Ning vs BuddyPress vs Elgg vs ??? Any thoughts on choosing a community site tool

[Dan Roddy]

Hi everyone

I am proposing to start a community site to support a learner group we help here. I am a member of this site, on Ning, and like it. I am a member of a site that uses BuddyPress (ShareAndLearn) and that's not too bad either.

I'd like to keep the cost down, but at £170 or so a year, Ning as a paid platform is not really that expensive over and above the hosting costs of Linux server space for the open-source alternatives, so the cost argument is almost removed from the equation.

From the experience of users here, is Ning a better user-experience or could we get the same effect from the alternatives? Have I missed one that I should consider? I'm conscious that we are largely IT literate early adopters so our experience of using these things may not chime too closely with my target user group.

Any thoughts from you guys are very welcome.

Dan

[Jane Brotchie]

Hi Dan

I'll be following this discussion with some interest as I am embarking on a similar project. This Ning works  well for me but I think that the reason for that is that it is a really well-managed community and I think this is the key ingredient to success. How many people today have come to this discussion in response to Don's email, for example? So when you cost the project, I think it's important to cost in the time of whoever will be in charge of stewarding the site. In my experience, even the most enthusiastic users will be tempted elsewhere, unless there is a reason to keep coming back and contributing.

[Mark Bradshaw]

Hi Dan.
We have _just_ started using Elgg to do the very same. We have got the first 50 of what could end up as many as 20,000 users on board, not at all scary.

I agree about cost, it all works out quite similar but if this is successful we may well move to host it ourselves internally. That needs exploring as I am oblivious to a realistic TCO for that.

I'll see you at Ignite Bristol tonight so I can bend your ear, probably before you even get to read this!

[Dan Roddy]

@Jane

You are absolutely right in what you say about managing the community. I am really looking to set up a site for a group to perhaps take on themselves, with us keeping an eye on things. Without poking and encouragement it could indeed die away unless there are killer reasons to get people to log in - something that as you say, Don does very well.

 

@Mark

You never mentioned this last night - sorry I was busy. That's a lot of users you have in your sights - I'm not sure that your initial user group might not be about much less than what we might reasonably hope to achieve as an endgame!

 

That in itself hits the crux of the problem - would a community site work with a potentially small user community of volunteers? Could a traditional website meet the needs of the people involved instead? Perhaps with an attached forum board attached for discussion purposes. Heck, I'm even wondering if I couldn't rustle up the basics on our Moodle site - secure login, file sharing, wikis and discussion are all possible there...

[Mark Bradshaw]

You were very busy. Great evening thanks. It has been the catalyst for a lot of conversation already today.

We have all the secure stuff, and we have a fully functioning MLE (SumTotal) but with this new thing we are trying to stay outside the firewall and keep security and faff to a minimum. We want to give people access using personally owned computers and mobile devices so all content is being kept below restricted level.

We are targeting 5 separate organisations of the same type within the SouthWest. We all do the same job for the same type of customers but other than email we have no device for sharing.
We do have a couple of ideas where we will absolutely have a captive audience. New starters will arrive in groups of 20 to 30 and we are going to use the elgg site to gve them a community of learning that will, hopefully, develop into a community of practice! You'll be the first to hear about when it dies a death due to lack of interest...

You were arranging an eLearning social event? Do we socialise? Might have to YouTube that to see what's expected of me.

[sally anderson]

I used Ning when it was a free option and found that the user experience was fine as long as everyone understood the technology and in some dcases that was a bit of a learning curve.