Another “Ning” bites the dust, another chance to drive this important lesson home.

Way back in July 2010 (which is light years in internet time), the “create-your-own-social-network” platform Ning decided to nix its freemium model in favor of a tiered pricing plan. Even though its lowest tier, for groups under 150 members, was only $2.95 a month, many small nonprofits, civil service organizations, and other groups already strapped for cash that were using the Ning platform as their main hub were up a creek with nowhere to go. So I wrote a post about a service I was familiar with called Amazee, and called it “a winning alternative to Ning for cause-based communities.”

 

Amazee Closes

It was recently brought to my attention in the comments of that post by one Tobias Eigen of Saidia.org that Amazee will now also be shutting down, as of December 23 of this year. Tobias wrote a post about this story, and drew some lessons from it in particular for civil society organizations looking for “free” places to host their campaigns and other stuff. He feels very strongly that they should be looking to open platforms (preferably run by other civil society organizations), so as to not get shafted again.

Said Tobias,

This trend reminds me just how important it is to have civil society platforms run by civil society organizations. We need to have reliable places we own and can rely on to put our stuff and to run our campaigns to fight for our communities, our environment, the future of our world.

I couldn’t agree more, and encourage you to visit Saidia.org to read further into his points.

As an example of an open platform, Tobias points to Kabissa, a volunteer-run platform which is a “space for change in Africa,” and supported by donations from the community. While I personally love this idea, unfortunately not all nonprofits have the knowledge of how to set something like this up, which as I pointed out, was why the Nings and the Amazees existed in the first place.

An alternative open platform,  WiserEarth.org, was mentioned in the comments, and while it is an open platform, I personally found the usability rather poor and hard to navigate. There’s very little “social” about it, and most of the causes I indicated interest in hadn’t had any activity in months. I see WiserEarth (as a concept) as a step in the right direction, but they really need to work on their UX.

When looking for alternatives a couple months ago I found  Mixx, which since I began researching for this post, has change into a platform called Chime.in, a network based around interests. When researching what happened to Mixx, I found this on the Wikipedia entry:

As of October 4, 2011, the Mixx Classic website has been shut down and now only displays a “we’ll be back soon message” and a e-mail address collection form which subscribes you to a newsletter that will announce the relaunch of Mixx. As of October 8, 2011, this message still exists. All former Mixxers lost all their saved and indexed data despite being promised otherwise by the Mixx staff. All Mixx user profiles have been deleted. The profile pages return errors, do not even 301 redirect to home, and the site lost significant PageRank and potential rankings. Apparently a total fail.

As I write this, obviously the Wikipedia entry hasn’t been updated, but I’m sure it will be soon. (I’m too lazy to do it myself right now.) The concept of Chime.in itself is fine and not too unlike what the original Mixx was, but this serves as yet one more reason you should not be reliant on third-party platforms. They’re always subject to change, and like Amazee, Mixx offered no downloadable CSV or XML file, or any other way for users to preserve/archive their content.

While the majority of the emphasis in this post thus far is on civil society organizations/nonprofits, as I said in the comments of Tobias’ post, it isn’t just  those folks that need to keep this in mind.

No matter if you are nonprofit, for-profit, a public figure, musician, etc. — You need to have your own “home base.” Period.

Detroit Tigers' Home BaseI’ve personally always advised my clients, regardless of what kind of entity they are, that they needed to “own” their presence on the web and not rely on other platforms such as Facebook, though those are a nice complement to your online presence.

I don’t know how many musicians I’ve worked with who have insisted that they “didn’t need a website because Facebook/Twitter/ReverbNation/whatever was enough.” All I had to do was point to MySpace and the demise of its relevancy on the social web, asking them if they’d REALLY like to keep migrating from platform to platform all the time and not having an online “homebase.” Oh, and grab your digital knapsacks, kids, as of the other day, there’s now Google Music.

I also know there are myriad small businesses who are in this similar mentality that they don’t need a website, their presence on Facebook is “enough.” Guess what? It’s not enough. If you’ve got a presence on Facebook, Twitter, now Google+, etc. … THAT’S GREAT. Good for you for learning how to check off a box, no matter how much you might hate the “hassle” of doing it. BUT, unless you own it, you’re just squatting on free property until “the next big thing” comes along or, in the case of Amazee, that property decides to close down.

“Oh, but where to start?”

I undertand that a lot of the ins and outs of this can seem overwhelming or intimidating to people who are not “digital natives” or otherwise comfortable on the web. But it doesn’t have to be.

Rodeo ClownThere are plenty of resources out there to buy domains and host a site. I personally prefer 1and1.com for my domains and host elsewhere (though they host, too), but there’s GoDaddy, BlueHost, Rackspace, and plenty of others out there. If you fear the technical stuff or the design stuff, most of them offer “one-click installs” of various content management systems, including WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, and others. For collaboration purposes, in the place of something like Amazee, MediaWiki is usually one of the one-click installs offered, and it’s pretty popular with the nonprofits and rather straight forward.

If you are still overwhelmed and don’t know where/how to start, there’s also Page.ly, where you can set up a WordPress self-hosted site and host it, and they’ll even give you plenty of templates to get you started with a “look.”

I can’t stress enough how important it is for everyone, no matter if they’re a nonprofit, band, brand, small business, “public figure,” singing midget telegram service, rodeo clown, or WHATEVER that you can’t rely on third party, “free” service for your main online presence. It’s a relatively small investment to purchase a domain (less than $10) and host it (varies).

The best part? It’s YOUR site, that YOU own, and nobody can take it away from you.

Detroit Tigers photo via heidigoseek, rodeo clown via Bill Gracey.

Amazee: A winning alternative to Ning for cause-based communities

In April 2010, custom social network service Ning decided that they were going to start charging and do away with their free service. Beginning August 20, Ning will charge the following for usage of their custom social network platform:


(Features included in each plan are not shown because of space.)

As you can imagine, this decision by Ning caused (and is still causing) quite a stir among users and administrators of such networks.  Even if it’s only $2.95, many administrators of smaller groups are unwilling to pay for it, and many are struggling to find effective Ning alternatives, especially nonprofits and “cause” networks. There’s even a Facebook group dedicated to prevent Ning from doing so.

Well, have no fear, activists — Switzerland-based Amazee is stepping up the plate and offering FREE Ning migration service to their platform.

What is Amazee, you ask?

Though it hasn’t caught on in the United States (yet), it’s a popular custom platform for projects and reaching goals, whether it’s fundraising or non-monetary aspirations. It’s very popular in Europe, South Africa, and elsewhere in the world.

Here’s a quick video Amazee made explaining the benefits of migrating to their platform:

Welcome, Ning refugees! from Amazee on Vimeo.

From Amazee’s blog:

First of all you’ll get a lot of the features on Amazee which you’ve been accustomed to on Ning*: You’ll be able to post blog entries, upload pictures and embed videos, you’ll have your own forums for discussion, and have a good overview over who’s doing what in your group and on the platform.

Next to that we are taking your Ning experience to the max: There is no limit to the number of members a group can have (Ning only allows for 150), there are no limits on storage and bandwidth (Ning only allows you for 1GB and 10 GB respectively), you’ll be able to set up events and have people rsvp directly in your group (this is not possible at all at Ning) and you can add an unlimited number of RSS feeds and content boxes to your group (Ning has 1 and 3 respectively).

Furthermore we allow for maximum online collaboration and promotion by supporting a solid Facebook integration: You can easily recommend your group on Facebook, if you like you can even sign in to Amazee with your Facebook account. And the icing on the cake: You’ll get a reliable and competent community management on top of all that. For free, of course.

I’ve had an account at Amazee for over a year and have been (minimally) involved on this platform with a few projects in South Africa, and absolutely love the functionality of it. There are other Ning alternatives, like GroupSite and Mixxt, but personally, I don’t find the others very conducive to the needs of collaborative activism.  Amazee, on the other hand, was designed for that very purpose.

So if you’ve got a cause-based community on Ning, don’t fret – head on over to Amazee and they’ll make migration easy, painless, and free.

Have you found any other good Ning alternatives? Please share in the comments below if so. Thanks!

Note: I got no form of compensation for writing this post.

Guest Post | STOP THE PRESSES! I barked up that tree too soon!

reina

reinaOh hai, it’s Reina again.

I was so excited when  I posted that last post about Yappy Hour with the Michigan Animal Rescue League that my drool got in the way of my weather iPhone app that told me how cold it was going to be on Thursday. But luckily, the folks at MARL were paying attention because apparently it’s supposed to be rainy and so cold you that if they held it, anyone that might have needed neutering wouldn’t need it anymore if you know what I mean.

Well, because the hoomins at MARL care about all our parts and don’t want any of them to freeze off, they’ve decided to postpone it until spring. It will still be held at the Royal Park Hotel and we’ll have a new date confirmed soon.  If you already donated and purchased tickets, be on the lookout for the MARL hoomins to contact you soon, you can either have your monies back or get a FREE VIP upgrade for the spring event plus a prize for your pooch. (I suggest the latter, and I’m not just saying that because I like new stuff to chew on.)

I was really looking forward to seeing everybody and having puptails but I appreciate them looking out for us, and now I’m so excited for springtime I could PEE!

But don’t wait until then to look into rescuing a four-legged friend. We need you TODAY, and if you can’t adopt somebody, at least think about volunteering some of your time to bonding with hoomins’ best friends. Go here for more information on how you can help save a life and make a new friend or family member, Michigan Animal Rescue League (and rescue dogs like me) love you for it.

kthxbai

Guest post | I’m So Excited For Thursday, I Can’t Stop Drooling!

Reina-The_Dog

Oh Hai!

So as you can guess, it’s not Stacy writing this post. This blog has gone to the dogs, maybe for just one time!

Reina-The_Dog

I’m Reina, (follow me on Twitter @reinathedoggy)  and I pawed by to tell you about this Thursday’s Yappy Hour to support the Michigan Animal Rescue League. See, I’m a rescue dog – and hoomins gave me a second life when I used to roam the streets.

I know what it’s like to find your new forever home and how much I love the noms and lovins, and of course, my favorite command, “Snuggles!”

I want every dog to have the same love I get… and in order to help make that happen, the hoomins at the MARL need your help Thursday in Rochester by attending.

But you just won’t help my friends, you can haz “Puptails” from Zodiac Vodka, hoomin treats (“Hound-d’oeuvres”) all on the vewwy nice Royal Park hotel lawn. It’s the nicest lawn I’ll ever have been on. Oh, and there’s dog treats too as well as music by Robin Horlock for the people.

yappy-hour-2009-title_561x127I loves clothes, and I’ll be bringing my pink coat because there’s a best dressed competition, and I’m gonna get a picture with my hoomin. But of course, I’ll be the better looking of us ;-)

Follow this link to get your ticket for you and your best friend – it’s from 6p-9p Thursday in Rochester. I’m looking forward to wagging my tail when I see you there!

Reina is the dog-daughter of Jeremiah Staes, President and Chief Online Navigator of Portage Digital Media.

Social Media Club – Detroit/Ann Arbor kicks off!

logo_smc-1

smcda2logoThis past Tuesday, June 23, marks the inaugural meeting of Social Media Club – Detroit/Ann Arbor*. A bunch of us social media enthusiasts from all over southeast Michigan gathered at the Claddagh Irish Pub in Livonia to discuss our goals and the direction we’d like to see the club go.

What exactly is Social Media Club, you ask? Well, according to the national site,

Social Media Club brings together journalists, publishers, communications professionals, artists, amateur media creators, citizen journalists, teachers, students, tool makers, and other interested collaboraters. Essentially the people who create and consume media who have an interest in seeing the ‘media industry’ evolve for everyone’s benefit. We are more than just USERS, we are the reason the tools exist – we are the people who communicate our thoughts and ideas near and far. . .

SMC is now a handful of people managing the global organization on a part time basis, and actively working towards hiring full time staff as SMC files the 501c3 and push the organization further into the global space. Thanks to the efforts of our local leaders, we have grown to over 55 active chapters (40+ in the works) with 10’s of 1000’s of people gathering around the world.

Social Media Club has four missions, which are:

  1. Expand Media Literacy
  2. Share Lessons Learned Among Practitionerss
  3. Encourage Adoption of Industry Standards
  4. Promote Ethical Practices through Discussion and Actions

Chuck Smith of BlogTalkRadio fame did a great job of capturing snippets of the meeting on video over at his blog, and of course, Charlie of multiple-arena fame was there capturing snippets of everybody and everything for one of his many awesome videos.

Here are some of us talking about our biggest online pet peeve, and I’m (ironically) ranting on how I’ve come to loathe the term “social media”:

What’s your online pet peeve? from Charlie Wollborg on Vimeo.

Also featured in this video are @jesssoul, @chuckSmithMI, @julielyn, @ChrisCCL, @balanon, @sazbean, @rmercader, @davemurr and @bchesnutt. (Follow them, they’re cool.)

I honestly hate seeing myself on video but it’s unavoidable for me these days so I just suck it up and take one for the team. (Besides, I said “people are doing it online,” uh huh huh huh huh . . . )

You can learn more about Social Media Club – Detroit/Ann Arbor at the club’s wiki, including notes from the inaugural meeting, and follow @SMCDA2 on Twitter. There will be a Facebook page soon which will be linked here There is now an official SMCDA2 Facebook page, in addition to the original Facebook group.

Special props go to Dave Murray and Jessica Soulliere for stepping up and putting the club together, and to Tonja Deegan for scribing.

So what would you like to see the SMC – Detroit/Ann Arbor do? Any particular topics you’d like us to cover? And while we’re at it, what’s YOUR online pet peeve?

[Edit - 4:30 PM 6/26/09] Nikki Stephan (who couldn’t make it) commented that she’d like to see the club focus on where social media is going in the future, and that’s actually what I brought up at the meeting. I wasn’t going to embed another video of myself here but Chuck did get it on video so here ya go.  I guess great minds do think alike!

*Technically, I am not really “local” to Detroit, nor Ann Arbor, but all my friends live around there and I hope to be relocating back to Metro Detroit soon.

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