People have been talking about Marc Andreesen's new venture NING this week. I used NING to start a social network for Nick Cave fans.
Now I think I'll delete it.
Don't get me wrong, I actually love NING. It reminds me a lot of VOX where I have my other blog. As it turns out, VOX is also an "instant" social networking platform, not just a blog service. Mena and Ben have been getting a lot of traditional media coverage after a couple of years of developing and launching the service. there is a nice article and adorable picture in this months Inc..
But back to NING. It's easy. It has ad-supported or subscription models which is the ultimate in user-centered business modelling. I was able to get the shell up in about 10 minutes. And there's the rub.
A social network is not technology. Yes, the tech can support it. But now I need to add content, invite users, manage a social network? I have three blogs already, two of which I have been ignoring for a few weeks. On top of that, I am a lifelong Nick Cave fan but whenever I have dabbled in communities built around Nick, I find myself around folks enamored by one aspect of the artist or another but who do not necessarily appreciate what I do about him. So, I may have just created a social network that may remain empty or that will attract people I do not necessarily want to socialize with.
On the other hand, I have another great use for NING which might never have come to me had I not set up the Nick Cave Network. Sometimes just trying the tech sparks ideas.
A Great Social Network List
On a related note, Jeremiah Owyang at Podtech started a list in mid-February of all of the social network companies out there providing products and services. He has been keeping it up to date and you can get this great resource here.
He also offers his own criteria for evaluating good choices in this category (as well as citing that the category looks like the over-stuffed CMS category and that only a handful will persist and succeed):
"...platforms that will have an open architecture, so it can extend and connect to other social networks. Having both hosted and downloaded options are key, white label rebranding opportunities, and non-proprietary code are essential. No one wants to have multiple IDs, so anything that can provide a solution for long term makes sense. A system that can scale as well as be open to connect to other systems will be key. "
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