Pay for Ning?

Darn. The other day I read that Ning networks will have to be paid for - you can read it for yourself here. Now I always wonder just how all these wonderfully useful sites actually make any money for their creators - how they even pay their way at all - though I know that advertising comes into it. But I'm sad about the Ning story simply because I've just created a new network for a small group doing distance learning for a module on reading the Bible. It's a closed network, so that I have to invite people to join it, and as such provides a safe space for homework, work in progress and discussion about difficulties and enthusiasms.

It is particularly important because the members of this group are scattered over such a wide area, with only two of them even in the same part of Argyll. It would be prohibitively expensive, not to say draining, to meet face-to-face as frequently as the course requires, and it is actually quite difficult to share relatively complex ideas over a telephone conference. The Ning network gives members a chance to experiment with, among other things, writing styles in preparation for the formal assignments which will have to be assessed, and it gave me as facilitator the opportunity to offer a bit of practical help on essay-writing. I have yet to try out the chat facility - haven't managed to coincide online with anyone yet - and would be interested to know if anyone out there has used it. Ideally, it'd be great to be able to be reading someone's stuff and commenting on it live.

I know there are other options for this kind of thing, but I plumped for a Ning because it is relatively unthreatening for people who tend not to use any kind of social networking sites. It doesn't really work for the one person on the course who doesn't yet have broadband, and there are still hiccups with people learning where to put comments, but I was optimistic - until now. The participants on the course have already paid to be on it, and the budget is small. Is it only a matter of time before we have to pay for all our social networking?

Joined up people

Wow. My beloved PowerBook had a brain transplant this afternoon and suddenly the pages are flashing up – great. It’s the only functioning brain today; mine is in hibernation mode after a weekend of being mother’s little helper at the end of a Cursillo weekend. It was great to see our friend Dennis so obviously having had a wonderful time, and faintly awesome for me to be commissioned as the Lay Rector for the next weekend, in August. I kept thinking “Who’da thunkit?” all afternoon, as I remembered my own weekend in 2000. The photo shows the church at St Mary's Retreat Centre, Kinnoull, where the weekend took place.

The contrast between the activities of my week was as stark as I suggested the other day. However, I was given space yesterday to tell people about a new web community using ning, which seems to me a promising way of keeping in contact. I see no good reason why Christians should not be as web-savvy as the rest of us, and equally no good reason why age should be considered a valid barrier to communication. I’m happy to report that requests for invitations are beginning to trickle in; we may yet have a viable online network there. How will I know it’s working?

When I no longer feel the need to post on it.