Creating online communities: alternatives to Ning

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Ning

Now that Ning has announced that it is phasing out free services, it’s time to take another look at our Ning communities and to establish what might be a reasonable alternative to Ning.

For my longest-running Ning network, ELESIG, we are prepared: a hard-working group from  this community of practice for lecturers and researchers interested in the learner experience has already looked at alternatives.

It’s vital not to be panicked into moving in a hurry and just trying to recreate what you have on Ning. It’s important to look at a community holistically and establish its (current and future) needs and requirements and only then look at and choose technology. ELESIG has done this recently and we have our requirements already mapped out. Possibly the most successful answer is likely to be an open source solution.

Some of the options for those migrating off Ning include:

  • SocialGo: created by WidgetLaboratory when Ning cut off its API: has a basic free version, easy to use
  • ELGG: currently needs hosting and technical expertise, but apparently soon to launch a paid-for hosted service as SaaS (thanks @ken_yeadon)
  • Drupal: I’ve already used this to create a number of networks and communities: however, again, it does require hosting and some technical knowledge. However, the Drupal Gardens initiative looks worth keeping an eye on – again, as SaaS there is a basic free level for those without the tech ability who would like to try Drupal.
  • Moodle: a Virtual Learning Environment but also excellent for communities of practice based around learning: requires hosting and some technical knowledge, but may well already be available in an educational institution supported by its IT department
  • Buddypress: again, needs to be hosted and needs some tech support, but as a big fan of WordPress, I think this is the option I’ll be looking at next – and maybe there’ll be a hosted version before long like wordpress.com.  http://buddypress.org/
  • Grou.ps was also recommended to me on Twitter (thanks @antoesp)

It looks as though there is soon to be big competition in the market for social networks and the ones that aren’t Ning will still have a try it for free version…  Watch this space for a comparison!

The community and network model that I work to and helped develop, the Cohesion Model provides a guide to creating a sustainable network or community by concentrating on three levels of usage – public, community and personal – and focusing on facilitating the exchange of information, resources, opinions and discussion to promote co-creation of knowledge that is shared in the cloud and made available to the community and to the wider domain of interest.

For example, ELESIG is developing our use of Cloudworks to assemble and organise the resources that ELESIG produces, as well as a policy to manage resources “in the cloud”. The further spread about the cloud the resources are, the more we are proof against individual companies letting us down, and the less we are reliant on particular individuals or institutions.

Any open source self-hosted solution will undoubtedly cost in both money and time, and for those who don’t want to host and customize a solution like Drupal or ELGG, using Ning’s paid-for service may still work out cheaper, when we know what the costs are. The solutions are not necessarily very expensive, but the era of a completely free features-rich social network hub is probably undergoing a sea-change.

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communities of practice, education, Further Education, Higher Education, learner experience, online communities, social media , , , , , , , , , , ,