Thing 26: Nings and Things

Find more photos like this on 23 Things on a Stick

I joined the ning last year while participating in the first part of this program. I have to say I barely looked at it much when I joined and have not been back to it until doing this thing. I'm glad it was chosen to be one of the first things in this program because, after spending some time looking at it, I think it is a really great site.

The thing I like the most about the ning is how easy it is to use. The interface on the personal page is very straightforward and you can add and delete items from the page simply by clicking on the element. I decided to add a ning badge to the sidebar of my blog - simple cut and paste job - as well as a photo widget. I uploaded a few of my photos into the widget. Some photos are from my trip to Europe last summer and some are of local bands that I love to see. I also uploaded a song onto the music player within my ning page. I love that this is one of the basic features of the member pages and it was also really easy to use. I'm thinking of adding more music to the playlist and eventually adding the music player widget to my blog.

I commented on a video from one users page and I also replied to a forum post asking whether or not I have twitter. I noticed I have a new follower from that page as well so I'm glad I decided to add to that forum. I looked at the groups in the Ning but did not really feel as though I fit into any of them - perhaps I should create my own group in the future. Although I really enjoy the features of the ning I feel as though it is something I would not use very often. I also feel like the other members probably don't use it often either so there are gaps in content, only making it really worth checking once in a while.

As far as the use of the ning in a library, I am not sure if it has a lot of value. I think it could be interesting if a library created a ning environment (like the 23 Things on a Stick Ning) and workers (librarians, techs, etc) as well as users (patrons) could join and create profile pages. There could be a library card barcode number requirement to make sure the members of the Ning were only users of that particular library. That might be a good way for all members of a library community to get to know one another. There could be groups set up in the Ning for lovers of different genres of books which could include reviews as well as book group listings. I've recently been interested in graphic novels but I find it difficult to find others who share this interest. I would love to have a venue where I could meet other graphic novel lovers in my community and possibly create a book group on the topic - just an example. I really don't know if something like this would catch on but it would be an interesting experiment to try out.