Thing 26... Ning is dingy

If I remember properly(and successfully reminded from reading Thing 26 instructions) . We played with Ning in the first 23 things on a stick and quite frankly I hate Ning. How is Ning different than any other Social network? The difference being:

1. You can't access it from our school (ding)

2. It has a terrible user interface (ding)

3. It is meant to be exclusive to people with shared ideas... hello, that's why social networking started inthe first place (ding)

4. How many social networks do you need to be a part of? I use Twitter, Linked in, instant message etc. Add in the facebook users/Myspace users ect. and what is the purpose of Ning? One more time suck.

I disliked Ning so much I Unregistered myself from Ning

so, no Ning for me. (ding)

Thing 25 tool kits....

The widgets are really getting me down. They used to work so well and now its like trying to push a washing machine through a mail slot to get the widget to stay and not error on you.

Additionally, I was playing with Google tools and there is an option that when you write in Google Docs that what you write will automatically update your Blog on Blogger. So I started playing with that. It worked great, if I wanted to update the wrong blog. I have multiple blogs on Blogger and even though I tell Docs to update "Sigmunds 23 Things" it doesn't :(

However, it does work well for my default blog and thus I can't complain too much. Makes things much easier that way.

I was able to imbed the google calendar into on of my other blogs.

Before I get off my rant... my one of my other pet peeves with Blogger is that that when you go to insert a vid or pic it always defaults to the top of the blog and not contained within the blog. So you have to manually drag the image to where you want it.

My immage to the left is case and point.

Anyway. My frustration has led me to playing with a website called. http://www.moonfruit.com/

got a heads up from Kathy Schrock on Twitter. So far I like it a lot, but I need to redo the page. I was waffling between a professional page or a personal page and the page looks just goofy. But soon, soon I will have a personal web page up. :)

Thing 24

still playing around. My guess is that it will take a while for me to be happy. Getting some of the widgets to hold has been a bit annoying.

I am also playing around with HTML to manipulate the margins etc. Man, HTML is not intuative to thickheaded people like me. Maybe because I'm really bad at language HTML doesn't come naturally.

On another Blogger page I have, I link to a Google Calendar so my friends can see the schedule of when we are getting together. That works really well but it was a pain in the keaster to get up and running.

I'll keep modifying but I think I'm going on to step 25 at the same time. This "thing" looks like an on-going project.

not thing 23 just news... or is is it?

The microcosim that is my world is finally slowing down. With birthdays, family events, housing sales and the end of school this is the first time I've had to just sit. Wow. Summer really does start at the solstace. :)

Anyway. I'm getting back into this blog for the new 23 and thought I would share some nerdy news.

Not sure if your a Face book or a My space fan. If you do Myspace then look out... Major cuts and thinning of the ologopoly that is social blogging/journaling/networking.

My space is going to have some trouble....

Last week, MySpace trimmed 30 percent of its staff in the US as the social network looks to become a more “efficient and nimble team-oriented company.” Apparently that goal also includes massive cutbacks abroad, as the company announced this morning that it is trimming a whopping 2/3rds of its international staff.

MySpace will eliminate 300 of its 450 staff members outside the US, as well as close “at least 4” of its international offices. Although the social network remains a big player overseas, today’s news comes as no surprise, as much like in the US, MySpace has fallen behind Facebook in most other countries.

For its part, MySpace blames the cut backs on the organization having become too bloated under its past leadership. CEO Owen Van Natta said in a statement:

“With roughly half of MySpace’s total user base coming from outside the U.S., maintaining productive and efficient operations in our international markets is important to users worldwide and our immediate financial strength.”

“As we conducted our review of the company, it was clear that internationally, just as in the U.S., MySpace’s staffing had become too big and cumbersome to be sustainable in current market conditions. Today’s proposed changes are designed to transform and refine our international growth strategy.”

While that sounds like the typical reasoning for a layoff, as anyone who follows the numbers knows, the truth of the matter is that the staff only became too large because the social network started shrinking. Layoffs will help get costs more in line with reduced revenue, but for the site to save itself, it needs to define what exactly is going to “transform” it back into a winner. And that remains far from clear.

Thing 23: Recap and reflection

I really liked the variety of technology that we were introduced to.  Even though I thought they had spread out some of the issues where there needn't have been.  It was a great way to discover and an excuse to play with some features I had never had time to play with.

Thank you, Mike, for your patiance with my venting about some programs.  I am quite open minded and like to try a whole slough of new software/webaps but when I have already spent a year or more playing with one and don't like... I let people know.

I wish we (as a class) spent more time commenting on other peoples blogs.  That would have been nice to see what other were doing.  I am to blame as well.  I commented on other for steps 1-4 but then stoped.  Perhaps because I got just a tad busy this summer, or because there was really no reciprication, or like most people I started working and didn't engage the others around me.  Not sure.. something to ponder about.

I say we keep challenging each other to try new software.  I'll keep sending out my e-mails over the school year and lets hope people keep sending them to me.

Thanks Mike.

Thing 22: Keeping Up

I had to laugh at this post.  The idea of being able to keep is neigh impossible.   There are thousands of new widgets, tools, software, webapps per year.  However, by having a high interest and the willingness to try new programs one can at least be on the front end of things.

I attribute on-line tool development to be sort of like writing novels.  90% of them are terrible, they are written poorly, bad plot etc.  So you have to wade through all the bad books before you find the gems.  The same is true for new computer technology and development.

By continuing to challenge ones self and trying to utilize the tools found in the classroom puts you on par with the person who likes a genre of literature and so reads everything they can.  They put down a lot of books, finish others but don't like... but with the ones they really like, they spread the word.

That is sort of our charge.  We need to pick up that new piece of software, try that new application and most of them we will uninstall, or stop using.  But the few that we find and really like we will spread the word.  No matter how good we are at doing this, a colleage will find something that we missed and share it with us.  Thus that sharing (thus the usefulness of comunicating via e-mail or network sites like ning).

Keeping up is about:

• trying
• evaluating
• sharing
• staying on line
• comunicating

I promise that I will continue to do all of these things and more.

Thing 21: Beyond Myspace

Although crude in its appearance and user interface, I am having larger hopes for Ning.  

The fact that it self filters by definition will help.  This will limit the number of lurkers and "false friends" from being part of the system.  It keeps people of like issues together, I like that.  Not only that, but it has better privacy for setting up "by invitation only". 

The interface is really crude and visually it is terrible.  However Ning has some potential.  I will continue to play with it and see what is available.

I didn't really spend much time with Gather or with Webjunction.  There is this whole time, signing up for one more accunt, one more password, setting up another avitar... account information etc.  So I let them go.  But Gather is looking like an even better option than Ning.  I'll have to do some more exploring to see what is looking good to me.

Perhaps my attitude will change...