Ning vs. Drupal

DrWahoo,

Ning is hosted, and proprietary- no way to get a backup of the back-end. If Ning goes out of business or is purchased by another company one could loose all their work and community.

Go with Ning and the success of your company depends on Ning in addition to what you do (what the owners of Ning plan for their company is a huge unknown -- what if e-bay offers them a billion dollars?).

Ning may be best for your client if Ning fully fits their anticipated needs, AND they are willing to fully trust their company or project to the unknown agenda and plans of the owners of Ning.

Drupal, on the other hand is open source and can run on just about any LAMP server; so one is not dependent on just one company or developer with proprietary code. Drupal can be mirrored, backed up, and if the developer quits there are many other Drupal developers who may be able to pick up the pieces in short order.

Best regards,

(c) Daryl Oster 2008-9 all rights reserved

You hereby agree that if Your Content is removed from any Social Network due to a violation of these Terms, including in response to any valid DMCA (as defined below) take down notice or because such Content contains illegal images, Ning shall have the right to use, reproduce and exploit Your Content in any manner without restriction, including in response to any subpoena or other judicial or administrative order, to assist government enforcement agencies or otherwise required by law and to protect the rights, property or safety of Ning, any individual, or the general public.

Source: http://about.ning.com/tos.php#3

I grew up with internet since 1998, when I was just a young punk at UVA downloading on Napster, LOl. After completing my matriculation in Virginia Tech's Instructional Technology Master's Program, I gained the understanding that computer skills are largely irrelevant if the theories and principles behind their utilization, fail to help the user meet the company's objective. I believe that computer skills will come and go, but the proper management of them is vital to moving a company towards its overall goal and vision. I will actually be featured in a text book called "Technology Integration For Meaningful Classroom Use". What I liked about Drupal in comparison to other open source community is the organization by industry. This is VERY helpful. I hope as my company becomes successful I can contribute and donate funds to the project. My overall goal is help developing countries use Drupal to restructure their education system. As a graduate of Mr. Jefferson's University, I know that education is paramount to creating a stable democracy. An educated civil society can make better choices. My people perish for a lack of knowledge on such things as the universal principles of unconditional love and servant leadership.

I was a subcontractor on this awesome Flash module on business ethics for a multinational company called AES http://www.edgedigitalgroup.com/csSample-AES.html#.
Some very intelligent woman in the organization saw what was going on with Enron and developed a solution. I have an undergrad degree in History and Minor in Forgien Affairs, so I have learned alot about vulture states and technocrats. Developing countries like Nigeria kill or run off the intellectual elite. The African Brain Drain happens because the former colonial system of education was designed to execute authoritarian values. This is from the book Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paolo Friere
It never taught people about intelligent discourse or things about civil liberties.

Poor Kwame Nkurmah after leaving Lincoln University went back to Ghana and had to deal with folks who knew nothing else but violence to settle arguments and disputes. People look at AFrican countries and wonder why they can't get themselves together. Uhhm did they never learn about Shay's Rebellion or Articles of Confederation or perhaps the War between the STates. America has its own tribal history. The famous Unite or die by Benjamin Franklin that was about the individualism of the 13 original colonies. Most Sub-Saharan African sovereign nations are under 60 years old. It took America 400 yrs to build a stable democracy and we are still not there yet. We have vast inequalites, but we are leaders of the free world because we are built on liberty, justice for all.

How did America overcome these challenges: PUBLIC EDUCATION. Drupal plus wireless technology is key to providing this to Developing countries.

down the road with ning, they should look at what people who have long-standing yahoogroups are dealing with.

Yahoo can and does delete groups with no warning or explanation. They haven't updated the service the way one would hope, and the search function is now useless. They've added new functions to their community that affect the privacy of groups, and they've done it with very little communication with listowners.

Having seen what happens when the creators of content have no control, drupal is certainly worth the effort and the limited expense of paying for your own hosting.

Ellen
HomeschoolRecess.com