Ning
Ning
Overview
Ning (http://www.ning.com) is a communication platform for groups with common interests to discuss topics and share documents. It offers a wide variety of features – videos, photos, chat, music, groups, events, Blog, member profiles, friends, messaging, email notifications, RSS (i.e., web feed) support, and third-party applications. As a result of this broad set of choices, each Ning network is unique and special in its purpose and design.
Strengths
Ning provides a central nexus for group communications that can be searched and organized. Ning Networks can be public or private. Most forms of Internet communications are supported (e.g., forum, blog, chat) and thousands of widgets (i.e., 3rd party applications) can be added. RSS feeds (see web feed) can be established to pull discussions from Ning into other web pages. Primary communication tools, such as starting new discussions and attaching documents, are easy to understand and use by most people.
Weaknesses
Ning is relatively new, and while powerful, it has few public examples that showcase its utility for conservation. While creating a Ning site is free, advertising is displayed on every page. Removing the ads from a site requires a monthly fee. Using Ning on a custom domain (i.e., website address) requires a monthly fee. Advanced features of Ning are not yet intuitive.
Examples
The Avian Knowledge Alliance developed a private Ning site following a workshop to coordinate the development of products initiated at the workshop and organize other discussions. The Midwest Coordinated Bird Monitoring Partnership currently uses a public Ning site (http://midwestbirdmonitoring.ning.com/) to engage partners and communicate news and information. The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency has a Ning site (http://tnwatchablewildlife.ning.com/) to support its Watchable Wildlife Program (http://www.tnwatchablewildlife.org/).
Tutorials
Ning help: http://help.ning.com/cgi-bin/ning.cfg/php/enduser/home.php?p_sid=o4dv_GPj
This publication is dynamic in that it will continue to be improved, updated, and expanded over time. Suggestions for improving the content, organization, and scope of this publication are encouraged and can be contributed here (http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/NP3Y772).