Ok… I’m taking it back about Ning.  I got my issue of “Learning and Leading with Technology” yesterday in the mail.  To my surprise, there was a little advertisement for “Network on NECC Ning” on page 7.  Apparently there is a social network specifically set up to allow networking for people who attended the NECC called “NECC 2008, The Community Network“.

I wasn’t able to go this year, but I do value the opportunity to network with those folks that were there.  I checked out the groups.  I looked at some of the posts.  The topics were relevant to my instructional technology planning life.  So, I signed myself up.

The signup process was really quick.  Once you are in, it is easy to post discussions, blog, add images and video.  I haven’t tried creating groups yet.  But, I started thinking… Why was I so ready to sign up for this and not the Ning in Education site?  I suspect it is because the NECC 2008 network is more focused.  Yes, it is a network of educators, but it is a network of educators with a particular focus.  Perhaps this is telling of “satellite” social networks:

I have my own social, social network.  This is the main one where I communicate with my friends and family.  Other non-social, social networks need to be more focused on things that are directly related to what I need (although not too focused).  My hypothesis is that there is a certain level of specific-ness and general-ness needs to be present to be desirable and viable.  The ultimate question is, what is that ultimate level?

Another thought that I have is:  can I make a Ning site for my school?  How complicated would that be?  I don’t have to host it… How does it compare to Moodle?  Can we develop apps for it?  Ok, I will admit it.  I’m a little more interested in it now that I have seen the NECC 2008 site.

Here is a quick review of Ning. Actually, it’s not so much a review of Ning itself, but really a review of the “education” network that has been created with Ning.

As Metcalfe once said about telecommunications networks: a network is only as valuable as the number of nodes on the network. Although there are now thousands of people who participate in Ning’s educational social network, there isn’t a high enough concentration there of “my kind” to make it worth my while to join.

I am a technology coordinator, a teacher of computer science and technology. I did a quick search in the forums looking for topics that would fit the things that I do in classes, and I didn’t come up with anything. I browsed through the groups, and I didn’t find anything immediately useful for my situation.

I could join and encourage my colleagues to join, but we already have our own networks. I belong to iSkoodle which is a social network where I exchange ideas and concerns with colleagues in the same geographic area. It has been up for over two years now, and it has been quite helpful. Further, I have friends in Facebook with whom I keep in contact and exchange ideas.

At this point and time I’m operating on social network overload… I think that this will continue to be a growing problem over time for everyone. It’s a bit similar to the mid-nineties when everyone had several email addresses. At some point we reduced complexity and the number of logins. I’m going through a phase where I’m trying to reduce the number of social network logins that I have to manage. Further, I’m developing criteria by which I can judge whether or not I buy into a social network. My test:

• Which social networks should I invest time in?
• How many logins can I realistically keep track of?
• Does the social network have the “right” people?
• Does it have sufficient sufficient social momentum?
• What sort of application extensions are being developed for this social network?
• What happens to my content when I move on to the next, better social network?