Thing #22: Nings

Ning is an online platform for users to create their own social websites and social networks, launched in October 2005. Ning was co-founded by Marc Andreessen and Gina Bianchini. Ning is Andreessen's third startup (after Netscape and Opsware), and gets much of its notability from Andreessen's successes with those companies. Ning hopes to compete with large social sites like MySpace and Facebook, by appealing to users who want to create networks around specific interests or have limited technical skills. The unique feature of Ning is that anyone can create their own custom social network for a particular topic or need, catering to specific audiences. At its launch, Ning offered several simple base websites developed internally and by members of a closed beta. In late September of 2006, Ning narrowed its focus to offering a group website, a photos website, and a videos website for people to copy and use for any purpose. Later, these three templates were superseded by a single customizable template aimed at allowing non-developers to more easily customize their copy of the social website. However, Ning does allow developers to have some source level control of their social networks, enabling them to change features and underlying logic.

Read 7 Things You Need to Know About Ning.

The bottom line is that a Nings is a social networking tool that allows you to collaborate with people in your field of interest from all over the world. There are many different things you can do in a Ning, and there are many different Nings out there that cater to specific interests. So go out and explore these online "group gatherings" to see what they are like and the advantages of belonging to one.

Here are three Nings to try looking at:

Educator Ning

Future of Education Ning

Ning for Teachers

Teacher Librarian Ning

Texas School Librarian Ning

Discovery: Go to either one of the Nings above or find one that intrests you and look at the different features and options then write a blog post about what you think a Ning would be good for and how you might use it.