Thing #19 - Ning

Ning is a really cool tool that allows you to set up your own customized social networking site. It includes a search feature so you can see if there is already one similar to yours and just join it instead of making your own. I played with this a bit and found lots of sites with only one or two members, which was disappointing. Also, since they are so easy to create it seems like there are lots that haven't been updated in a while. I did see people from multiple countries interacting with each other and discussing books. There is a listing of popular networks and a directory of tags to help get you started. I can see that a library might use this for staff to communicate with each other about their interests or for customers in a book discussion group.