Netlog

Ning . It is an online service that allows users to create their own social network . It allows network creators to determine the appearance and functionality of the sites, as well as decide whether they will be public or private. Networks include features such as photos or videos, lists of network members and events, groups within the network, and communication tools such as forums , blogs, and a Chat .

Summary

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• 1 History
• 2 Operation
  • 1 Type of Users
• 3 Features
• 4 Privacy and Security
• 5 Objects of Ning networks
  • 1 Administrators and creator have a number of their own objects
    • 1.1 Privacy of Objects
  • 6 Direct communication between users
  • 7 Disadvantages
  • 8 Sources
  • 9 External Links

History

Ning, appeared in 2005 , developed by Marc Andreessen and Gina Bianchini and its name “Ning” is due to the Chinese term that means “Peace”.

Thus it was that this innovative idea (of simple creation of a social network) entered cyberspace and is gathering more and more followers.

Functioning

 

Ning

• Registered users can create new social networks in no time, without the need for technical knowledge.
• Once a name and URL are selected, mounting the network is a simple four-screen workflow.
• The user indicates whether the network is private (invite people only to view or join it) or public, write a slogan and description of the network, assign keywords, choose from a selection of features (such as photos or videos, a blog, events, groups or gadgets) and drag-and-drop tools to put these characteristics on the page, choose a visual theme (colors, fonts, sizes) and you can customize these options.
• It also decides what information users will be asked to join the network.

Type of Users

There are basically 3 types of users:

Creator of the network : It is the person who originally created it and is the one who has the highest level of control of the network. They are exclusively his attributions:

• Modify the type of network privacy .
• Register or cancel administrators.
• Allow users to modify their personal page.
• Require member approval prior to admission by an administrator.
• Ask for confirmation from administrators before uploading photos or videos by users.
• Suspend the network temporarily (a security measure that blocks the network instantly).
• Completely unsubscribe from the network.

Administrators : They are appointed by the creator. They can fully control the network, except for what is said above, which is exclusive to the creator. Among its powers are:

• Modify the appearance of the network (modification of the theme and its individual elements)
• Add or remove applications from the network: Blog , notes , text boxes, events , videos, photos, music , RSS, etc.
• Manage the behavior of the discussion forums .
• Manage network tabs (The tabs act as a menu where you can locate network applications or new pages).
• Highlight content to appear on the home page over others.
• Remove any content contributed by users.
• Invite new members or kick them out.
• Determines the questions that users must answer when they register on the network.
• Create notes (notes are pages that use an advanced editor).
• Create new pages
• Modify the behavior of the main page applications (determine which blog posts will be displayed, which photos will appear, which videos, etc.)

Users : They are invited by the administrators or the creator in the case that the network is private. If the network is open, they can sign up on their own or request admission (depending on the restrictions imposed by the creator). They can perform the following tasks, in case the creator has not disabled any of them:

• Modify their profile data, such as the photo that identifies them, change the answers to the initial questions when they registered, change their email, password, etc.
• Modify the appearance of your home page (called “My Page”).
• Add RSS on your page.
• Add third party gadgets or embed external applications (such as Google Docs ) in the text box of your page.
• Delete messages left by others on the “wall” of your page.
• Selectively delete your page history.
• Invite other members (if the network is totally open).
• Create groups.
• Leave messages on the wall of others or in that of the groups to which it belongs.
• Participate in discussion forums.
• Write on your blog.
• Leave comments to any object created by another.
• Create your own objects (images, sound, video, etc.) and label them.

features

• Members of Ning social networks find functionality similar to the more popular siled networks such as Facebook and Myspace .
• Various features allow users to read news or get information about related events, join groups, read and comment on blog entries, view photos and videos, and other activities such as layout set by the creator of the network.
• The RSS feeds enable users to subscribe to updates of specific parts of the social network.
• Ning’s social networks support, in its free version, 10GB of content and 20,000 members per network.

Privacy & Security

The network has security and control mechanisms that allow adaptation to the needs imposed by the type of student with whom we are going to deal. Which can be configured as:

• Public: Anyone can see the entire network. To participate you can become a member yourself through links on the main page.
• Private: Where those who come to it cannot see the network and cannot request admission to it. It can only be accessed by direct invitation from the administrators or the creator.

Ning networks objects

 

Ning Blog

• The personal page of each member where all the information related to him appears.
• Text boxes is the most versatile object on the entire network as it can contain any code. External pages can be inserted through iframes , players of all kinds, text formatted with HTML, etc. Users can put a text box on their personal page.
• Text messages or comments on other objects: other users’ walls, blog posts, videos, images, events, etc. Any object of a user can be commented on by others.
• Blog posts. Each user has his blog, the blogs tab shows the blogs of all users on the network ordered by date.
• Calendar events. They are temporarily scheduled activities such as meetings, exams, deadlines for work, etc.
• Discussion forums. There is a general forum open to all members of the network and another forum within each group in which only its members can participate. Discussion forums support attachments and embedded objects, but not iframes.
• A maximum of 100 sound files can be uploaded per user with a maximum size of 20MB for each one. Music uploaded by a user will appear on your home page. It is the only object where there is not a page in which all the files of the members of the network appear.
• You can upload your own videos or link those from YouTube or similar services. Videos can be viewed by user, tag, or all at once. Provide the code to embed any of these videos on or off the web.
• You can upload photos that appear as a presentation on the personal page. Like videos, photos can be viewed by user, tag, or all at once. Provide the code to embed a presentation with our photos.
• It provides a series of utilities with very diverse functions that it calls applications and that can be placed by users on their personal pages.
• Groups It is probably the feature that gives the most power to the social network, which is why they are discussed in a separate section later.

Administrators and creator have a number of their own objects

• Web pages . Additional web pages can be created to those already provided by Ning. There is no editor and you have to enter the HTML code directly, so it is necessary to use another program, such as the OpenOffice web page editor, to generate the content.
• They have a fairly complete editor where any code or text can be entered. It is similar to text boxes but there is no limit on their number and links can be made from one to another. In reality they are like the previous web pages but with their own editor.

Privacy of Objects

Calendar events can be public or visible only to users who are invited. For objects: blog posts, video and photos we can choose between three levels of privacy:

• See it only me (the user who created them).
• See it only my friends.
• Everyone can see it.

Everything that is created within a private group will be visible only to its members.

Direct communication between users

Publicly :

• Messages left on the wall.
• Responding in the discussion forums.
• Commenting on objects of other users. All objects except sounds support comments.

In private :

• Internal mail messages to a person or a group of them.
• Internal mail messages to all members of a group.

The chat allows simultaneous conversations, both in groups and in private.

Disadvantages

• Possibility for blog entries, photos, videos and events to be viewable only by members of a specific group.
• Possibility of further configuration on the group pages.
• Possibility of creating groups within a group.