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Ning: Phoenix or Fizzle?

Amy Sample Ward

Earlier this year, Ning announced that it would be dropping 40% of it’s staff and dropping the free service which came as a shock to much of the community, including author of the Ning for Dummies book Manny Hernandez and spurring many forums and blogs to create lists of Ning alternatives that were still free.

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Ning saying no to free networks

Amy Sample Ward

As someone that has helped others to create, and has created many networks on the Ning platform, yesterday’s news that the company would be dropping 40% of it’s staff and dropping the free service was incredibly alarming. Please join me in signing this Change.org petition to keep Ning free for nonprofit and education use.

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From Ning to Causes to Ideablob: Why We Need a New Way of Building

Amy Sample Ward

Now, with the recent news from Ning that it plans to discontinue free service, I am revisiting those thoughts about “what’s really needed?&# Tags: community issues causes community management free ideablob ning open. In a guest post on the Tactical Philanthropy blog I started brainstorming about what was next.

Ning 208
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How to Backup Your Ning Network Content

Wild Apricot

Recent changes in Ning’s business model (see News & Views About Change for updates) have Network Creators wondering whether to pay to keep hosting their online communities on the Ning platform, or to start looking at alternatives.

Ning 87
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The Cost of Free Technology for Nonprofits: Thoughts On Ning

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

Last week, Ning, announced a complete end to free services for its users. Manny Hernandez, author of Ning for Dummies, nonprofit social media consultant, and organizer of two of the most successful nonprofit communities ( Tudiabetes and Estudiabetes ) on Ning, offered his two cents to the new CEO of Ning.

Ning 100
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Free Alternatives to Ning

Forum One

Ning , the leading free social media platform provider has recently lost not only its CEO, but also about 40 percent of its workforce. Freshly-appointed CEO Jason Rosenthal posted last week , Ning will now "double down on our premium services business." Alternatives to Ning Document. We will phase out our free service."

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The Ning Effect

Allegiance Group

This week, the online community of online communities was shaken by the April 16 th announcement by that the online networking company, Ning, would be phasing out its free product. Ning had cornered the market for building online communities in a fast and easy way. It was also free. It was a non-profit’s dream.

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Nonprofits Using Ning: An Interview with Community Media Workshop and Best Practices

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

Last week for WeAreMedia project, I put a call on Twitter for case studies, best practices, and links about nonprofits using social networking sites, including Ning. Nonprofits, support groups, and nonprofit professionals have found their homes on Ning. But many nonprofits are using Ning for peer-to-peer knowledge sharing and learning.

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Making Media Connections: Ning Site

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

It recently launched a ning site - a branded social network for its community of nonprofits. Tell me a little about your organization's social media strategy for its ning (branded social network) site? s Ning online strategy began as a way to solve a very practical solution???keeping Why did you select ning?

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Teens 4 Planet Earth Moves to Ning

Allegiance Group

Recently, we relaunched an environmentally focused service learning program for the Wildlife Conservation Society on the Ning community platform. on Ning after beginning its life as a typical minisite some years ago. We’ve been monitoring this debate for a while, as we have a few clients on Ning.

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Ning for Dummies and Me 2.0 Book Winners

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

I finally got a chance to meet Manny Hernandez, author written the " Ning for Dummies Book." He is founder of The Diabetes Hands Foundation, a non profit that operates two niche social networks for people touched by diabetes: TuDiabetes (in English, with close to 8,200 members) and EsTuDiabetes. Photo in Flickr.

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Andy Carvin Sets Up Gustav Information Center on Ning

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

Andy Carvin launched the Gustav Information Center on Ning, and through social networks, word is spreading fast - the hash tag #gustav is being used. Photo by Corburn. Home Depot already using the tag to update on stories in the Hurricane???s hat tip Tom Watson ).

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Betting the Farm

Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

Countless nonprofits flocked to Ning to create social networks. But now that Ning isn’t free anymore , I’m going to carp some. Or is it free because it is a start up in search for a business model (Ning)? There is an effort afloat to get Ning to make nonprofit and educational accounts free.

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Free Webinar: Using Ning to Connect with Your Community

Tech Soup Blog

Ning is a powerful tool that allows you to not only create a dynamic, easy to update website, but its functionality allows your community to create accounts, share information, connect with you and other people in your community and work collaboratively. Learn what it takes to get a Ning site set-up and the resources needed to keep it going.

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Let's Connect: Twitter, Facebook, Ning & Podcasts

Have Fun - Do Good

Changeblogger Ning Network I've also set up a Ning network for Changebloggers, people who use their blogs, podcasts and vlogs to make positive change. Facebook You can friend me and join the Have Fun * Do Good Facebook Page. We've got 172 members at the moment. years of BlogHer's Nonprofits and Social Change section.

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Ning/Social Networking Expert Needed for My Pops

Have Fun - Do Good

I have a personal request for all you Ning and social networking experts out there. They are using Ning to build a social network and need some help setting it up to meet their needs, for example, they'd like to incorporate LinkedIn on the site. You can see what they have so far on Ning here and their wiki here.

Ning 40
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Changeblogger Ning Group, Meetup, Meme and Wiki

Have Fun - Do Good

Changeblogger Ning social network to connect with other changebloggers. In early May, I wrote a post asking all of you for suggestions for "changebloggers," people who are using their blog, podcast or vlog to raise awareness, to build community, and/or to facilitate readers/listeners/viewers' taking action to make the world a better place.

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New on SSIR: How Our Tools Define “Community”

Amy Sample Ward

. —– I’ve talked about issues and ideas over the last year about the use of certain tools or platforms in the social technology for social impact sector, from Causes to Ideablob to Ning. Tags: community otherblogs causes community building ideablob ning ssir tools. “Market&# does not equal “Community&#.

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How Many Hours Per Week Should Your Nonprofit Invest in Social Media?

Nonprofit Tech for Good

Niche Networks (Ning, Change.org, Care2, WiserEarth, BlackPlanet): 5 to 10 Hours Weekly. Ning allows nonprofits to launch their own social networking communities. If your mission is one that requires privacy, such as working with victims of domestic violence, try building a closed community on Ning.

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My Social Actions - is it yours, too?

Amy Sample Ward

Social Actions , the platform that makes it easy for individuals and organizations to share actions across the web, has just launched it’s Ning-powered social network: My.SocialActions. It’s built on Ning, so it has some features you’re probably familiar with, too.

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An Amazing NpTech Social Media Link Buffet: Take Your Pick!

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

SocialGiving , a Ning app that allows for peer-to-peer fundraising initiatives for Ning Network Creators was launched this week by PincGiving. Ning has been a popular platform for nonprofits to create communities of interest around their causes. Follow his blog for expert Ning advice. Good Reads: Online. BackUpMyTweets.

Nptech 91
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Listen First! Finding Networks and Connections in Social Media

Amy Sample Ward

Ning/Yahoo/Google. You can only have a real impact and “control&# or influence over the public conversation about you, your organization or your programming if you are listening and engaging. Where are the conversations? Communities. What to listen for: brand. sponsors and donors. supporters and evangelists. industry and local news.

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What OpenSocial Means

Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

Marc Andreessen, who is, of late, connected to Ning, has a great blog entry with details. Google has a number of partners, including social network sites like LinkedIn, Friendster and Ning, as well as Salesforce, which does have very interesting implications given the increasing use of Salesforce in the nonprofit sector.

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External, alienated, busy-busy

Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

Although it likely won’t be on too many up-to-the-minute news items (like the recent Ning Thing) because I’ll be paying less attention to those goings on, and more attention to other, deeper things. I won’t miss the barrage of info I don’t need, or the time spent. And, I’ll still be blogging.

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Donor Data Management Dictionary

3rd Sector Labs

Cleaning / cleansing – [KLEE-ning] / [KLEN-zing], noun. Data brokers rely upon big data warehouses to store, manage and transfer data sets that they sell to customers such as nonprofit organizations looking to append their donor databases.

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8 Great Tools for Private Social Networks and Online Communities: The 2011 Edition

Forum One

Ning is a hosted workspace product which boasts the largest numbers of users and networks of all of the private social networks. Because it started as a free product, the platform serves mostly small groups, but many Ning groups have grown to be quite substantial. It is reliable, scalable, and relatively configurable.

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Eight Great Tools for Private Social Networks and Online Communities - 2011 Edition

Forum One

Ning is a hosted workspace product which boasts the largest numbers of users and networks of all of the private social networks. Because it started as a free product, the platform serves mostly small groups, but many Ning groups have grown to be quite substantial. It is reliable, scalable, and relatively configurable.

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Twibbon: A Twitter Tool That Puts a Ribbon on Your Profile

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

My friend, Manny Hernandez, founder of Tuiabetes Community and author of Ning for Dummies, let me know that today, November 14 is World Diabetes Day. Today, at 14:00 hours (local time), thousands of people with diabetes will test their blood sugar, do 14 minutes of exercise, test again and share their results on TuDiabetes or on Twitter.

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Are Nonprofits Raising Money Via Social Networks?

Care2

For the first time this year, quite a few newbies were added to the list of Social Network platforms: FourSquare, Jumo, Vimeo, Yelp, Picassa, Ning, Delicious, CrowdRise, FirstGiving, Razoo and Causes. FourSquare had the most substantive presence among the newcomers with 4% of nonprofits utilizing the platform.

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Resolve to Quit Smoking with BecomeAnEx.org

Allegiance Group

Recently, Beaconfire helped Legacy revitalize their website and migrate their users from Ning to the Elgg social networking software solution. The community portion of the site was originally created using the Ning social networking platform. Read more after the jump.

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#14KPWD - People With Diabetes Get Active Online

See3

TuDiabetes.com is built on the white-label social networking platform Ning , and Manny wrote the book on it. He really wrote the book on Ning. “When Kelly [Rawlings] mentioned having a collective test-in, I thought it would be a great way for thousands of us to connect and raise awareness about diabetes.”.

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Sping Cleaning: Taking Inventory of your Social Media Tools

Amy Sample Ward

Ning is a platform that allows individuals or organizations to create branded social networks. Much like searching on Facebook Causes to find groups who are interested in your work, searching on Social Actions can help you find indivudals and passionate communities working on similar issues around the world. Happy searching!

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New on SSIR: It’s not about Apple – It’s about Community

Amy Sample Ward

It’s because this is another example of how our tools are defining community. ( Last month’s post focused on that topic using Causes, Ideablob and Ning as references for the conversation.)

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The Dangerous Free

Allegiance Group

I wrote it about this in April of 2010 , when Ning changed it’s business model. If a company changes its business model, goes out of business, or just plain decides they don’t like you, you can lose your data, with little to no recourse. And now it’s happening again on a wider, more noticeable scale.

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Harnessing and Nurturing Communities at MPS09

Amy Sample Ward

– If you use something like Ning does that platform share a part of the liability? depends on the set up, whether you are building communities in ning or drupal or from scratch, building in the ability for users to include video and so on is easier. Who will keep your community safe…and vibrant? moderation. who is liable?

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Guest Post by Manny Hernandez: Transitioning From Social Media Cloud to Nonprofit Organization

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

His online communities are the most tech-savvy of the independent diabetes communities : Hernandez built it on social networking platform Ning, the company at which he worked before starting these online communities and his nonprofit. As of today TuDiabetes has almost 10,800 members and EsTuDiabetes has almost 5,400.

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Build vs “Buy”

Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

There are new types of software being developed all the time (like, for instance, the new crop of “ Social Network Management Systems &# both open source and SaaS, like Ning.).

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Cracking the Boys Club in Web 2.0: Ten Women Pioneers of Web 2.0

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

Gina Bianchini, CEO and Founder of Ning. Allyson Kapin has a post on the Huffington Post called Cracking the Boys Club that shares her top 10 women pioneers of Web 2.0. I'm honored to be on the list along with some awesome women. Mary Hodder, Founder of Dabble.com and VP of Product Development, Apisphere. Sandy Jen, Co-Founder of Meeboo.

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Please Help: Volunteers Needed To Help With Hurricane Wiki To Prep for Hurricane Ida

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

He set up a Ning site Hurricane Information Center. Last summer, during the height of the hurricane season, Andy Carvin, interrupted his self-imposed summer blogging siesta, to help organize online efforts and coordinate volunteers in advance of Hurricane Gustav.

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New on SSIR: Community Building in a Big Backyard

Amy Sample Ward

Your organization, whether it has an organizational presence there or not, has people interested in your services, programs, mission or cause talking about it and everything else all over the social web – from mainstream networks like Facebook and Twitter to niche communities on Ning or even forums (some branded, some not).

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