23.13 Content focused social networking: Ning.

To generalize, Ning is MySpace for adults. Because adults don’t so much want to put forward their personality and see what social networks develop, but rather to join/create networks based on specific interests. So you’ll see Ning networks focused on Library 2.0, bicycling, management, and thousands more topics. Because there are more social networking features built in than one finds in blogger, for example, Ning could often be a better choice than blogger if you want your blog to be the center of a collaborative community – working, playing, or whatever else a community might choose to do. In the Web 2.0 Awards, Ning is listed as the winning Mashup. I don’t really see what makes it more of a mashup than MySpace or Facebook, but it does bring together content from different sources, and presents it in a compelling way.