![]() Anthony Bradley lists six principles of social media collaboration that help unpack the characteristics of healthy virtual communities and works by Etienne Wenger and other pioneers on this topic are a helpful aid in winnowing out the principles from the tools that instantiate virtual communities. The only significant loss (beyond some possible migration time) for those leaving Ning will be if the time spent facilitating the community did not result in a greater understanding around what constitutes and effective virtual community of practice. Of course, prediction could become prophecy and end-users could stop using proprietary software systems altogether, but many closed software (free and for fee) platforms are landing volleys with progressively more velocity and direction, even in light of ever tightening gatekeeping systems tied to their distribution method, i.e. While Matt’s thoughts on this topic are both sharp and informative, his prediction preceded iTunes’ domination of the digital content world (exaggerated, but do look at the Flurry analytics)-accomplished to a large extent in the wake of seemingly worthy open-source opponents that aren’t putting up much of a fight. The perceived failing or success of a single platform can often encourage those on either side of the open versus closed curtain to proclaim victory as Matt Asay at the End of the Road Blog suggests already happened back in September 2009. That Ning is neither the end of proprietary platforms nor the poster child of an unsustainable business model is apparent when you realize they will still host sites their community administrators will simply have to verify the viability of their site against their pocketbook-and this could be a good thing for Ning and everyone else. I wrote about the challenge of the unsustainable social media business model awhile back when discussing the Facebook phenomenon-Ning is not the first to be forced to make this transition and will not be the last…Twitter alert! Matt Freeman at the Vatornews blog sums it up well with his blog title, "Ning exposes freemium’s underbelly"-indeed. In all honesty, I’m not surprised by Ning’s decision. However, like many in the proprietary software camp, Ning has tried to make nice with developers by providing more API (application programming interface) access-think viewing your Netflix queue on a 3rd party Web site or phone app. This frustrates some and is perfectly OK with others. Ning, like many 3rd party, closed-code platforms or tools doesn’t allow one to peak under the hood or customize beyond surface level aesthetics and basic features. ![]() First of all, Ning is simply a blip in the larger unfolding narrative that is open source versus proprietary software. Now the implications…Is this the end of third-party, non-open source solutions or simply the fruition of an unsustainable business model? It’s neither and to some degree both. It could very well be that Ning’s move benefits you the most as they will hopefully be better positioned to grow revenue in a manner more proportionate to their bottom line. If you were truly smitten by the Ning interface and have a blossoming community of practice, you might have been on the cusp of going with the premium option anyway. In terms of the platform, open source options abound and here are a few posts from Blackweb20 and Readwriteweb that offer some ideas: The first question for most Ning community owners not willing to pay up is "where do I take my online community of practice now"? Some suggestions follow.įirst, what does all this mean for the middle school teacher, educator or e-learning professional whose Ning community has amassed months of content and a band of faithful members? It depends. Jason Rosenthal, CEO of Ning, announced the shift in the company’s business model while downsizing his company by more than 40%. Ning announced today that it will soon convert existing customers to a fee-for-service subscription or cut them loose.
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