Comments on: Alternatives to Ning if free Ning sites are all shut down?

By: Bernylure

Bernylure — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 12:09:00 +0000

It might seem that Ning is sending a clear message: “free does not work”. Actually, I do not think this is true at all. Providing free services is very difficult and i know it from my own experience.

By: Time to ditch Diigo or pay up? « Moving at the Speed of Creativity

Time to ditch Diigo or pay up? « Moving at the Speed of Creativity — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 02:41:20 +0000

[...] announcement follows relatively soon after the transition of Ning sites this past summer to a paid-only model. (Sponsored site options from Pearson are available of [...]

By: Mathias Möller

Mathias Möller — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 09:10:32 +0000

If you are looking for free alternatives for Ning, may I shamelessly suggest our platform for Social Action / Social Collaboration? The name is Amazee, we are a small team based in Switzerland and offer a free migration service for Ning Networks whose members aren’t willing or able to pay for the new payment scheme Ning has come up with. You can find all the necessary information and a link to the migrator here: http://blog.amazee.com/welcome-ning-refugees-2/. Don’t hesitate to ask questions, if you do have any!

By: elgg.com

elgg.com — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 11:37:00 +0000

Elgg.com will launch its own hosted version of Elgg, the award-winning social network platform. See http://elgg.com/pressjune.php.

By: Always moderate membership in educational networking sites « Moving at the Speed of Creativity

Mon, 24 May 2010 15:50:54 +0000

[...] many others, I'm very interested in the policy changes which Ning is expected to announce May 5th for free and educational networks. We've been paying to remove advertisements and use a custom domain on our Celebrate Oklahoma [...]

By: Richard

Richard — Sun, 09 May 2010 14:39:17 +0000

@Wesley – pricing information is accessed from your logged in pages. We probably should add it to the main page too. There are most likely too many modules to list, but we have added the main ones on the ‘Features page’.

We are working on a demo site that will allow you to setup a site and use it for a short while so you can evaluate zonkk before signing up, even though signing up is completely free anyway.

I personally am behind the site, along with 4 programmers and one other investor. I am primarily involved in education having taught mathematics for 20 years and have been involved in website production and programming for 13 years.

By: Wesley Fryer

Wesley Fryer — Sun, 09 May 2010 12:03:49 +0000

Richard: Zonkk looks interesting as a space to get a free, hosted Elgg account, but where are the details about this service? I can’t find any pricing listed on the website, or information about available module features. Who are you and who is behind Zonkk?

By: Richard

Richard — Sun, 09 May 2010 03:02:30 +0000

There is another alternative launched yesterday in beta at http://www.zonkk.com. Zonkk is an elgg based social network creator that offers free accounts and loads of applications. There are also paid upgrades that you can subscribe to if you wish.

By: mixxt » A real Ning-Import and the migration survey

mixxt » A real Ning-Import and the migration survey — Sun, 02 May 2010 22:26:32 +0000

[...] wild search for alternatives to Ning is keeping many social network creators more than busy, especially in the educational sector. Migrating your social network from Ning is a daunting task. Several [...]

By: Laura

Laura — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 04:20:46 +0000

Dear Sue and Wesley,
thank you for your responses. When I asked about wiki integration on Buddypress, I have in mind an example from the Buddypress site examples, namely, Cuny Academic Commons, http://commons.gc.cuny.edu/, which looks very nice and closed to my purposes.
Even if I liked very much both Wikispaces and Google Sites, I think it wasn’t the solution used for this example, isn’t it?
So, my question is related to this kind of Buddypress SNS (I couldn’t login on it), are they using a specific widget or a specific theme? If the unswer is no, is it difficult and easy (without the necesity to instalate on a server?) to integrate into a network?
Thanks in advance for your answers,
Laura

By: Sue Waters

Sue Waters — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 00:42:36 +0000

Hi Laura, do you mean integrating wiki functionality into BuddyPress of linking your wiki site to the BuddyPress site using a widget?

If you mean just using widgets then the answer is yes on our installs because our sites allow almost any embed HTML code however normally that isn’t the case. Unless you install a plugin you can’t add embed code like Javascript, iframes etc.

But in terms of Wiki facilties on our standard WordPress MU installs we have an internal wiki built inside the dashboards (this isn’t included in our BuddyPress install). However, if you are wanting full wiki facilities then you are better using a wiki. It quite common for our clients to use our sites for blogging and then other web 2.0 companies for other tools.

But if any of you want to check out what it is like to use BuddyPress I do have a site set up that any one can join to check out how it works. It has been on my to-do list for several months and is ready to use I just haven’t promoted it much because of time constraints in finishing off making it pretty — last job is I want to add a video to the front page on how to use BuddyPress and a bit more info about it.

You will find it here – http://edugroups.org/ Feel free to set up both user accounts and blogs.

By: Wesley Fryer

Wesley Fryer — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 16:13:32 +0000

Laura:

I’m very interested in utilizing BuddyPress and exploring its possibilities. In terms of integrating a wiki tool with it, I’d think that is a question of having a similar theme that would allow users to move relatively seamlessly between WordPress and the Wiki tool. I’d love to know if themes exist now which can do this. Which wiki are you thinking about using? I’d recommend either Google Sites or WikiSpaces.

By: Laura Malita

Laura Malita — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 08:20:48 +0000

Dear Sue,
would you tell me if the Buddypress has been integrated even a wiki widget? Or it is possible and not so complicated to integrate a wiki starting from the tags from Buddypress?
Thanks in advance,
Laura

By: Story Chasers Inc. » Always moderate membership in educational networking sites

Tue, 27 Apr 2010 15:09:53 +0000

[...] many others, I’m very interested in the policy changes which Ning is expected to announce May 5th for free and educational networks. We’ve been paying to remove advertisements and use a custom domain on our Celebrate Oklahoma [...]

By: Ning, heroes and villains…and a survey « California Dreamin' by Rob Darrow

Sat, 24 Apr 2010 17:47:53 +0000

[...] education related organizations and myself. Some of the excellent analysis out there includes this post from Wes Fryer and this post from Jennifer Wagner as well as this post from Alex Couros. I [...]

By: Think Like a Teacher » A Legend of a Business Model for Learning

Think Like a Teacher » A Legend of a Business Model for Learning — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 17:46:30 +0000

[...] these spaces have filled the twittersphere and a vocal Elluminate get-together to vent, discuss alternatives, and stir a web-based uprising for web 2.0 consumer rights. The conversations in Elluminate the [...]

By: Not MY Ning! — bit by bit

Not MY Ning! — bit by bit — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 12:53:33 +0000

[...] going wrong in our lesson plans, we always need a backup plan, or even, an exit strategy. (See Wes Fryer’s post about Ning alternatives for some great [...]

By: Zack

Zack — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 18:59:08 +0000

Crazy that all these folks are left with the option to pay or leave. I noticed there are some free options out there. Zerista is one that is a free and lets you take your group to your mobile phone.

By: Christie Goodman, APR

Christie Goodman, APR — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 15:57:40 +0000

Another option is Big Tent. I participate in one group as a listener to the Manic Mommies podcast. Bit Tent will be hosting a free webinar this week on its features (April 21 @ 9 am Pacific/noon Eastern).

Also, thanks for your posts. I recommended your blog last week to a group of school district public affairs folk I was presenting to.

By: Sue Waters

Sue Waters — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 13:08:31 +0000

Here’s an interview by Kyle Jones which is a great overview of BuddyPress in an educational context.

You will also find the BuddyPress Manual gives you a good background on how BuddyPress works.

As usual here is where I have to insert the disclosure that I work for both Edublogs and WPMU DEV (http://premium.wpmudev.org/); and part of my work is writing manuals on how to use WordPress MU and BuddyPress; plus supporting people in using both. Always happy to answer any questions you might have about BuddyPress.

By: My Weekly Diigo Bookmarks (weekly) | My Squirrelly View of Education

My Weekly Diigo Bookmarks (weekly) | My Squirrelly View of Education — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 00:56:13 +0000

[...] Alternatives to Ning if free Ning sites are all shut down? « Moving at the Speed of Creativity [...]

By: NING Alternatives via Stephen Downes | Full Circle Associates

NING Alternatives via Stephen Downes | Full Circle Associates — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 22:15:56 +0000

[...] An Alternatives to Ning. document has been set up and is being collectively written. Wes Fryer also considers alternatives. Sylvia Curry has a screencast of the document being updated. Meanwhile, ReadWriteWeb [...]

By: Yannick Warnier

Yannick Warnier — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 19:06:16 +0000

Thanks for the effort analyzing the solutions at hand.
The Ning announcement has also indicated that users would be able to take their data away. Maybe a practical tool will be provided to allow users to export their data easily and import them into Elgg (Drupal doesn’t seem like an easier option than Moodle to me).
Chamilo is another great open source e-learning tool that has its own social network tools integrated from scratch. Use it on http://campus.chamilo.org

By: Mathew

Mathew — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 04:57:59 +0000

Here’s a sample educational use of buddypress: http://commons.gc.cuny.edu/

By: John Lacey

John Lacey — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 01:49:00 +0000

This is going to be such a big deal for a lot of people. Thanks for including a list of great resources.

By: Joshua Williams

Joshua Williams — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 00:59:54 +0000

In the context of alternatives to Ning, I was glad to see you suggest Drupal. As you noted, it requires a bit more setup initially, but it has tremendous ability to scale into a very rich online community. It’s also worth mentioning Joomla here . Joomla is very similar in capability and purpose to Drupal, and many consider it to be slightly easier to work with. As learning communities move further into the cloud these decisions become more important. Let’s remember to ask ourselves how we can integrate our web platform as we (hopefully) grow from a few individual, early adopters to whole online communities of learning and collaborating. I’ve been encouraging learning technology leaders to imagine what a connected, integrated online community should look like, and to ask themselves what problems they will be trying to solve in the coming months and years. What will it take to grow from teachers creating and sharing on the web to students creating and sharing on the web?

By: vic mackey

vic mackey — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 23:50:44 +0000

And what about gnoss.com as an alternative to ning? free semantic communities

By: Jane

Jane — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 22:00:55 +0000

I found this online for Ning users looking to find a free alternative..

http://webs.com/pages/free-ning-alternative