Top Tools: Ning

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Ning is a hosted service that lets you build a private social network

• Website:  www.ning.com
• Cost: Commercial
• Free trial: Yes
• Availability:  Online
• Top 100 Tools 2010: 57
• Top 100 Tools 2010: 31=
• Top 100 Tools 2009: 11=
• Top 100 Tools 2008: 16=
• Top 100 Tools 2007: 31=

Comments from some of those who selected Ning as one of their Top 10 Tools in 2009

• For social networking and interactions. Malinka Ivanova
• I set up a class social network for the fall; much easier to make announcements here than contacting students by email, which they don’t often read; students can submit Voicethread projects here; can carry on class chats and discussions in and out of class; students can get to know each other the first day of class and download their pictures; most are familiar with other social networks, so this is easy for them Sarah Davis
• ideal to quickly set up an exchange environment but ning misses the cleanliness that Elgg offers. I wouldnt like to miss it though Herman Post
• the app that allows you to build your own social network. I belong to numerous Ning groups where like-minded people exchange ideas and resources. (Carol Skyring)

Comments from those who selected Ning as one of their Top 10 Tools in 2008

• “Currently my social networking tool of choice, though there is more and more competition. Free – but not open source – I use it to run the ELESIG community for those interested in the learners’ experience of elearning. As an element of a distributed network it works very well.” Helen Whitehead
• “Personalized Facebook creator. Develop a social community for your class or organization. It is free and filled with the capacity to build an interactive community” Leigh Zeitz
• “social networking platform – i am a member of a few learning communities et up via Ning – great environment for meeting people, collaborating and learning” Debora Gallo
• “build an online community in 20 minutes” Jay Cross
• “I think Ning is like Yahoo Groups on steroids. It is a great tool for online communities, one I hope to use much more during 2008.” John Schaffer
• “Anyone can develop social network sites through Ning, and these have expanded my “friends” worldwide, with College 2.0 one in which I spend the most time. New uses are being explored, such as Jeff Utecht’s use of Ning for the Learning 2.0 conference website.” Britt Wattwood
• “An excellent online service where I create and customize my own Social Network for students in my classes. Ning has customizable themes and templates. Also, it offers a public or private option.” Steve Yuen
• “The community had grown to 660 members. I implemented Ning in my library too: for invited members only (colleagues) to share knowledge regarding reference work.” Edwin Mijnsbergen
• “because it offers me great knowledge and good professional communities” Gabriela Grosseck
• “for networking and researching” Rebecca Jones
• “Setting up a Ning group is quick and easy, and allows me to keep in contact with colleagues from all over the world.” Jason Edwards
• “The size of ning and its communities can be overwhelming volume.  Classroom20.Ning.com is one that I participate in when I have time.  I love that I was able to join several different educator communities.  The conversations are refreshing and varied,” Kevin Amboe
• “Ning, a social networking site offers teachers K-12 free and secure (no ads!) social networking for their classrooms. Much more user friendly and yet high tech than other networking sites, it can be used by students to share and make a learning community. Great discussion features, embedding, videos, flexible and personal design. This is the future of learning! FREE” David Deubelbeiss
• “simple and you can define the rules you need !” Florence Meichel
• “I use this to create social spaces for my learners” Janice Petosky
• “We achieved more with Ning in 3 months than we could achieve in 2 years with Moodle. It has helped us bring about a genuine learning community among our students and has enriched their experience considerably. (referred to this from your site)” Jonathan Lecun
• “I am attracted to the concept of social learning and belong to a few social networks. I think it’s a great way to learn from others and share one’s expertise.” Shari Ward
• “I have yet to built a Ning community, but I have participated in a few, and really like this as a tool for setting up a focused social network.” Jeff Cobb

Comments from those who selected Ning as one of their Top 10 Tools in 2007

• “It enables anyone to set up a viable community site in minutes.” Jay Cross
• “with only one account you can join several communities. I even created my own network” Eduardo Peirano
• “allowed me to set up a social network for fellow librarians in just 15 minutes and the features were enough to attract 245 colleagues from all over the Netherlands and Belgian, mostly people I do not know in real life. I love this application” Edwin Mijnsbergen
• “Social network that follows Web 2.0 principles” Jose Carlos del Arco
• ” tool designed to enable anyone – regardless of their knowledge of programming and/or mark-up languages – can create their own online social network. Ning is intuitive and easy to use. The have begun to add all sorts of widgets and other add-on functionality to allow any community to customize the environment to make it uniquely their own. Enables instructors to create classroom communities, organizations to create viral interest groups, informal learning through communities of interest, etc.” Dave Lee
• “La red social que más me está sirviendo. (The social network that is serving to me more.)” Eraser Cabeza Borradora
• “Eduspaces may be better, but the social networks Classroom 2.0 and Edublogger have been created at Ning” Jose Luis Cabello
• “a most useful social networking site, which I mostly use for contact with online professionals. I particularly like the ability to create one’s own network and I use it for a closed networking for participants of my courses” Nicole Cargill-Kipar
• “A brilliant social networking tool and entirely free of course” Phil Green