Thing 10: Ning

I chose not to join Ning because I don't need another thing to remember to check. Also, the groups seem to be smaller in Ning than in Facebook, but I agree with Becca's blog that many of the Ning network pages seemed more professionally done than the Facebook ones. I noticed several of the Ning networks were by "invitation" only. I was able to find some interesting networks on polymer clay (Polymer clay productions and Beadopolis) that did not require joining to look at them.

I would say a library joining this would have many of the same uses as Facebook. Primarily as a way to get the word out to patrons, but I would choose to use Facebook over Ning because Facebook seems more widely used.

To change the subject (sort of) I find news of the Iran election and use of social networking to get the word out to the world fascinating and scary (for the Iranians). This validates the value of all this new technology. How else would the world know what it going on? It reminds of Tiananmen Square in China and how email was able to keep us informed about what was going on. It's awesome.