Thing 26: Ning!

A "ning" is an online platform where people can create their own social networks. I suppose it is a hybrid term to mean "networking ring", although "ning" also means "Peace" in Chinese. The Palo Alto company probably cashed in on this fact to woo liberal, New Agey Gen Xers to their site.

If it were not for 23 More Things on a Stick, I would have never achieved the state of "ning". The structure and features of the site are similar to Facebook; I like the ning's features better because they are larger and easier to read. So far I have uploaded a gadget to my ning page, commented on someone else's ning, added two fellow librarians to my ning, and joined one of the forums. I will not use the ning for blogging at this point...I currently have my Blogger account, as well as a LiveJournal account for personal blogging, and I don't have much time to keep a third blog. Ning, like Facebook, will most likely be used for short correspondence. Unlike Facebook, however, I might use Ning for professional networking rather than personal.

Outside of 23 More Things on a Stick, I can see myself creating a specialized ning network for my film festival work, in order to communicate with people on my film review committee as well as potential filmmakers and other festival organizers.