Tell me how you like Ning!!

[Rebecca]

Hi there. I am working on a project on the use of Nings in library settings, and I came across this active and, what looks to be, successful Ning. I was wondering if any members would be willing to tell me how you like using Ning? How does it compare to other 2.0 tools, such as individual blogs or wikis? Do you contribute to the Ning more or less often than to other social software, such as Facebook, MySpace or LinkedIn? What are the good features, and what are the bad?

Anyone who would be willing to contribute, I would love to hear from you.
Thanks

[Francis Norton]

I contribute almost daily to the ning site: http://lawlibrariansformccainpalin.ning.com/
However, I'm kinda thinking that there may be a built-in termination date.

[Lyonette Louis-Jacques]

Let's see - Ning's good features are the profile pages (so you can potentially get to know more about members as with Facebook), the sub-groups (you can meet others with like special interests), and the diverse communication options - blogs, forums, email, chat, and audio-visual features - photos, videos. Ning really bustles with activity when someone posts on a topic a number of group members are interested in (see Sci-Fi Law Librarians group). And you can see what topics, groups, etc. are active by the activity section on the Main page.

Bad thing, you have to remember to check the Ning site for the most part to find out what's going on. Or sometimes, you'll get email notices that something is happening. This means you don't get to be really engaged and interactive in Ning unless you visit regularly and other members do to, and there's an activity/discussion of common interest. Another bad thing is the default public nature (I think there are privacy settings, but everyone's profile info is public on this Ning, it seems).

We're all a lot more active on Facebook, then Twitter in that order, I think, than on Ning. Both Facebook and Twitter share the status updates, "what are you doing now" feature which encourages minute-by-minute communications or lets others know your activities, and share some similar features as Ning.

Blogs and wikis aren't the same kind of communication beasts.

There are not many law librarians on MySpace.

There are law librarians on LinkedIn, but it's been mostly like an e-Rolodex, but LinkedIn is rolling out features that might improve the social media/communications/networking aspect.

I'll post a link for you with some numbers that might help give you an idea of, with law librarians, the differing use of Web 2.0 tools.

Ciao.

[Lyonette Louis-Jacques]

Here's the link:

Growing Participation in Social Networking Technologies - Some Numbers
http://lawlibraries.ning.com/forum/topics/2096787:Topic:2916


Lyonette Louis-Jacques said:

Let's see - Ning's good features are the profile pages (so you can potentially get to know more about members as with Facebook), the sub-groups (you can meet others with like special interests), and the diverse communication options - blogs, forums, email, chat, and audio-visual features - photos, videos. Ning really bustles with activity when someone posts on a topic a number of group members are interested in (see Sci-Fi Law Librarians group). And you can see what topics, groups, etc. are active by the activity section on the Main page.

Bad thing, you have to remember to check the Ning site for the most part to find out what's going on. Or sometimes, you'll get email notices that something is happening. This means you don't get to be really engaged and interactive in Ning unless you visit regularly and other members do to, and there's an activity/discussion of common interest. Another bad thing is the default public nature (I think there are privacy settings, but everyone's profile info is public on this Ning, it seems).

We're all a lot more active on Facebook, then Twitter in that order, I think, than on Ning. Both Facebook and Twitter share the status updates, "what are you doing now" feature which encourages minute-by-minute communications or lets others know your activities, and share some similar features as Ning.

Blogs and wikis aren't the same kind of communication beasts.

There are not many law librarians on MySpace.

There are law librarians on LinkedIn, but it's been mostly like an e-Rolodex, but LinkedIn is rolling out features that might improve the social media/communications/networking aspect.

I'll post a link for you with some numbers that might help give you an idea of, with law librarians, the differing use of Web 2.0 tools.

Ciao.