Certification - August 2008 - (Page 17)

Case in point is Silicon Valley start-up Ning which entered the social network space in February 2007. Ning is the brainchild of Marc Andreessen, who tech watchers will remember as the man behind Netscape, and Gina Bianchini, a former investment banker with Goldman Sachs. Rather than compete directly with the network giants, Ning aims to tap into the fundamental drive that created social networks in the first place – our inherent drive to network and communicate with one another. The company’s tagline is “Create Your Own Social Network for Anything,” and using their platform, would-be networkers can create their very own social network for free. According to a recent Fast Company article, the company estimates that they will have 4 million social networks hosted on their site by the dawn of 2010. Users create their own networks on whatever topic that strikes their fancy, whether it’s their favorite band, their love for 19th century French poetry or a freakish obsession with the Smurfs. And more and more businesses are tapping into the trend by setting up their own Ning networks. There’s a network for just about anything, but some of the popular networks include OozingGoo, a site dedicated to Lava Lamp aficionados; a professional network for firefighters, emergency medical service workers and rescue workers called Firefighter Nation; World of Jah for Rastafarians across the world, and the unofficial Netflix member community at netflixcommunity. ning.com. 8 – editor@certmag.com Ning gives users the power to create their own social networks on whatever topic they desire. MySpace and Friendster live happily ever after with virtual bigwigs such as YouTube, Yahoo, Second Life and Wikipedia. The map is further divided into geographic quarters, as the folks at Strangemaps.wordpress.com elaborate: The north represents practical communities, the south is directed toward intellectuals, communities with a “real life” connection are over in the west, and the east is more focused on the Web itself. To see where your interests lie, check out the map, which features a “Do not use for navigation” discretionary warning. The original map was posted on Xkcd.com, a self-proclaimed “webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math and language.” Networking on Ning With the rise of social networking over the last few years, it seems like just about everyone but your great grandmother has a Facebook page. And the ever-growing Borg that MySpace and Facebook have become shows no real sign of slowing. In fact, that growth may even be accelerating. http://www.ning.com http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/125/nings-infinite-ambition.html http://www.myspace.com http://www.friendster.com/ http://www.youtube.com http://www.yahoo.com http://secondlife.com/ http://www.wikipedia.org/ http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/ http://oozinggoo.ning.com http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/2007/05/25/118-online-communities-map-not-for-navigation/ http://xkcd.com/ http://firefighternation.ning.com http://firefighternation.ning.com http://www.worldofjah.com/ http://www.worldofjah.com/ http://www.wgu.edu/cm14 http://www.facebook.com http://netflixcommunity.ning.com http://www.wgu.edu/cm14 http://netflixcommunity.ning.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Certification - August 2008

Certification - August 2008 Editor's Letter Contents Data Stream jVirtual Village Tech Careers Dear Techie Troubleshooting Academic Connection What We Like Look Ahead The China Boom United in IT: Tech Culture Breaks Down Barriers Abroad Interface Digital Home Technology Integrator: Specialized Skills for the Smart Home Inside Certification Ad Index Endtag

Certification - August 2008

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