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As Ning launches today there are some reports out there and it is worth looking at them - including the comments.
Both Marc Andreesen and Gina Bianchini answer comments and questions which is a good sign for paying attention. "Top level execs" will not always have the time to do that around the clock but at a time like a start out of beta, this is a good sign. (Too bad Gina was not able to come to London, I was looking forward to meet her and ask some questions about Ning.)
Some comments of mine to it as I do not want to spread the comments through several places:
In the Techcrunch comments readers mention full control and privacy of data.
Full control:
I am as much of a control freak as everybody else there posting that comment. Running my blog on a server like Typepad, are you kidding me? For myself - out of the question.
But there are many happy people (sometimes unhappy but still) with Typepad and co. Ning is not for me but for them. For your mom and grandma who want their knitting club to have a shiny new website with all this cool stuff. I only played around with Ning for a short time but that would be the site to go to when I would not want to deal with setting up something like drupal for them.
Language of the application
"Problem" here - and I wanted to look if they do but they are taking a short break - would be language I assume. Having menues in english is not going too well with most of the assumed users because for example they expect german menues. It would be interesting to see if ning as an application was build the American way - aka having non english menues is difficult because not thought off in the beginning and wired hard into the system.
Let's assume that they have thought about a coming internationalization because those millions of networks will not come just from the States or Britain.
(No I do not expect a company like Ning to start with full fledged internationalization. I expect them to start first, get rid of some bugs and then go later for it.)
If you think this does not matter I invite you to come over to European meetings and conferences (continental Europe that is, not the UK where they only speak english too ...) and you will learn how many copy cats are very successful, much more successful than your original for the very basic reason that they are in local language. Let's rephrase that: Your application is not even on the radar and never will be for that basic reason.
Data protection or running a business on Ning
Whatever privacy options you do have (you can set it to a private network), the servers of Ning run in the US. Period. I know this sounds like something I repeat over and over again but the States do not have the same data protection laws as Europe.
No, we are not paranoid, we are just used to have such rights still.
I would guess that running a business on Ning will be impossible without the explicit acknowledgement of users waiving their rights (and I am not even sure that this is allowed without you being liable).
I for example even get flak from people using Gmail as my mail provider and am ask constantly by some people which email to send it to which is NOT run on Google and a server in the states.
Advertising on the site
Gigaom has more information about the business model of it
The company plans to charge $19.95 a month if you want to run your own ads (or no ads at all). Your own domain will cost $4.95 a month, and a package of 5 GB storage/100 GB of bandwidth is going to cost $9.95 a month. At these prices, Ning will need thousands of social networks before it can join an elite network of start-ups of recent vintage that are profitable.
I think not. Google Adsense is the best way for them to run on such a site because they do get localization right. To give you an example: Adsense even does get localization of towns right in Germany - I and a friend where searching for the same term on google.de and we both would get different offerings according to our local town.
Most people running their social network will be niche networks. We all know that nice networks are great for targeted well paid ads. Most of them will be run privately meaning they will not pay the price of removing the ads. Meaning: Others will come and bring content, Google Adsense will make the targeting and Ning will receive the profits over there. From my point that is going to be a very cool business modell.
See it differently: You will need to able to make at least 35 dollars a month by Adsense to set of your costs. Everybody who ever has had a decent look at how to set up Adsense knows that that is not much of a problem and well worth the costs - especially on a niche content.
For your local church or soccer club, etc that is still a good price for a run platform.
Running on your own domain
I would be worried about the typepad problem - even if you run it on your own domain the content will be "mirrored" aka accessible under the typepad domain and often that will pop up higher in search engine rankings.
I cannot check right now (still a break) if the sub links are ning related too or if this also runs under your own domain like you can have it with blogger but I would assume it is not.
So far ...
Looking good. Despite the language problem (many people are used to running such a system with english menu structure and even users can bear with basic menues in english), it has potential.
The design looks nice and clean and so far easy enough to use. Definitely easier than setting up your own wordpress blog unless you do have a one click install system on your web hoster.
Data privacy is something you will have to keep in mind. As far as pricing (and control) goes you will have to make a decision in the beginning if or if not you want to go with your own domain but you do have control to some degree.
And as far as the system having a break and being non accessible - yes that is midnight San Francisco time and early night at the East Coast - but it is morning in Germany. So much for running a system with only the States in your mind. ;)
The points I mentioned above can be very valid reasons why Ning will not work for for people. At the same time many of these points do not matter to a lot of people. Unless something happens and then it can get ugly.
Scenario:
you start a successful ning thing for your local soccer team (remember, soccer is huge. And it is not called football). Now a competitor arrives and sees the success of your platform. They rebuild it in local language which alone may not be the point of getting people to switch.
But then they start and tell the users about the other one being run on US systems and all the horror stories that go with it. And for example that downtimes will happen at our night time.
People will change in a blink of a second. At least on this side of the pond. ;)
Technorati Tags: ning, european view, social networks
27.02.07 - european view - 10 comments / TB ( ) - permanent link
While trying to catch up with mail and news from nearly 4 weeks (being on the road and sick) I was reading on the
new entries to the old discussion on female speakers. I have talked about this before as well but while reading Rachel Andrew's article "
Diversity thoughts" a thought popped into my mind about the lack of women raising their hands and applying for speaker positions.
Is it possible that social structures are drilled so hard into our behaviour that most women will not raise their hand and say - basically - "Take me! I am available!" because there is a meaning to it which relates to being hookers?
Think about it. You do "sell yourself" or "offer yourself" when you apply. And around tech you do this mostly to men. Then you go up on a stage and - again - sell yourself. Like on a market.
When you promote yourself, some men do call this "whoring myself" - something even as the lightest joke many women would probably not say.
Of course this focusses just on the negative side of it - but bit by bit (this, child care, costs, being uncomfortable with it, old boys club, no ROI for women, no real interest in the topics etc) it leads up to the sum of "I will not apply".
Tag(s): culture, diversity, conferences, webconferences, gender, perspective
26.02.07 - the small things - 3 comments / TB ( ) - permanent link
While they where with Techcrunch UK I was bitterly complaining about them not paying enough attention towards Europe. Now that Sam Sethi and Mike Butcher run
Vecosy as "Sam Sethi & Mike Butcher's techreview of European startups." they do pay attention to Europe and so far I am very much liking it - as it does spark conversation about Europe as well as make some American sites pay more attention. ;)
Now they are searching for suggestions on "
Europe’s top 100 movers and shakers":
Therefore instead of it being the Vecosys 100 list, I wanted to ask you to nominate European people (but not yourself) who you think deserve to be on the list. They can be an entrepreneur, VC, journalist, blogger, event organiser or geek techie.
In order not to let it get too UK specific, I urge you to think hard about what you know of the European space and post your comment to it. ;)
I tried to think of people I know which do have an interest in crossing borders in Europe and helping people to connect on a level which is in fact Eurocentric. The list is by far not complete, but a quick first shot at this.
You might note that there is only one person from Germany - there are of course some others but most of them do only work in German and do not seem to be interested in 'moving and shaking' in
Europe. I also though about including people from the Media houses in Germany which do push at least the country a bit forward - but again, they do that mainly on a German level.
Btw, another Blog, though more focussed on the money part is
alarm:clock euro
Technorati Tags: europeanmoversandshakers, euro 100
25.02.07 - european view - 1 comments / TB ( ) - permanent link
I am still in London and am trying to recover from being sick and yet talking all the time at Barcamp London (was wonderful btw) - plus I am on some wifi from around somewhere with only a mini-connection. Judging on the mails and hits I got I could see that
Robert has posted the interview he recorded in Geneva on podtech.
To cover most answers from the mail: The link for the people looking for the interviews:
You can find my interviews under
bloxpert and my too seldomly updated personal podcast under
Useful Sounds.
Of course he was just the video taker as this interview was done by the most charming
Maryam. ;) Maryam and I tried that for a while now and the time seemed absolutly right in Geneva. And it did not even hurt (II've hated video since I was a child and object to my fathers camera 8 or something experiences because kids are cute.)
As said, I am on mini connection and on my way to a meeting so I will not be able to have a closer look till tomorow. :)
20.02.07 - default - 0 comments / TB ( ) - permanent link
There is an amusing thread over at Flyertalk about
Gave up my apartment to live in Hotel's. Given my current travel patterns I still could not justify this. ;) But this entry really cracked me up:
I did this for several years in Germany. I always had a problem with the residency registration. In Germany you have to have a Meldeadresse (official address) registered with the government. It was always extremely difficult to convince them that my residency was in a hotel.
Beyond that one of the funniest experiences in my life was the day I moved out. The other guests looked at me very strangely as I carried out a tv, mini-fridge, about 150 DVD's, two lamps, a rolled-up carpet, etc.
Perhaps even funnier was when someone from the hotel wanted to check that I was taking out only things that didn't belong to the hotel. The manager came over and said, loosely translated, "mr. cbellero has spent enough at this hotel that he can take anything from the room that he wants".
:)
Technorati Tags: fun, hotel, travel
15.02.07 - business blogging - 0 comments / TB ( ) - permanent link
Although I am not over my tonsilities (thanks international audience at lift grrr), I am going to london tomorow for Barcamp and the Girl geek dinner. :)
I will be tomorow evening at the screening of the
new film 300 (thanks to Hugh), then
Sat / Sun Barcamp to which there seems this time to be still cards left!, and then to the
girl geek dinner on Wednesday.
I have some things planned besides that but am open up for stuff especially in the evening of Mon/Tuesday ;)
15.02.07 - default - 1 comments / TB ( ) - permanent link
Last year I was not able to go here due to work restrictions, but one of the fun parts of being self employed is of course not so many constraints like "end of year business" (jan/feb are the hardest time in controlling where I worked before).
So while I am looking forward of visiting Switzerland for the very first time I am also very keen to see which influence it will bring to this. :)
I have recorded interviews with six of the speakers of lift as a preconference podcast which you might enjoy listening to on your way to Geneva. :)
Four of them are already online:
Two more will go up early afternoon:
Jan-Christoph Zoels and Lee Bryant.
As usual, you can find all audio files under bloxpert.com
Tag(s): lift07, pre conference podcast, interview
05.02.07 - conference - 0 comments / TB ( ) - permanent link
I can actually see a reason for the new
Technorati feature of WTF - especially since some German topics have been popping up in the Technorati hitlist for some time. And as most blog content around this will be in German and not in English, you readers with just English knowledge will have a hard time understanding what is going on.
So,
I wrote my first WTF on Technorati to explain the current
searches for Marions Kochbuch and for your information here as well ;) You
should still go and vote for it of course. ;)
This new hype in the German blogosphere is mearly about a women and her cookbook site (which has tremendously good google juice and both owners seem to be living out of the money.)
The searches on Technorati pop up (like the recent StudiVZ) because the owners of Marions Kochbuch are sending out written warning letters to bloggers. First it was about the most expensive bredroll = blogger took a photograph from the website and put it on their blog - without licence from the photographer.
6000 Euros is the value for it and people go on about "but a bredroll only costs 0,15 Euros!" totally neglecting or ignoring copyright laws. As there has been much discussion about sending out these kind of letters with overpriced notes to it (German parliament is already talking about this and saying something like that for first offenders should not be higher than 50 Euros), this gets hyped a lot.
Most bloggers forget that their little adsense money already puts them out of the "i am a personal blogger!" category and into a business website - which means other laws apply.
Additionally to the "Abmahn"-topic itself it occurred that the owners of the site have already made such letters to bloggers / forum owners before which fuels the conspiracy theory of "they are only out for the money! They could have asked us and we would have taken it down".
The owners replied somewhere that they do not have all day long to catch all of those which is why they got into using a lawyer.
This gets new fuel as the lawyer started sending such letters out to bloggers who where merely discussing the incident and as an interesting sidenote seems to try to sent the coming court dates to Hamburg. This is of interest as court in Hamburg has made a ruling about liability of forum postings and the owner of a forum.
So this is not only about a bredroll, but is going to be interesting because of whatever ruling will come out of it, it should have a significant impact on how blogs and their comments are to be seen legally.
And it might actually teach some people about basic rules of copyright and licensing ...
Reading this you actually can understand what this entry is about - although it is in a different language alltogether. Which is something posts like
WTF is Technorati up to? by ZDnet miss when they compare this feature with Digg and alike.
It is not about digging something, but explaining something. Of course it would have been clever to implement a language switch in there as well (you can't judge by the author which language it is but I would be willing to tell you in which language this is written), but a step towards a more understanding and helping internet. ;)
Tag(s): Marions Kochbuch, wtf, where is the fire, technorati
01.02.07 - european view - 0 comments / TB ( ) - permanent link
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