Comments for The Community Architect

Comment on Ning Review by Greg Magennis

Greg Magennis — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 20:20:23 +0000

Thanks for the useful insights.
What would you recommend for an online community tool, outside of those mentioned above, for a secure group of business owners that are alumni of a leadership academy and need an online space to communicate and share/store content. We would not want to loose ownership of our IP stored in the online tool. The tool should have the ability to store member profiles, photos, video, content, and keep track of individual threads of communication under searchable categories. Have you heard of http://www.unifyer.com/?
Many thanks.

Comment on Ning Review by Nicholas Ramirez

Nicholas Ramirez — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 04:27:07 +0000

Hi Shan-

Thanks for stopping by!

If you mean using Ning for lead gen, I think you are fine.

Of course they have access to, and can read, anything you post to their system. It may be secure from the general public but sensitive information such as legal documents/agreements, financial records or anything “classified” is better secured on a roll your own wiki or Microsoft Sharepoint (I hate Sharepoint) and hosted internally.

If you’re looking for a method of content sharing/organization for your small business there are a lot of lucrative “up and comers” you might want to try, like Backpack It (http://backpackit.com/).

Comment on Ning Review by Yogashan

Yogashan — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 03:53:15 +0000

Hi there – I’ve started a ning network for my work group. It is “private”, by invite only, and the conversation is picking up. I only have 24 members at this point and am doing this as a bit of pilot project to try and demonstrate the usefulness of social networking for knowledge sharing across the company and all that jazz.

Now, I’m VERY concerned – does Ning own the IP of member content? So, let’s say our discussion leads to us developing a process of some kind (we are professional services firm), does Ning now own that? Are they reading our site?

I didn’t have our legal team look at this – this was sort of renegade move on my part. What kind of trouble could I be getting my company into????

I’d appreciate any insights and suggestions people can share…

Thanks.
Shan

Comment on Ning Review by stacy

stacy — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 22:26:05 +0000

Ning has HORRIBLE customer service. They make you pay a monthly fee to just have someone get back to you. Otherwise there is no answer. We pay for quite a few premium services (around $60/month) and we had a redirecting error which completely has locked us out of our account. Its been over two weeks since then and we can’t get anyone to get back to us. I would NOT reccomend using them.

Comment on Ning Review by Kelly Watson

Kelly Watson — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 01:28:47 +0000

I’m preparing to run an online class in January 2010 and I’m curious how Ning ranks in relation to Sclipo. Right now I’m trying to decide between the two.

Comment on Ning Review by J

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 08:35:22 +0000

I have to say that Ning used to be so cool. Now they are crap from the front page. Unless you have already done your searches across Ning you are screwed. The front page for Ning does not have a search of their networks. You are stuck only being able to use the ones you have or to create one of your own. If you do not want to create one then you are stuck. Today 11/17/09 NING SUCKS.

Comment on Ning Review by Nicholas Ramirez

Nicholas Ramirez — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 20:02:31 +0000

There can be no legal transfer of asset since you are not the legal owner of intellectual property, as long as it resides in the Ning house. You are free to move “your” content to another platform. However, as long as it exists on the Ning platform it was created by a Ning member (you) and other Ning members (your contributors).

From the agreement:

“If you are a Network Creator or an administrator designated by a Network Creator (”Administrator”), you agree that, as between Ning and you, Ning owns all right, title and interest, including, all intellectual property rights, in and to the Ning Member Data. You shall not acquire any right, title or interest therein, except for the limited rights expressly set forth in this Agreement. Any rights not expressly granted herein, are reserved to Ning.”

Comment on Ning Review by Matt

Matt — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 13:12:15 +0000

On network ownership… from what I can see, the Terms of Service states that YOU own all of your content, not Ning. Are you certain that you can not sell your network to someone else? Obviously, it needs to stay on the ning platform.

Comment on Ning Review by Nicholas Ramirez

Nicholas Ramirez — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 00:53:06 +0000

Hi Cecilia and Brent-

Thanks for stopping by, glad the Ning review helped a bit!

Comment on Ning Review by Brent Gairy

Brent Gairy — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 19:44:22 +0000

Your article was exactly what I needed to know about Ning. I look at sites such as thisis50.com and wonder would I host on Ning if I were the content owner.