[Imc-alternatives] transition towns social network

[Dave Fregon]

On Tue, 2008-10-21 at 17:27 -0400, Jonathan Lehman wrote:
> So, I just joined the US transition towns social network, it's got
> tons of awesome features!  Like the ability to upload and tag media,
> creation of local events, blogs, creation of social clusters / groups,
> chat, discussion threads, messaging, rss feeds, addition of
> specialized third-party developed apps (I don't know if their platform
> is open or not), etc.
> 
> Check it out here:
> http://transitionus.ning.com/
> 
> Friend me if you join!
> http://transitionus.ning.com/profile/bikesnotbombs
> 
> It's all based on the ning.com technology ... where anyone can create
> a social network.  I'm not sure what software they're using, but I'm
> imagining the alternatives site to function in a very similar way, yet
> with more diversity (maybe more like a network of networks).  I think
> that without a high level of social functionality we're not gonna see
> a lot of relevant content creation or information sharing going on.
> 
> Ning seems very similar to Crabgrass in some ways, but it's much more
> developed and user friendly at this point.
> 
> I really like transitionus.ning.com because it has the capability to
> deliver localized, relevant content to user's through a dashboard or
> main page.  However, the issue with this design is that it is
> targeting folks with only *one* type of content, whereas with the
> alternatives IMC we are talking about having numerous topical issues.
> So it would be cool if on the altIMC a user's main page could be
> custom tailored based on what types of information that want to
> receive, e.g. information on *one* specific topic, or an info mashup
> like videos, discussion threads, and blog posts about law & security
> *and* permaculture.  Or whatever.
> 
> Anyway, not wanting to shift our conversation to more theoretical
> design blah blah blah.  I'm just excited about the capabilities of
> Ning and wanted to share.

Yes Ning is great in features .. your right about looking at the
processes, as with any social networking service.

But I have to mention ..the problem with Ning is it's a corporation,
just like facebook, where the commons have no ability to participate,
other than in producing profit. You can't control advertising for
instance, nor decisions on how things are run, nor where the monies
generated go.

There are a number of efforts underway for similar services, but still
early days yet, check out http://elgg.org which I have mentioned
previously.

I personally think we look for solutions where information that is
personal, and identifiable, is able to be hosted and protected on
services that have transparency in the collective approach to hosting,
and where the users data can be protected and IP's etc scrubbed (for
example on a secure encrypted partition on the server that can be
destroyed if needed, as we have on borg.axxs.org (thanks to 'boud'))

from the Ning terms of service, which are basically like Youtubes :

"You hereby grant Ning, during the course of your usage of the Ning
Platform, a nonexclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, perpetual,
irrevocable, sublicenseable and transferable right and license to (i)
use, reproduce, create derivative works of, distribute, publicly perform
and publicly display Your Content (a) for the sole purpose of operating
and making Your Content available on the Ning Platform and in all
current and future media in which the Ning Platform may now or hereafter
be distributed or transmitted"

The license allows it to use your content pretty much for
whatever purpose it wants to in perpetuity. It is based on a 'closed
source' or proprietary software platform, and it's advertising revenue
goes only to its shareholders, not to the people who created the
content.

For an 'alternatives' site, we should really be looking at alternatives
to corporate centralisation of the 'commons' for profit, and backing and
using solutions that are open source, even if they are not up to the
standard the closed source solutions are. Time and support fixes that
problem.

Saying that, your talking about the features, and yes I agree with the
process of social networks to date, I think most can be found in Elgg,
tho it is young, and have a test site up of it atm (tho not open to
public as concerns over security with the 'young' platform)

-- 
Dave Fregon

NetAxxs Workers Collective
Ph:  +613 5721 7777
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Wangaratta 3677
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