people develop the best networks they possibly can, through an assortment of Best Practices and a Getting Started guide combined with Troubleshooting Guides and a public Known Issues page.
All these elements speak to me of transparency and, combined with the features one can learn about through the roadmap, also tell me of evolution! 2011 promises to be a very exciting year for anyone using Ning or considering to do so.
Do you have any thoughts or comments on Ning in 2011 and beyond?
Earlier today, my friend Amy Sample Ward wrote an amazing follow-up post to the changes announced by Ning back in April that led to the elimination of their free option.
It is always good to go back and assess the impact changes have had on us. In the case of social networking platforms, the change in business model Ning announced certainly sent shock waves through the nonprofit and education world. Since then, a few things have happened and I thought I’d take a moment to share in this post what I’ve taken away from it:
“The big lesson for nonprofits and education technologists alike would be to keep in mind that if you want absolute control over the way a certain platform or solution works, the only way that can be accomplished is by housing it yourself,” he said. “Unfortunately that comes at an additional cost, and that cost has to be taken by someone.”
This has not changed: the nonprofit and education sectors continue to be at the expense of changes in business models and will have to remain agile and flexible, ready to adapt on a moments notice (if possible) when/if the company hosting/running the service they offer changes or (even) goes out of business. The alternative is to run and host your own service with the additional IT costs this entails. So, as my friend Luis would say “there’s no free lunch!”
So, are we out of the woods yet? Far from it… as Joan Manuel Serrat sings, “Caminante, no hay camino: se hace camino al andar” (Walker, there’s no road: you make your own road when you walk… -or something like that).
Yesterday, I met an email in my Inbox with a BIG smile! Just as Pearson came forward to underwrite educational networks on Ning, WEGO Health, a social network for Health Activists who are passionate about health conditions, announced an exciting option for health networks on Ning.
Under this partnership WEGO Health will provide health-related communities with Ning Plus service. Jack Barrette, CEO of WEGO Health said:
“Since its inception, WEGO Health has been dedicated to empowering Health Activists to lead active health conversation on the web. The health networks built on Ning are a powerful example of Health Activists at work, and we’re thrilled to be able to extend our mission through this sponsorship. We look forward to collaborating with health-focused Ning Network Creators to expand their reach and impact.”
If you want to learn more about the partnership, read the announcement on WEGO health or apply for a WEGO Health-sponsored Ning Plus package.
Today, the world of Ning Network Creators woke up with expectation to learn about the details of the new direction that Ning will be taking. A lot of reactions resulted from the announcement to cut free social networks and let go 40% of the staff, no more than 3 weeks ago.
The day following the announcement, after a night of little sleep, I wrote an Open Letter to Jason Rosenthal and Marc Andreesen, the CEO and the Chairman/Co-Founder of Ning. In the post I appealed to them, asking them to consider the impact the decision would have on small nonprofits and education networks.
Accompanying the post was a petition started by Jason Chmura, from the Society for Nonprofit Organizations, rallying to keep EDU and NPO Ning networks free. In no time, the petition gathered nearly 1,200 signatures.
Early this morning, the news broke on the Ning blog and the New York Times:
What does this mean for Network Creators? (completed details here)
We will be adding an automated export option to the manage page of each Ning Network by the July launch. You will have 30 days after the launch to select the migration option and export your Ning Networks content in an Atom syndicated format.
What does this mean for nonprofit networks?
The nonprofit technology sector has learned a few lessons. One of the important lessons goes in line with what I told to the writer of the New York Times (quoting from the article -I don’t get to quote myself from the Times too often!):
“The big lesson for nonprofits and education technologists alike would be to keep in mind that if you want absolute control over the way a certain platform or solution works, the only way that can be accomplished is by housing it yourself,” he said. “Unfortunately that comes at an additional cost, and that cost has to be taken by someone.”
Nonprofits outside of the US may face a mixed future, depending on their ability to afford the fees to be charged when the new pricing packages kick in.
What does this mean for Ning?
I think Ning has also learned a big lesson, as it shows in the way they managed the announcement today, compared to the way the first announcement was made.
Today’s announcement used every possible channel (email, the Creators network, their Twitter account, the NYTimes piece and even a press release that made it on a few other sites). They even scheduled 4 conference calls to answer questions about the changes in the coming few days.
They will still be charging for all networks (K-12 networks, they will just be charging someone other than the network creator): the essence of the information to be shared hasn’t changed. But the way in which is has been shared is much more appreciated by everyone.
What do YOU think about the announcement Ning made today? How will it affect your plans in connection with the Ning platform?
From luc legay
Maybe no more than a year or two ago, I used to think of Twitter and Facebook as ways to drive traffic to our “main” online communities: TuDiabetes and EsTuDiabetes. The hope was that we could reach out to people interested in what we had to offer in either community on these other growing social networks and try to get them to visit and sign up as members…
Time passed and we realized that was happening, but not to the extent that we were hoping. While some people would visit and sign up for our social networks, something else that was VERY interesting was going on. If we shared a link to an interesting discussion going on in, say, TuDiabetes and included the title of the discussion on our Diabetes Hands Foundation Facebook page, if the topic was interesting, the discussion didn’t depart the page. Fans (or “likers“, I guess, would be the new term) on the page would engage in discussion DIRECTLY on the page and not leave Facebook at all.
Think of it: the convenience! You simply have to monitor one site (or few sites, maybe), keeping an eye on your main feed, and relevant elements are presented to you, on which you can jump and participate commenting about them, liking them or sharing them with others. It’s simple… and it’s brilliant!
Something similar happens on Twitter, though perhaps not in a way that is as easy to visualize because Twitter is less structured.
So, next time you are wondering whether your community should live on a space separate from Facebook and Twitter or be a part of these growing spaces, don’t think either or: you may already have a community going on in two or all three places.
Open letter to Jason Rosenthal, CEO of Ning and Marc Andreesen, Co-founder and Chairman of the Board of Ning
Jason, Marc:
I am directing this post at the two of you not in a personal way but as the visible heads leading Ning, a platform that has given network creators the tools to create and maintain millions of niche social networks.
Yesterday some of us learned of the announcement made by Ning about the 40% staff reduction and the elimination of free networks. In my case, I learned about this important decision through a tweet posted by a colleague network creator that linked to the TechCrunch article breaking the news.
I could dwell on how surprising it was to learn of such important news through others (not from Ning directly), especially after more than 3 years of using and telling others about the platform and its benefits; after having written Ning For Dummies; and being an active part of the recently created Network Creator Council program.
But I want to focus on what I think is most critical about this announcement. Two groups that I deeply care about that will be affected significantly by the decision to eliminate free networks are nonprofit networks in general and, more specifically, education networks. I was glad an update was posted addressing the concern voiced by many network creators in Education. But I am not clear yet as to what this will mean for all types of nonprofits.
It appears that nonprofits that currently pay for premium services will not have to worry too much about the change in Ning’s strategy. But I am wondering how many (thousands, perhaps) small nonprofits and grassroots groups will be unable to stick with Ning on the basis of cost. I am thinking of groups that run networks that fall in the “long tail”, well outside the 75% of your monthly US traffic generated by the tens of thousands “Premium Ning Networks” alluded to by Jason on his email to Ning employees.
Jason’s message went on to say “… those Network Creators need and will pay for many more services and features from us. So, we are going to change our strategy to devote 100% of our resources to building the winning product to capture this big opportunity.”
This language speaks of a service that is different from the concept that I first learned of three years ago: a service that empowered all people to create and discover social networks for their interests and passions. This language speaks of monetizing alone and leaves out the small groups trying to do good through Ning.
Just because something CAN be done (both, technically and legally) and because it makes business sense, doesn’t make it the RIGHT thing to do in the big scheme of things.
I know you have a fiduciary obligation to make the company profitable for the shareholders and you want to make sure the 98 employees remaining on staff can continue to keep their jobs for a long time. But I urge you to consider the impact your decision will have on the nonprofit space and ask you explore options comparable to initiatives like Google Grants, YouTube’s Nonprofit Program and the Salesforce Foundation so that the nonprofit groups that have been increasingly adopting Ning (while possibly buried in the long tail) will not be left to fend for themselves.
Don’t hesitate to let me know if you want any input in the coming weeks, as you prepare a more detailed plan to move forward.
Made possible thanks to The Extraordinaires!
Made possible thanks to The Extraordinaires!