NING Virtual Community

Introduction

I have been using NING network site for two days and really enjoying it (www.ning.com). NING is a platform where people can create their own social networking. I wasn’t aware of the presence of NING until Lee Nelson recommended me to check it out in blog interaction. As I signed up, I realized that it is very interesting and fun. People pick their area of interest (i.e. sport, music, art, education, etc.) and connect to multiple pages that have been created by members with the tag of that area.

As I signed in, I picked the category “Art” and started to visit the pages that are related to art. I didn’t participate in discussions but as far as I observed there were hot discussions going on in the discussion forums. The discussions were informal.

Then, I decided to create my own network. I was asked to fill out my profile and upload a photo. I selected a theme and gave a title to my network “page”. I found the site very nice. The tools are easy to use and all the graphics and themes are very appealing. Members are allowed to use their creativity and customize their pages. The site is very user-friendly.

Type of the Community

The site provides people a space to share information or products in an informal way. People discuss in forums, share photos, share videos, and follow the events. Smaller groups within the pages let people concentrate on specific topics. For example “Children Portraits” group within the “Photography” page lets people share specifically children portraits in that area. Those kinds of categorizations make the page easy to use, because it becomes easy to locate what you’re looking for.

Structure of the Community

Everybody has their own space in which they can create discussions, invite people, check their messages, etc. The interface is consistent in all pages, however the theme changes as you click on different people’s profile pages.
People can create groups, write comments to each other, share tutorials and tips. Subscription is a very easy way of staying updated.

A drawback that attracted my attention is that you have to sign up to each page in order to participate in the discussions, write comments to people’s posts, etc., and it takes some time for the administration to approve your membership. You can view everything but cannot interact with people before the approval.

Events make people highly interact with each other. For example photo contests make people take different photos and give constructive feedback to each other.

Design Features and Roles of the Technology

There are many design and technology features that encourage people to stay connected to the community. First, individual inboxes let people communicate privately, so members don’t have to share everything publicly. Second, everybody can manage their own place and decide what to have and what not to have on their pages. Following on Twitter and Facebook are other good features that people don’t have to sign in to see what is new on the site. Also, the site gives a lot of flexibilities to the users. They can change their mode of views, customize their profile pages easily and enjoy the nice graphics and themes. Lastly, real-time communication is enabled through chat feature.

Conclusion and Implications

I really liked to explore NING network. It is a nice place to spend free times and learn new things at the same time. I believe that it is a great example of a virtual community. Also I like that it is multimedia supported. You cannot only read the texts, but also watch videos, listen to podcasts, view illustrations, graphics, etc. and upload your own media. I believe that I will stay connected to it in the future.