Jan 20 2008
Ning.com and education - a pleasant surprise
It’s not often that a company on the web surprises me. No matter how many promotional efforts are made to say “we care about our customers” or empty promises are issued, they usually wind up disappointing in the end. I can happily say that Ning.com has impressed me. Let me explain…
I posted recently about my concerns regarding using Ning, the social networking platform, in an educational setting due to features such as embedded advertising and links to other Ning sites that cannot be suppressed. I’m not the only one who has voiced these concerns. The response startled me though.
I received an email from a representative of Ning the day after I posted the blog entry. Phil M. was kind enough to inform me that Ning “happily removes advertising for education networks where the students are in grades 7 - 12.” The fact they are willing to remove the advertising is less impressive to me than the fact they are watching for comments about their service in the educational space and are willing to go to the effort to ensure their branding is coming across correctly. Now to be completely honest I was aware of Ning’s willingness to remove the advertising and have had it done on a social space I am already running (but I didn’t know it was public knowledge.)
There is an extensive debate in the education space about the value of social networking for students and schools. I have my own opinions as does everyone else so I won’t clutter the air with them right now. But since I do know Ning is listening, I’ll make this recommendation: integrate collaborative tools such as documents and files through partnerships with companies like Google and Zoho and you’ll have a much more compelling argument for the educational world.
As I said, I’m pleasantly surprised by the response…so keep it up Ning and I see a bright future for you in education.
