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Ning (website)

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Ning
Type of site
Social networking
OwnerMarc Andreessen, Gina Bianchini
Created byMarc Andreessen, Gina Bianchini
URLhttp://www.ning.com
CommercialYes

Ning is an online platform for people to create their own social networks [2], launched in October 2005.[1] Ning was co-founded by Marc Andreessen and Gina Bianchini. Ning is Andreessen's third company (after Netscape and Opsware).

The word "Ning" is Chinese for "peace" (simplified Chinese: 宁; traditional Chinese: 寧; pinyin: níng), as explained by Gina Bianchini on the company blog, and it is also a surname in Chinese.[3]

History

Ning started development in October 2004 and launched its platform publicly in October 2005.[4] Ning was initially funded internally by Bianchini, Andreessen and angel investors. In July 2007, Ning raised US$44 million in venture capital, led by Legg Mason.[5] In March 2008, the company also announced it had raised an additional US$60 million in capital, led by an undisclosed set of investors.[6]

Ning is located in downtown Palo Alto, California.

Features

Ning competes with large social sites like MySpace and Facebook by appealing to people who want to create their own social networks around specific interests with their own visual design, choice of features and member data.[7] The unique feature of Ning is that anyone can create their own social network for a particular topic or need, catering to specific membership bases. At its launch, Ning offered several simple base websites developed internally and by members of a closed beta. In late September 2006, Ning narrowed its focus to offering a group website, a photos website, and a videos website for people to copy and use for any purpose. These three templates were later superseded by a single customizable application aimed at enabling anyone to easily create their own social network. However, Ning does allow developers to have some source level control of their social networks, enabling them to change features and underlying logic.

Feature modification was temporarily disabled on October 21, 2008.[8] and the company will replace full source control with the ability to bring in new features or change the logic of existing features via OpenSocial and a set of new APIs to be relaunched in early 2009.[8][9]

Ning has both free and paid options. When someone creates a social network on Ning, it is free by default and runs ads that Ning controls. If the person creating the social network chooses, they can pay to control the ads (or lack thereof), in exchange for a monthly fee. A few other premium services such as extra storage and bandwidth and non-Ning URLs are also available for additional monthly fee.

Ning has also been used by educators in S-GI to conduct a book study on Curriculum Mapping. Many educators[who?] are using Ning for developing educational resources.

Ning launched support for OpenSocial APIs that Google in the summer of 2008.[clarification needed] Developers OpenSocial gadgets within their networks.[10][clarification needed]

The social networks running on Ning's service are programmed with PHP and the platform itself is built in Java.[11]

In November 2008, Ning announced a partnership with Scripts4Ning, integrating the developer's products directly into Ning and offering them for free.[12]

Ning network administrators can select from options that govern various levels of viewability and membership. Ning networks are subject to COPPA regulations.

Controversies

Ning's growth has also been shaded by several significant controversies, including the banning of a third-party provider, removal of the forum which provided communications between network creators[13], the removal of adult networks, and the decision by Ning to combine all member data from all websites created using the Ning system into one large Ning community.[14]

Banning of third-party provider
In August 2008, Ning removed Widget Laboratory (the largest 3rd party provider of plugin enhancements to Ning at the time) from Ning, preventing use of any of their tools across Ning networks. This dispute was hotly debated in response to an article in TechCrunch. [15]
Partnership
In November 2008, Ning announces a partnership with Scripts4ning - who was a competitor of Widget Laboratory (see "banning of third-party provider above) - a 3rd party provider of software add-ons. The official announcement is posted in the Ning Blog.[16] Details of this partnership include the absorption of the developer’s product-base into the general Ning offering.
Combining all member data
In February 2009, Ning removes the control of network creators over their own members and combining all member data from thousands of individual networks created using the Ning platform. Charting Stocks writes article detailing the controversies at Ning and asserting that Ning's new model is a scam.[17] On March 23, 2009, Charting Stocks reports on Ning’s announcement that members of paid premium (ads free) networks will not be contacted directly by Ning. [18]

References

  1. ^ a b Ok, I am excited by Gina Bianchini, Ning BLog, October 3, 2005
  2. ^ Social Graph-iti, The Economist, Oct 18, 2007
  3. ^ The Story Behind the Ning Name, by Gina Bianchini, Ning Blog, April 11, 2007
  4. ^ Andreessen adds some Ning to the Web, by Martin LaMonica, CNET news, Oct 6, 2005
  5. ^ Ning news: new investment round, by Marc Andreesen, blog.pmarca.com, Jul 9, 2007
  6. ^ Ning news: Series D investment round, by Marc Andreessen, April 18, 2008
  7. ^ Web pioneer touts Ning Inc. as easy to use social network, by Michael Liedtke, Rocky Mountain News, Mar 5, 2007
  8. ^ a b The Ning Platform: A Few Updates, Gina Bianchini, October 21, 2008
  9. ^ The Next Three Months, Gina Bianchini, January 5, 2009
  10. ^ The high-stakes fight for your friends, by Josh Quittner and Jessi Hempel, Fortune, Nov 22, 2007
  11. ^ Andreessen: PHP succeeding where Java isn't, by Stephen Shankland, CNET News, Oct 19, 2005
  12. ^ A Little Company News…, Jason Rosenthal on November 20, 2008
  13. ^ "The Roadmap for Ning Network Creators, the Ning Developer Network and the Ning Help Center". Ning / Network Creators. Ning.com. 2008-10-16. Retrieved 2009-04-08. {{cite news}}: |first= missing |last= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  14. ^ Bianchini, Gina (2008-12-01). "The End of the Red Light District". Ning Blog. Ning.com. Retrieved 2009-04-08. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  15. ^ Kincaid, Jason (2008-08-22). "Ning Shuts Down Premium Developor WidgetLaboratory". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2009-04-06. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  16. ^ "Ning and Scripts4Ning partnership announcement". Ning Blog. 2008-11-20. Retrieved 2009-04-06. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  17. ^ "Ning Exposed - Tech Company Scams its Clients". Charting Stocks. 2009-03-22. Retrieved 2009-04-07. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  18. ^ "Ning Takes Important First Step; But Is it Enough?". Charting Stocks. 2008-03-23. Retrieved 2009-04-06. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
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