Marc Andreessen's Social Platform: Ning

An anonymous reader writes "As reported on SiliconBeat, Marc Andreessen has finally lifted the covers off his latest project: an applications structure called Ning, which makes the development of social websites like thefacebook.com and match.com more accessible. See TheGlu and Dating for examples of Ning in action."

Web development for dummies

[SteveX]

Looks like a great way for folks who don't know much about the underlying tech to experiment with web apps. Best part of it is you can take any existing application, clone it, and you instantly have the start of a new app that you can customize.

It's cool to hear Andreessen is behind it; this gives it a little more legitimacy than it would otherwise have (ie, less likely to disappear thanks to not having a business model).

The innovation is in new stuff, not in ripoffs of existing sites.. will be interesting to watch whether Ning will really make this possible.

Re:How many social websites are needed?

[CodeShark]

The problem with having only a few sources of information is that us folks are humans, not ants, bees, or any other form of social creature that needs only a minimal amount of information (ant:location->picnic, bees:location->flowers).

The voice of the majority is not the voice of the all, and when our information comes from only a few sources, those sources quickly take on the vanilla flavor of the majority and are also the most easily subverted to what is acceptable to the movers and shakers AKA power-mongering types of folks, while the Internet is inherently free BECAUSE of the number of social websites.

So how many social websites are needed? As many as there are quality "voices" who want to speak, methinks.

The next great business plan?

[marlinSpike]

Looks like he's hit upon the next great business plan for web sites -- getting geeks hitched! No but seriously, social networking probably is going to be a mushrooming web-based industry, but so far, I haven't seen a lot of imagination given to how one can meet and extend one's social network online. The last great revolution in this sphere was Instant Messaging/Text Messaging, which has seriously taken off Europe and Asia (and to a lesser degree in the US). But as far as web sites go, I haven't seen anything that's really revolutionary or that provides something that Orkut, and other social networking or Dating sites don't already give you.

Re:Web development for dummies

[Bad to the Ben]

It's cool to hear Andreessen is behind it; this gives it a little more legitimacy than it would otherwise have (ie, less likely to disappear thanks to not having a business model).

Why? Didn't Netscape mostly disappear? Admittedly, it was more due to Netscape sucking and having their business model conquered by MS free giveaways than not having a business model.

The innovation is in new stuff, not in ripoffs of existing sites.. will be interesting to watch whether Ning will really make this possible.

Don't count on it. The entire point of this "Ning" (stupid name) thing is to make it EASIER for other people to rip off existing social sites and start their own. IMHO and observations, the really innovative sites are developed by people using their own tools, because prepackaged sets like this one tend to limit what they can do to the preconceptions of whoever created the tools. Slashdot with it's "Slashcode" is a good example. Slashdot was innovative, but all the sites based off it aren't really. There are exceptions, of course.

Re:Slashdot dating

[crschmidt]

Create an account. Apply for beta developer status. Click "Clone This" button on dating.ning.com. Type in that title, add a few extra fields ("What programming langugages do you know?" "Who is your ideal BOFH?")

It's that easy.

That's the power of cloning, and the primary force behind Ning.

Want Proof? I just did it: SlashDot Dating [ning.com].

Interesting? Doubt it

[freddej]

The first blog comment on siliconbeat said it all:

"My first reaction, not knowing that this was an Andreesen site, was "gee, these apps are derivative". Come on, Bulldogster? And how many applications do we actually need to tell us about restaurants in Palo Alto?"

Robots vs Aliens vs Pirates vs Ninjas

[Washizu]

I checked it out yesterday and finally got one of theor limited developer accounts. So far it's kind of neat. I was able to clone a "this or that" type app and set it up to answer the age old question:

Which is the coolest? Robots, Aliens, Pirates or Ninjas?

Check it out [ning.com].

Oh dear, oh deeeeear!

[Quiet_Desperation]

I dunno. I get a "danger will robinson" reaction to that thought, and my tail gets all bushy.

We're already so divided and conquered and fractured. Specialized dating sites may cause all the politico/ideologico groups to start exclusively inbreeding until we're just a disconnected sea of tribes that don't even speak the same language.

I'm being silly, but only a little.

Re:Everyone's missing the point

[Erisynne]

Donnacha,

You may be right. Nobody can tell at this point whether or not Ning will succeed, or succeed for long, more importantly. Whether this spark of interest will last, or not. I'm optimistic, but I also recognize that I'm just a teensy bit biased :) That said, I didn't design the system, and there certainly are things I'd do differently. I still think it's an intriguing idea, being run by people who care about it. We'll just have to see.

Doesn't Drupal - Civicspace Ect do this better?

[jsbthree]

I mean excuse me for a second here. I've seen no mention of Drupal. If you are talking about social software and framworks no less why is this better than Drupal? Who is the comunity that is going to develop this along the same lines as Drupal and Civicpace etc?... What am i missing?

Re:Everyone's missing the point

[dav]

Ning is an example of something I've been calling a Blank White Server [akuaku.org]. It taps into the wisdom of crowds to create a sort of uber-application that has many facets but all built upon the same social network, the same tag system, the same capabilities (API/developer produced libs). Some ideas about BWSs:

• You won't have to rebuild your social network when you sign up with a new web app (or your any other aspects of your profile).
• You'll be able to create mashups of your favorite web apps.
• You'll be able to alter/increase/delete the functionality and features of your favorite web apps.
• They tremendously enable the long tail to be served.
• They are almost guaranteed to have the most popular and the most specialized functionality demanded by users.
• Companies that host BWSs will spend far less (almost no) time (and money) developing web apps than traditional Internet companies, yet they are almost guaranteed to be hosting killer websites.
• They are a bit like a functional wiki.
• They are bit like an web operating system.

I see Blank White Servers ultimately being distributed across the Internet and linked peer to peer, hosted by anyone who wants to run one and sharing the common userbase, etc. Ning looks more like the AOL vs Internet model to me, which is ironic. I'm thinking of building one in rails, anyone interested?