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.

Happy Birthday, South Africa & WildEarth.tv!

Back in February I did a two-part case study series on WildEarth.tv, a online wildlife channel that broadcasts live from the Djuma Game Reserve in South Africa. Not only is this concept unique in and of itself, but what fascinated me the most was (and still is) their vast and incredibly cohesive social ecosystem. In my not-so-humble opinion, WildEarth.tv and its community are among the most awesome things on the internet, right up there with LOLcats, Twitter, and instant rimshot. It’s hard to imagine that the WE community and all it encompasses was built in less than two years, but it’s true.

Tomorrow, April 27th, 2009, marks the 2nd anniversary of WildEarth.tv.  It was exactly two years ago that they first broadcast their live, 24 hour “window into Africa.” I am so, so happy for them and so, so happy for their existence. April 27th is also Freedom Day, the day South Africa commemorates their first democratic elections, 15 years ago.

So Happy Birthday to both WildEarth.tv and South Africa! You’ve both come a long way, baby!

To celebrate, WE are having a special fireside chat at 19:00 CAT (which translates to 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time), just go on over to the site and tune in, even chat. Better yet, join their official Ning so you can join the  chat there and see all the amazing photos and videos the community have contributed, and enjoy all the features of a Ning community. (I’m a big fan of Ning.)  I hear there’s a “planned surprise that you won’t want to miss” at the fireside chat, too.

Have you checked out WildEarth.tv yet? What do you think?

Someone in South Africa’s doin’ social media right!!

(This is Part 1 of a 2 part series. The second part, and interview with Graham Wallington, founder of WildEarth.tv can be found here.)

Day in and day out, all over the interwebs, social media freaks like myself are pointing out companies engaging in social media, either making case studies of what not to do or showcasing those companies that seem to be doing it “right” (a subjective term, perhaps). Ford is one of those falling into the latter category, thanks largely in part to one Mr. Scott Monty, who we in the Detroit social media scene are proud to call one of our own. Of course, it’s not just businesses that are embracing social media, as exemplified by Beth Kanter, the most prominent voice in social media for nonprofits. I could go on.

Personally, one of my deepest interests is how social media is applied (or can be applied) on a much broader spectrum. Consider the pope on YouTube. While I’m not going to sit there and watch the pope’s YouTube channel, I still think it’s pretty cool how even the Vatican is utilizing the new tools to spread its message.

Not long ago, I was followed on Twitter by @wildearth, whom I followed back without thinking much more than, “Oooh, big pretty kitty!” upon seeing their Twitter page. I never paid much attention, until one day I saw this in my tweetstream:

I couldn’t resist clicking the link, and indeed, there was a leopard, live on steaming video. I’m a sucker for wildlife, so I sat there, and I watched. Then I started poking around WildEarth.tv, curious as to what it’s all about.

It’s amazing.

WildEarth.tv is an online-only wildlife channel that broadcasts LIVE every single day from the Djuma Game Reserve in South Africa, a vacation destination for those wanting to go on African safaris. While you watch, there is also a live chat on the side of the video so you can talk about the wildlife with other viewers. There is a counter to see how many other viewers are watching at any given time, and every time I watch there are at least 100, sometimes more than 500. All footage is archived, so that you can visit the best moments caught on video, like the one below, which is the very first time these leopard cubs were seen by the crew. (Warning: cute overdose ahead.)

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