I could not have choreographed it better, indeed it could even look to be deliberate, the day after a posted the previous blog I receive a news flash prompted by the decision to end the Ning free service. Ning is simply a customised social network for any group of users, based on underlying technology from ning.com In its basic form, the Ning is free to set and use but lately the use of it has become more sophisticated and I have certainly seen it demonstrated as a way of creating learning environments.
The controversy now is about the fact that suddenly those who have used it in the belief that it was free are now going to be faced with charges. Ning announced yesterday that three versions of the Ning platform-Ning Pro, Ning Plus and Ning Mini will launch in July 2010 and the 'free ad-supported product' will be phased out. The charges appear to be prompted by the recognition that the maintenance and development of code is costly. 'Our shift to a paid service model will enable us to focus to a greater degree on enhancing the features, performance and services we offer to our paying network creators.'
It is also significant that the news flash I received links the end of the Ning free service with 'the new approach to personal data management by Facebook.' Keeping users personal data safe is a growing issue. Recently following the award of a government contract we were first faced with demonstrating that we met the stringent measures now set by government for looking after personal data. In this case these measures were set at the highest level because the data belonged to children under 16. We passed because underlying our NOW.net platform is a highly sophisticated tool that allows us 'to control' what individuals can do and see using groups, roles and permissions. Creating and making available such an environment does cost but the benefits it brings of ensuring that individuals data is genuinely secure are worth it.
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