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Ning's place in the world of social networking
I have some thoughts on Social Networking platforms I thought I would share. Let me konw what you think.
(Disclaimer: I have a vested interest in FaceBook Connect, but thats not unduly influencing this conversation. It comes from reading a lot of SN blogs - Mashable, ZDNet, TechCrunch and doing a lot of development with this stuff)
Social Networking is a rapidly evolving sphere, with a massive amount of innovation, and its at the core of web2.0->3.0->4.0 (where are we at?). It used to be enough to just have a "walled garden"" approach, then it was RSS out, then you needed an API to be serious, and now the leaders in the sphere have their own "platforms" for extending their sites beyond their own servers.
CATEGORY 1 - PLATFORM PROVIDERS
---------------------------------------------------------
At the moment, there are 3 companies that have these social networking "platforms", APIs and have associated "Connect" features:
1. FaceBook
2. Google (OpenSocial/Google Friend Connect)
3. Twitter
CATEGORY 2 - WEB SERVICES WITH APIs
---------------------------------------------------------------
There are a bunch of web services with APIs that give you application functionality, too innumerable to completely list, but as examples:
- YouTube
- Box.net
- Flickr
- Facebook
- Skype
- Ning (2007)
- OpenID
They provide a service, have recently implemented APIs so you can use these services from anywhere, and integrate these services into platforms and Social Networking "walled gardens".
CATEGORY 3 - CLOSED SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
There are a bunch of Social Networking sites that act as hosts for data, which has been traditionally closed off but its grdaually being made more available.
1. MySpace
2. Hi5
3. Friendster
4. Ning (2009)
5. Facebook (2007)
6. LinkedIn
These sites are, to varying degrees, walled gardens. They are like FaceBook and Twitter, but lack their own platform to build on. The vast majority of sites in this category have fallen into the OpenSocial vortex, and are relying on that to expand functionality.
Facebook used to be in this category before creating category 1.
Ning have recently moved into this category.
CATEGORY 4
-----------------------------------------------------------
Lastly, there are "traditional" hosting platforms that make it easy to make your own Portal, blog, social network etc:
1. Wordpress
2. Joomla
3. Ning (2009) (a bit)
4. Blogger
More and more of these platforms are adding on their own Social Networking solutions - Joomla wth JOMSocial, Wordpress with their recent addon by Automattik. The majority of these addons use category 1 to augment their services (more on that later)
THE EFFECT OF CATEGORY 1 - the platforms
--------------------------------------------------
Now, in the past few months we've seen the development of FaceBook Connect, Google Friend Connect, and now Twitter Connect. These services allow you to add social features to the most humble of web pages in a few minutes, and (in my opinion) are set to change the nature of the other categories as the future of Social Networks becomes based around not only the host, but also the underlying platform (operating system) if you will.
We are yet to see the full impact of these services, but early adopters are starting to use these platforms to augment their own, previously closed gardens or hosted solutions, and thus open up their sites to interact with these platforms.
You are starting to see faceBook Connect in action on Joomla, Wordpress and everything in category 4.
These services will impact on everything, as they will start to fragment the social networking experience in terms of websites, but unify it in terms of the platforms that ultimately power the social networking experience. It will increaseinly become less important which site you've visited, but more important as to which service you use to acquire and kepe in touch with friends across multiple sites, and which will serve to collate all your actions- ths most humble of sites with FaceBook connect will be as powerful as LinkedIn when it hs teh power of FaceBook behind it, YouTube with Twitter and Facebook sharing is more powerful than a closed YouTube.
CATEGORY 3 - the future of Walled Garden SN sites
--------------------------------
As you can see from recent Alexis results with MySpace falling rapidly behind Facebook, with the sacking of the MySpace CEO ("we're sending you to China!"), the future of walled garden services looks in danger - indeed APIs have been around for a long time and its manly these sites that have resisted the urge to develop a serious one, and most of these guys are using Google's OpenSocial to get applications on their sites.
There is a train of thought that these sites will increasingly be under pressure as the Social Networking experience becomes more based on the underlying platform and less on the need to join MySpace because "all your friends are on it".
OPENSOCIAL
----------------------------
OpenSocial has been created by Google to provide a platform to make applications on. It replicates (badly but more on that later) the FaceBook of 2008. UNfortunately Facebook has moved on since then and has FB Connect now, which Google has responded to with Google Friend Connect.
Having tried to navigate the dev docs for both, Facebook is miles in front. No contest.
OpenSocial development is inordinately difficult, there is no development infrastucture for it, other than one Google Gears app (Happy Hour) and a crappy test app. This is it, 2 apps cobbled together by 3rd parties. Meanwhile Facebook has a full API tester hosted on their own site and supported by them. Its great.
The apps made with OpenSocial are just rubbish. They have set programming back 10 years, in a move not seen since PHP Output buffering became popular in 2008.(in joke)
NINGS PLACEMENT
-------------------------------------------------
So having established all of this, we then come to where Ning is at. It started as a freeform platform for making your own apps, with an API, support etc (category 2) and has evolved/devoved into a point where its mainly category 4 and moving into category 3.
My personal opinion is that Ning is currently in category 4, and it functions as something similar to Wordpress and Joomla. Ning is trying to be in category 3 but there's the history of being a white label solution and rebranding is not well received and is still ongoing.
My opinion is that moving INTO category 3 is crazy. These sites are going well at the moment, no doubt, but will come under fire in the future, and unless they create their own platform, utilise an exisiting platform, they will become less important over time as "walled gardens" died a natural death a long time ago, and its all about connection, sharing data, sites as services, APIs and platforms now, and as things progress will be more so.
RECOMMENDATIONS
-----------------------------------------------
If I had a platform in category 4/3, I would be very interested in the current developments on the net and looking to try to keep up, and properly define myself.
1. Ning - define where you are at. Are you white label or a MySpace-type-service? Think hard about redefining yourself, given your history and background. My opinion - Ning is category 4, ala Wordpress.
2. Dont go INTO category 3. Stay away from it, its not the way of the future. Look at MySpace and dont repeat their mistakes, they are on rocky ground at the moment and its going to get worse.
3. Be in category 4. Its what most people use your service for. Having a status function doesnt make you Facebook, only a platform will do that.
4. Open Social is complete rubbish, both for users and developers. Think about some alternatives or augmentations. Never before have I seen such diabolical applications. Dont rely on it, its just really not good.
5. Dont rely completely on OpenSocial, its just the Facebook of 2008. At the very least augment it with Google Friend Connect and catch up with the leaders and get to 2009 standard.
6. Create a new (secure) PHP API, you know one with Dev keys and secret keys? Like every other web service in the world has. This is de rigeur for category 2 and 4. You have an API already, just tighten it up a bit and document it properly. The keys will prevent spam attacks and security breaches, ala 2009.
7. Open up. Allow data to flow in and out. Allow for SSO. Allow for community development with "make your own templates". Have a widget store where people can sell add-ons. Have workshops on how to create for Ning.
8. OpenSocial on Ning is slow. Too slow. Its slower than every other platform that uses it. If you are going to rely on it, speed it up.
9. Improve your PR. Its pretty diabolical at the moment, and its at the point where people dont really believe anything anymore. Its broken. Fix it. Its broken fix it. Dont believe me? Thats why its broken.
10. Get more metrics. 1x10(6) networks is nice. But its not overly relevant when 20% are used daily, 3% are premium services, and performance is dropping rapidly.
11. Employ more developers. Get people on the job making more applications. Its not that hard to do, get 2 people on the case and add more core applications to the offering, nothing has improved for 12 months when you get down into the weeds of it.
So, thats all just my thoughts. Im passionate as dang(?) about this platform, it has a lot of potential and has come a LONG way in a short amount of time, and I want to to see it improve to the point of being the market leader in the SN space!
Thom | NingMods
(Disclaimer: I have a vested interest in FaceBook Connect, but thats not unduly influencing this conversation. It comes from reading a lot of SN blogs - Mashable, ZDNet, TechCrunch and doing a lot of development with this stuff)
Social Networking is a rapidly evolving sphere, with a massive amount of innovation, and its at the core of web2.0->3.0->4.0 (where are we at?). It used to be enough to just have a "walled garden"" approach, then it was RSS out, then you needed an API to be serious, and now the leaders in the sphere have their own "platforms" for extending their sites beyond their own servers.
CATEGORY 1 - PLATFORM PROVIDERS
---------------------------------------------------------
At the moment, there are 3 companies that have these social networking "platforms", APIs and have associated "Connect" features:
1. FaceBook
2. Google (OpenSocial/Google Friend Connect)
3. Twitter
CATEGORY 2 - WEB SERVICES WITH APIs
---------------------------------------------------------------
There are a bunch of web services with APIs that give you application functionality, too innumerable to completely list, but as examples:
- YouTube
- Box.net
- Flickr
- Skype
- Ning (2007)
- OpenID
They provide a service, have recently implemented APIs so you can use these services from anywhere, and integrate these services into platforms and Social Networking "walled gardens".
CATEGORY 3 - CLOSED SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
There are a bunch of Social Networking sites that act as hosts for data, which has been traditionally closed off but its grdaually being made more available.
1. MySpace
2. Hi5
3. Friendster
4. Ning (2009)
5. Facebook (2007)
6. LinkedIn
These sites are, to varying degrees, walled gardens. They are like FaceBook and Twitter, but lack their own platform to build on. The vast majority of sites in this category have fallen into the OpenSocial vortex, and are relying on that to expand functionality.
Facebook used to be in this category before creating category 1.
Ning have recently moved into this category.
CATEGORY 4
-----------------------------------------------------------
Lastly, there are "traditional" hosting platforms that make it easy to make your own Portal, blog, social network etc:
1. Wordpress
2. Joomla
3. Ning (2009) (a bit)
4. Blogger
More and more of these platforms are adding on their own Social Networking solutions - Joomla wth JOMSocial, Wordpress with their recent addon by Automattik. The majority of these addons use category 1 to augment their services (more on that later)
THE EFFECT OF CATEGORY 1 - the platforms
--------------------------------------------------
Now, in the past few months we've seen the development of FaceBook Connect, Google Friend Connect, and now Twitter Connect. These services allow you to add social features to the most humble of web pages in a few minutes, and (in my opinion) are set to change the nature of the other categories as the future of Social Networks becomes based around not only the host, but also the underlying platform (operating system) if you will.
We are yet to see the full impact of these services, but early adopters are starting to use these platforms to augment their own, previously closed gardens or hosted solutions, and thus open up their sites to interact with these platforms.
You are starting to see faceBook Connect in action on Joomla, Wordpress and everything in category 4.
These services will impact on everything, as they will start to fragment the social networking experience in terms of websites, but unify it in terms of the platforms that ultimately power the social networking experience. It will increaseinly become less important which site you've visited, but more important as to which service you use to acquire and kepe in touch with friends across multiple sites, and which will serve to collate all your actions- ths most humble of sites with FaceBook connect will be as powerful as LinkedIn when it hs teh power of FaceBook behind it, YouTube with Twitter and Facebook sharing is more powerful than a closed YouTube.
CATEGORY 3 - the future of Walled Garden SN sites
--------------------------------
As you can see from recent Alexis results with MySpace falling rapidly behind Facebook, with the sacking of the MySpace CEO ("we're sending you to China!"), the future of walled garden services looks in danger - indeed APIs have been around for a long time and its manly these sites that have resisted the urge to develop a serious one, and most of these guys are using Google's OpenSocial to get applications on their sites.
There is a train of thought that these sites will increasingly be under pressure as the Social Networking experience becomes more based on the underlying platform and less on the need to join MySpace because "all your friends are on it".
OPENSOCIAL
----------------------------
OpenSocial has been created by Google to provide a platform to make applications on. It replicates (badly but more on that later) the FaceBook of 2008. UNfortunately Facebook has moved on since then and has FB Connect now, which Google has responded to with Google Friend Connect.
Having tried to navigate the dev docs for both, Facebook is miles in front. No contest.
OpenSocial development is inordinately difficult, there is no development infrastucture for it, other than one Google Gears app (Happy Hour) and a crappy test app. This is it, 2 apps cobbled together by 3rd parties. Meanwhile Facebook has a full API tester hosted on their own site and supported by them. Its great.
The apps made with OpenSocial are just rubbish. They have set programming back 10 years, in a move not seen since PHP Output buffering became popular in 2008.(in joke)
NINGS PLACEMENT
-------------------------------------------------
So having established all of this, we then come to where Ning is at. It started as a freeform platform for making your own apps, with an API, support etc (category 2) and has evolved/devoved into a point where its mainly category 4 and moving into category 3.
My personal opinion is that Ning is currently in category 4, and it functions as something similar to Wordpress and Joomla. Ning is trying to be in category 3 but there's the history of being a white label solution and rebranding is not well received and is still ongoing.
My opinion is that moving INTO category 3 is crazy. These sites are going well at the moment, no doubt, but will come under fire in the future, and unless they create their own platform, utilise an exisiting platform, they will become less important over time as "walled gardens" died a natural death a long time ago, and its all about connection, sharing data, sites as services, APIs and platforms now, and as things progress will be more so.
RECOMMENDATIONS
-----------------------------------------------
If I had a platform in category 4/3, I would be very interested in the current developments on the net and looking to try to keep up, and properly define myself.
1. Ning - define where you are at. Are you white label or a MySpace-type-service? Think hard about redefining yourself, given your history and background. My opinion - Ning is category 4, ala Wordpress.
2. Dont go INTO category 3. Stay away from it, its not the way of the future. Look at MySpace and dont repeat their mistakes, they are on rocky ground at the moment and its going to get worse.
3. Be in category 4. Its what most people use your service for. Having a status function doesnt make you Facebook, only a platform will do that.
4. Open Social is complete rubbish, both for users and developers. Think about some alternatives or augmentations. Never before have I seen such diabolical applications. Dont rely on it, its just really not good.
5. Dont rely completely on OpenSocial, its just the Facebook of 2008. At the very least augment it with Google Friend Connect and catch up with the leaders and get to 2009 standard.
6. Create a new (secure) PHP API, you know one with Dev keys and secret keys? Like every other web service in the world has. This is de rigeur for category 2 and 4. You have an API already, just tighten it up a bit and document it properly. The keys will prevent spam attacks and security breaches, ala 2009.
7. Open up. Allow data to flow in and out. Allow for SSO. Allow for community development with "make your own templates". Have a widget store where people can sell add-ons. Have workshops on how to create for Ning.
8. OpenSocial on Ning is slow. Too slow. Its slower than every other platform that uses it. If you are going to rely on it, speed it up.
9. Improve your PR. Its pretty diabolical at the moment, and its at the point where people dont really believe anything anymore. Its broken. Fix it. Its broken fix it. Dont believe me? Thats why its broken.
10. Get more metrics. 1x10(6) networks is nice. But its not overly relevant when 20% are used daily, 3% are premium services, and performance is dropping rapidly.
11. Employ more developers. Get people on the job making more applications. Its not that hard to do, get 2 people on the case and add more core applications to the offering, nothing has improved for 12 months when you get down into the weeds of it.
So, thats all just my thoughts. Im passionate as dang(?) about this platform, it has a lot of potential and has come a LONG way in a short amount of time, and I want to to see it improve to the point of being the market leader in the SN space!
Thom | NingMods
31
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The best point from everyone
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There needs to be a category 5...
You say "Ning is currently in category 4, and it functions as something similar to Wordpress and Joomla"
Thats not right. Joomla and wordpress, you have access to full source. Not Ning. Ning gives you access to no source.
So, Category 5 is category 4 but with no source. Which pretty much makes it a "rental"
With other systems, you really can own and "control" whereas ning, you might "own" stuff, but you cant "control" it. So in this case, I say, you are "renting" the Ning system.
I agree with much of the other stuff you say, but need to clarify, that Ning... is not like joomla or wordpress as far as access to the code goes.
My opinion on it is,
The "foundational pillar" of ning, was to "create your own social network platform" with "freedom" to create it however you want. Now, that foundational pillar that got Ning to where it is now, has been damaged. So, if a building is on a dammaged foundation, what happens?
7 people think
this is one of the best points
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Inappropriate?I think I love you -
Inappropriate?I couldn't agree more with you NINGMODS. Verywell explained and well sayed.
However, i feel like giving these suggesstions to ning leads nowhere, they are going to go their way anyway.
In the beginning NING was like 'fresh young cheese'. Nice, tasty, soft, and open minded.
NING has lost a lot of this open minded attitude along the road and i really feel sorry for this. NING is still a great platform and service,but right now, we are moving into the wrong direction.
I don't like the 'myspace-kinda' style they are approaching right now.
Our networks are now something like a 'group' on MYSPACE...
We have no real independance anymore and our networks don't feel like they are ours anymore. NING decides for us and that's it.
They decide THIS and they decide THAT... when we want to have full moderatiopn over our memberprofiles, they say: 'your members own their profiles'. What rubbish is this? When i am an operator and want to change something from wich i think it's not GOOD then i need to be able to do so.
This is just an example.
NING needs to be flexible again, when they want to keep their clients and customers happy.
Right now NING feels like it's the 'Illuminati' of Social Networking.
Give each network its OWN rules, it's OWN ideals and things, and not a 'common NING policy'. Why else would they be 'our networks' when NING decides the rules for it?
By the way, i totally agree with you on the Open Social crappy stuff. It's terribly slow, most applications hardly ever work, it's a bunch of shit in my opinion!
I came to ning because of its flexibillity, its freedom and coolness, their cool team (wich i still believe is great), only their marketing, their creative thinkers and developers are crappy in my opinion.
There is no uniformity in the system, for example the rich text editor in NOTES. Why not the same editor in TEXTBOXES everywhere across our networks. WHY no tagclouds while we used to have them in the beginning of ning? Andwhy delete the abillity to directly upload pictures ad backgrounds of modules? Stuff like this.
Always the answer from ning was: 'Because WE BELIEVE ITS FOR THE GOOD OF YOU!!!'', so they want to be our 'father 'also, because 'dddy always knows better'.
Why not serve as a system where you provide a service where you let netowrk creators decide their OWN policies and do with their networks exactly what they want? No matter WHAT it is? So let ning in their policy state that they are NOT responsible for the content of their networkcrators but that that are nothing but a platform that provides space to create social networks for ANYTHING as they started out with!
You wrote a great and well-founded article here :)
Thanks!
Zohra -
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Inappropriate?NingMods, what are your thoughts on Social Go? It seems they are late in the race but at least they are building there platform specifically for the business minded in the niche Social Network arena. Are they the real deal. From what I have seen I would rather put my VC money that way than schizophrenic Ning...
What are your thoughts on SG?
1 person thinks
this is one of the best points
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Inappropriate?Ning fell off of a cliff. i'm just waiting for a way to export my entire site and im gone to
I’m frustrated
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Inappropriate?We should demand drug testing of their cooperate leaders (Gina) I'm no expert but I am pretty sure they are showing classic symptoms of being hopped up on Quaaludes
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Inappropriate?just one word... after 5months 14 hours hard work design the netwrok and did all what one site need to get the attraction from the users... and finally they have disable even my account
1 Comment Add a comment
This is one of the best points
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apart my job i have work more then 14 hours for the my network really Ning is now going in wrong direcion -
Inappropriate?Ning is a sinking ship. Jump off before you get sucked under.
2 people think
this is one of the best points
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Inappropriate?I hope someone on NING is paying attention !
This is a good platform. But, it could be easily made into the BEST !!!
I’m amused
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Inappropriate?I sincerely hope people at Ning are paying attention, not to the threats, but to the feedback. Yes, we are frustrated with their actions, but we are also sharing some really valuable constructive criticism. I know they can't please everyone, but we are some of their biggest NCs (with the exception of 50 cent) on here telling them exactly what we want.
I don't want to have to export, so I'm watching very closely to see what those options will be and if Ning can start trending in a healthy direction for a change.1 Comment Add a comment
This is one of the best points
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I agree completely. Ning should understand that the amateur/free NCs and the professional/whitelabel NCs are two very different species with very different needs. Perhaps they should consider diverging their product to cater better for both types of NCs.
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Inappropriate?There needs to be a category 5...
You say "Ning is currently in category 4, and it functions as something similar to Wordpress and Joomla"
Thats not right. Joomla and wordpress, you have access to full source. Not Ning. Ning gives you access to no source.
So, Category 5 is category 4 but with no source. Which pretty much makes it a "rental"
With other systems, you really can own and "control" whereas ning, you might "own" stuff, but you cant "control" it. So in this case, I say, you are "renting" the Ning system.
I agree with much of the other stuff you say, but need to clarify, that Ning... is not like joomla or wordpress as far as access to the code goes.
My opinion on it is,
The "foundational pillar" of ning, was to "create your own social network platform" with "freedom" to create it however you want. Now, that foundational pillar that got Ning to where it is now, has been damaged. So, if a building is on a dammaged foundation, what happens?
7 people think
this is one of the best points
1 Comment Add a comment
This is one of the best points
-
having or not access to the source code is a major point. and the "rental" concept is a strong synthesis of ning current situation imho
-
Inappropriate?I like this article. Facebook started out as a bunch of college students who had nothing to do all day. Then they opened the market to a bunch of adults who have nothing to do all day and nothing to say. Proof, you're penalized for business networking and moving grownup information on facebook. "This site is not to promote your business or organzation, product, link, service, or website, it's for jibber jabber between family and friends.
NING attracted the business minded professional network for grownups. Where professionals could move information, business network, and promote a busines, organization, products, and links, and websites. Then NING shut it down to replace it with the myspace and facebook apps that appeal to young kids, that the average grown up have no time for, and is not coming to the site to play with.
The good part about this, developers of other platforms are working overtime to create a platform for the business minded, the not-for-profit org, and the Grown-up community.
NING will turn into a myspace platform. I would not pay a dime to run a network on NING. But before their recent changes I was gearing up to pay for upgrades. But there's no such thing as a WHITE LABEL OR PREMIUM SERVICE anymore on NING....that's a lie. Crash our sites, disable our PHP installed scripts, cut in half our business functionality, and have to pay them to fix it. I don't think so.
I'm sure GOOGLE will have a social platform soon too. Everybody can jump on th bandwagon to service the market that facebook, myspace, and NING does not.
1 person thinks
this is one of the best points
2 Comments Add a comment
This is one of the best points
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I agree, i think Google or Yahoo will one day jump into this trend and have an even better thing.
Yahoo already started a social network like environment on Grouply... soon Google will have its own too.
NING should pay attention to these developements -
Google already launched a platform, it has potential. I am exploring it as we post.
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Inappropriate?I wish NING would take the Joomla Model... create a CMS system the NING-way, let other developers develope stuff for ning, Template for ning, acces their API again in a good and safe environment. Let people OWN theirnetworks and do with it what they want. Maybe a 'downloadable- version of ning wich you can host on your own server...
Maybe they could creat two different systems:
- A hosted version
- A downloadable version
... so we can host it ourself and decide for ourself waht we can and can not do with it.
I think, especially for companies and organisations this would be a great thing.
i don't understand why ning wants to keep such a strict control on their networks. To me this feels like a dictatorship: 'you may use my system but on my demands and with the content that I WANT'.
NING wants us all to be 'ideal 'people.
Why not give us 'freedom' again? The free way of thinking NING had in the begining, the fresh approach, was what dragged all of us to ning. It made ning very attractive. Now, NING is pushing their members and clients away from them by their strict policies and constant changes in direction.
I had a plan to start a really professional social network on NING for companies to have their own companyprofile to be able to network with one another. Now, i am seriously doubting if i will start my network here, or use Joomla, Pringo, Kickapps or another service.
I like the features of ning, only i dont like their policy and the strict rules.
Companies need to feel free, not prisoned...
NING, change back to the good again, because you will lose a lot of people!
I’m sad
1 person thinks
this is one of the best points
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Inappropriate?I see Joomla has also been working on a cool social networking system called JOMSOCIAL... (www.jomsocial.com) i have to admit, their software is GREAT. :-)))
See a sample network here: http://www.relevantmagazine.com
I think of starting a network with JOMSOCIAL for myself and my niche because it looks so much more professional then a ning network! -
Inappropriate?After reading and thinking about all I have read here, yesterday. I went to Google obtained a free account, and spent the afternoon playing with it. At about 3 am, I realized the time and went to bed. Lots of potential there ?
I’m excited
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Inappropriate?Google do have some social networking software already, it's called Orkut, and it's HUGE in Brazil and India.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orkut
I get the impression that Orkut is a crazy, ungovernable mess.
I don't think it will be long before they branch out and create some sort of hosted/configurable networking service similar to google sites. It would be very easy for them to link it in to existing google profile pages and to Gmail.
Yahoo are usually a bit slow on the uptake and they're forever falling behind on market share because they're so slow to react, that's why they got crushed by the emergence of google 10 years ago. I suspect they will eventually realise that yahoo groups is starting to fall behind and needs bringing in to the 21st century. Even hotmail have (in what seems like desperation) added on a ton of social networking features recently. The interface is awful. No one will ever use it.
The thing that Ning and Facebook have to their advantage from a user standpoint at the moment is that they know how to make good user interfaces. Ning is desperately trying to copy Facebook's user interface with the status updates feed. They've a way to go yet before they get there.
I can see Ning taking market share from yahoo groups and myspace (facebook is in an entirely different market, for real life friends), but by directing their efforts entirely towards pleasing amateur network creators, they're going to miss out on a lot of potential to work with large, polished, specialist networks.
I've come across a number of media/fan-based networks that *used* to be ning networks, but have gone their own way. I am sure this is because of the lack of NC control, the spam, the lack of source code, the lack of plugin software, the lack of cross-network user moderation when the onus is on Ning, etc, etc.
I think that trend will accelerate under the current climate. Unless they turn things around and start catering for the whitelabel professionals, Ning will end up being a place for millions of small, quiet networks that don't get used that often. A bit like yahoo groups. LOL.
1 person thinks
this is one of the best points
1 Comment Add a comment
This is one of the best points
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There is a lot of merit in your comments.
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Inappropriate?be aware that joomla is difficult to style... most joomla sites look like crap. -
Inappropriate?Keep an eye on BuddyPress. In a few more months there should be a lot happening in that space.
I’m confident
1 person thinks
this is one of the best points
3 Comments Add a comment
This is one of the best points
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Please provide link to BuddyPress.
Thank You for the advice. -
http://buddypress.org
The Wordpress community is already hard at extending functionality with plug ins and very very cool themes. Check out the demo community. And you can't beat that price :-) -
Would be cool if they offer a hosted version wich we OWN ourselves or at least a system where we only have to press a button to install it, LOL
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Inappropriate?http://mashable.com/2009/05/06/ning-a... ... makes me hopeful -
Inappropriate?I don't believe they will pull it off cleanly.
No mention of tech support !!!!!!!!
Any site like mashable that moderates post, have something to hide ?
I’m undecided
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Inappropriate?So, will these apps be available today? As i read in the blog??? And where can i find them in my networks then?
Thanks ning mods :) -
Inappropriate?Im going to start (again) looking at OpenSocial and creating Ning Apps that also use the PHP API to do down-in-the-weeds stuff with Ning.
In the interests of once again having a good developer community, I'm going to make some video tutes on how to do it, and will gladly share ideas and code with anyone who wants to learn how to do it.
If you are keen, drop me a line through www.ningmods.com and we'll collaborate and build a developer community that makes great Ning apps for ... well Ning obviously. -
Inappropriate?what PHP API? theres no such thing.
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Inappropriate?of course there is.
Its how things have been done for the past few years before Widget Labs destroyed it for all the other developers forever more. I was still pursuing this until recently, through Ning's "Web Widget Framework" - this is now being replaced with Ning Apps, made with OpenSocial.
You got to use such classic lines as:
XN_Profile::current()->__get('fullName'); to retrieve full names from profiles and the like....*pining for 2008*
2 people think
this is one of the best points
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Inappropriate?Ning apps is javascript. Ning has locked down all PHP, so whatever you were doing is either deprecated or about to be deprecated.
OS is all Ning is going to give us, with the basic OS parameters to access and thats about it. -
Inappropriate?Why? Is it a security issue?
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Inappropriate?OpenSocial is about making Javascript calls to server-side applications, running through such languages as PHP.
You take the OpenSocial Calls to get Ning parameters, such as Viewer info and Site Owner and stuff, then post that off via the MakeRequest function to some PHP code, and display the results, which have been calculated by server-side code.
Ning have made WebDav access restricted, but the whole point of having WebDav is so you can make server-side commands with PHP.
The intention from Ning is to increase the basic OS calls over the next few months, and try to provide the functionality that was there previously with the PHP API, so provide *secure* access to the Content Store and work on making a "platform", to which I was alluding to above in the original article.
Its obviously early days for a platform, but I guess using OpenSocial as a base is a good start for a Ning platform, but it definitely needs a commitment from Ning to continuing to develop it to the point of what FaceBook has.
There's no point making a million Hello World applications, I'm talking about using OpenSocial to do what was previously possible through the PHP API and the Web Widget Framework, and sharing the knowldege at this level of sophistication, once I've worked it out.
At the moment though, I'm definitely at the "hello world" stage :)
1 person thinks
this is one of the best points
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Inappropriate?locks only keep honest people out ... sounds like the priorities are wrong ... i was under the impression that they had a bunch of smart people working for them ...i cant make the big picture of what they are hoping to accomplish ... dont they analyze the market ? listen to feedback? pay people to make projections?i just dont get why a company with their resources are seemingly making so many amateur business mistakes So far the only thing that makes any sense is the Quaalude theory.
1 person thinks
this is one of the best points
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Inappropriate?The motivational factor appears to be integrity of the system.
Its not worth comprimising now that it has so many users relying on it. All it takes is for one bad egg, to plant a php script to bring down the server and they will have problems all day long...
Safer, to lock it all up. -
Inappropriate?I think thats what happened recently yeah, with the Spam Attacks on Ning over the last few months. Im guessing someone with WebDav started to use the PHP API internally to send emails or messages to people en masse, which might be the reason that we've all seen an increase in bugs and the odd thing not working on our sites over the past few months.
If the Ning platform can be made with a high level of flexibility, give lots of access to the Content Store, things will be better in the long term... just gotta wait for release... -
Inappropriate?Yes... and so, if Ning says its coming soon... expect that to be around 6 months time.
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Inappropriate?so what they are doing is steps toward security thats gonna be necessary in the future .. thats smart ..but will it have been worth alienating its users ..... oh ........ OH .... WOW! I think I understand .
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Inappropriate?phishing also ... i dont think most people realize the full extent of what ning exposed everyone to
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Inappropriate?Congrats to Ning on the initial release of the Ning Platform. It actually looks really good, lots to learn, but it looks promising!
Kudos
I’m happy
