The announcement from Ning CEO Jason Rosenthal that they will soon be phasing out their free service comes as both a surprise and a source of discomfort for community managers who invested their time and effort into a Ning network.  These managers will soon have to decide to whether to become homeless or start paying a mortgage for a new home.  The question is how low can that mortgage be to replace the functionality that Ning provided?

The internet can always provide options and we’re already seeing communities stepping forward to fill the void.

BuddyPress Steps Up

The Wordpress based “social-network in a box” product BuddyPress seems to be leading the charge.  Just a day after the announcment, Boone B. Gorges released a Ning to BuddyPress Import plugin that will migrate display names, usernames, and email address.  John Jacoby runs the new Ning to BuddyPress blog to provide resources and assist community managers with their transition.

Matt Mulenweg has jumped into the conversation as well suggesting that Ning users should not necessarily seek to replace it with another freemium service.  He states “…if a company with $120,000,000 in funding can’t figure that business out, I wouldn’t hitch my horse to a company with $5-6M.”

So I Want a New Home…How Much Will My Mortgage Be?

While the new Ning pricing structure has yet to be released we do know what their current premium plans run.  Ning’s premium offerings include express access to customer support starting at $10 per month, removal of Ning links at the bottom of pages at $25 per month, custom URLs at $5 per month, an ad-free interface at $25 per month and extra bandwidth and storage at $10 per month.

A BuddyPress implementation has the disadvantage of not being free.  Payment comes not for the software but for the host service that is required to run the software and serve the domain.  Even then there are plenty of options with lower costs than what Ning asks for.  This blog is hosted by HostMonster.com which currently charges $5.95 for an annual contract which includes domain registration.

There is also the costs of initial setup and maintenance of the community network.  Depending on the customization required, community managers may need to hire BuddyPress consultants to assist in setting up the site.  Once setup the BuddyPress interface is easy to use and intuitive so maintenance costs should be low or unnecessary.

Functionality – BuddyPress vs Ning

Ning’s product list includes what you would expect in a community site including member blogs, chat, RSS feeds, groups, discussion forums, photo and video support, and community management/moderation functionality.  They provide 50 unique themes along with the ability for unique branding through the use of custom CSS.

BuddyPress is a set of plug-ins designed to work together on a Wordpress MU installation.  They include Extended Profiles, Instant Messaging, Friends, Groups, Blog Tracking, and Forums.  There are currently 141+ BuddyPress specific plug-ins in addition to the vast collection available in Wordpress.  A quick search of the Wordpress Theme database on the keyword BuddyPress returns 8 themes though there are many more available on the web both free and premium.

Where’s Drupal?

On a side note, I have to wonder where is the other obvious transition choice, Drupal?  As of this writing I cannot find any postings concerning Drupal’s advantages specific to Ning’s soon to be homeless.  Dries Buytaert’s blog has been quiet on the subject along with the Acquia, Drupal.org and Drupal Gardens sites.  Maybe we’ll see something from them this week during the DrupalCon in SF.  Its only my opinion but I would guess that Dries and Acquia are more concerned with their more enterprise efforts, such as the recent launch of WhiteHouse.gov on Drupal.  While I am happy to see open-source sponsors like Acquia provide better enterprise solutions such as in the areas of security and database management I hope that the little guys do not get forgotten.

Resources

If you are considering a transition from Ning or want to create a new community network in BuddyPress contact me.  With over three years of Wordpress experience mostly in the photoblogging domain I am available to assist you in your decision to migrate and the transition itself.  If I cannot provide you the answers you need I can definitely point you in the right direction.

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Last night I had the pleasure of emceeing a tech forum where Jeff Whatcott, VP of Marketing at Acquia, Inc. gave a very informative presentation of his views on overall trends in the content management
market, specifically in Drupal as a social publishing system and how his company is forging the future for Drupal into commercial marketplaces.  His presentation can be found here.

From Jeff’s Twitter feed:

Completed a webcast to a Drupal meetup in virginia. Seemed to go well. Good questions.

Frank Febrarro of Phase2 Technology then demonstrated a module they have recently released for Calais.  The Calais web service allows you to automatically annotate your
content with rich semantic metadata, including Entities like People and
Companies and Events & Facts like Acquisitions and Management
Changes.  Phase 2 has integrated this service as a module for Drupal 5 and 6.  You can watch a short screencast Frank recorded to demo main features of the module.

Toward the end we as a group decided to keep this meeting rolling as the Drupal Northern Virginia Users Group.  We are targeting the second Tuesday of the month.  This forum will be very much dependent on audience participation for suggestions of topics and also utilizing a rotating emcee.  If you’re interested in Drupal we would love to have you join us.

I’d like to thank Teqcorner
for providing the space for us along with Andy Forbes and Arman Anwar
of WorthPoint for their invaluable assistance in coordinating this
event.

For more information on future meetings, to suggest topics, volunteer to host or make a presentation please contact me at marc.benton@worthpoint.com.

Here are some pictures from last night’s event:

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