Mark Greenfield

The uwebd social site hit another milestone today with the addition of the 700th member. Activity on the site continues to grow at a steady rate. There are now 36 groups, 18 videos, and 256 discussions in the main forum. Over the past month, we’ve had 4,608 visits, 19,953 page views, and visits from 80 countries

Ning has been in the news recently as well. The EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI) recently highlighted Ning in the “7 Things You Should Know About…” series These briefs focus on a single technology and describes what it is, where it is going, and why it matters to teaching and learning. (see 7 things you should know about Ning)

The cover story for the May 2008 issue Fast Company magazine is Ning’s Infinite Ambition. The article focuses on Ning’s business model and provides a nice overview of the history of the company. IMHO, Ning will be a major player on the web. Niche social networks are the future and Ning is a great platform to allow people to connect and coolaborate.

Yesterday marked a major milestone for the uwebd social network when we reached 500 members. Activity on the site continues to grow. I set up Google analytics back in late December and here are some statistics as we approach 3 months of activity:

• 2,238 unique visitors
• 8,300 visits
• 43,581 page views
• visits from 63 countries

For me, the site has been very beneficial. I have received excellent feedback on a number of questions and ideas. More importantly, I’ve met many new people involved with higher ed web development and these relationships will prove valuable down the road.

I look forward to the continued growth and evolution of this site. From my travels, I know first hand the collective intelligence of the higher ed web community. I’m excited about the possibilities of this site which has the potential to allow higher ed web professionals to connect and collaborate in new and exciting ways. I encourage everyone involved with higher ed websites to not only join, but to participate as well. Again, the site is located at cuwebd.ning.com.

Previously I posted about the 90:9:1 rule which states that must users of online social networks lurk rather than participate. I decide to analyze the activity on the new uwebd social network on Ning to see if this applicable.

I did the research when the site was one month old and had 249 members. There were two very active members, 37 members who had some activity (at least one post/comment) , and 210 members who had not been active since joining; resulting in a 81:18:1 ratio. If you changed the definition of “some activity” to be two or more posts or comments, the ratio changed to 91:8:1. (Note that this does not include anyone visiting the site who are not members. Based on data from Google analytics, this number is very small.)

Some other quick numbers:

• 60% of members have added a profile picture
• 18% of members have customized their profile page

As of this morning, there are 337 members, 19 groups, and 87 general forum topics. I encourage everyone involved with higher ed websites to not only join, but to participate as well. Again, the site is located at cuwebd.ning.com.

The Pareto Principle states, 80% of the results flow from 20% of the activities. In 2006, Jakob Nielsen wrote “Participation Inequality: Encouraging More Users to Contribute”. When studying user behavior in online social networks, most users lurk rather than participate. They follow what’s become known as the 90:9:1 rule:

• 90% of users are lurkers (i.e. read or observe, but don’t contribute
• 9% of users contribute from time to time, but other priorities dominate their time
• 1% of users participate a lot and account for most contributions

With the launch of the new uwebd social network, I was curious if the 90:9:1 rule would apply. The site has been live for about one month and participation is definitely following this rule. Given the target audience for the site I thought participation might be higher, but that hasn’t been the case.

I plan to revisit this topic in a few months. I expect membership on the site to grow substantially and people should be more familiar with the features and functionality of the site. We’ll see if we have a greater percentage of people participating.

Over the past three weeks I’ve been involved with the launch of a new social network targeted at higher education web professionals. The uwebd (University Web Developers) mailing list has been around for 10 years and has always been an excellent source of information. Recently a discussion was started on the list about whether uwebd should become a Google Group. I advocated for taking it a step further by creating a uwebd social network. On December 13, we created a site on Ning as a companion to the list. The new site can be found at cuwebd.ning.com. As of today ,there are 217 members, numerous groups, several videos, and many discussions in the forum.

For me, this is the next logical step in the evolution of uwebd. While a mailing list is good for information exchange, a niche social network takes this to a whole new level. With features including user profiles, discussion forums, groups, friends, numerous RSS options, search, tagging, blogs, and integrated rich media, a niche social network is an ideal platform to create a community around a shared interest.

Ning

Ning.com is an online platform that allows users to create their own niche social networks. One of the co-founders is Marc Andreessen from Mosiac and Netscape fame. Technical skills are not required and it has a long list of features and functionality. Ning also supports the OpenSocial API.

Ning has two primary business models. The first allows you to create a network for free in exchange for the network hosting ads that Ning supplies. The other, known as Ning for Business, has monthly fees which provides premium services including control over ad content, extra storage and bandwidth, and use of your own domain name. I have created many niche social network sites using Ning and have always been impressed.

Cluetrain

Many people dismiss social networks as the latest buzzword and/or Internet fad. This is a mistake. The Cluetrain Manifesto was written in 1999 and I still consider the message very timely, especially the value of the social Web. Here’s a quote from the preface:

The Web is not a new medium or a new place to shop or a new way to make a fast million, but instead is a global set of conversations - people talking together, in their own voices, about what they care about.

And another from the introduction:

What if the real attraction of the Internet is not its cutting-edge bells and whistles, its jazzy interface or any of the advanced technology that underlies its pipes and wires. What if, instead, the attraction is an atavistic throwback to the prehistoric human fascination with telling tales. … Millions have flocked to the Net in an incredibly short time, not because it was user friendly - it wasn’t - but because it seemed to offer some intangible quality missing in action from modern life. … The Internet connected people to each other and provided a space in which the human voice would be rapidly rediscovered.

Alan Moore, co-author of the seminal book Communities Dominate Brands, sums it up by saying that human beings are highly social animals and have an innate need to connect, communicate and interact. This is the heart and soul of the Web, what it does best, and why social networks are here to stay.

Metcalfe’s Law

Metcalfe’s Law states that the value of a communications network grows exponentially as the number of users grows. As networks get larger, they also get smarter. The Cluetrain Corollary states that the level of knowledge on a network increases as the square of the number of users times the volume of conversation. Not only do you need members of a network, you need participation.

The challenge for the new uwebd site will be getting enough participation to hit critical mass. Many sites on Ning have been abandoned due to a limited number of members and the resulting lack of participation. For the site to ultimately be of value, membership will need to continue to grow as well as participation.

Wisdom of Crowds

From my travels, I know first hand the collective intelligence of the higher ed web community. I’m exciting about the possibilities of the new site which has the potential to allow higher ed web professionals to connect and collaborate in new and exciting ways.

I encourage everyone involved with higher ed websites to not only join, but to participate as well. Again, the site is located at cuwebd.ning.com. You can visit my page on the site at cuwebd.ning.com/profile/Mark. Your feedback on the site is welcome.