AP — Feb 28 — The Netscape Communications co-founder is trying to help Web surfers build online communities outside the walls of social networking leaders MySpace.com and Facebook.com. Ning.com is finally ready to make its big push with a free toolkit designed to make it easy to launch a social network with videos, photos, music, forums, personal profiles and blogs. Andreessen is convinced people dislike the big social networks' one-size-fits-all approach. "This is the next logical step (for social networks)," said Andreessen, 35, who is Ning's CTO and primary financier. Ning hopes to make money through advertising and fees for premium services.
Mark Brooks: Joe Suh's MyChurch.org helps churches set up their own social networks and Clarence Wootton's Collectivex.com also allows people to set up their own social networks for free or a small fee. The growth of social networks was fueled by 'connectors' with their extensive networks of friends. Some of those connectors will be growing a little bored with MySpace by now. It's last years night club. They want their own nightclub. So, Ning.com, MyChurch.org and CollectiveX should have a healthy future. They won't put MySpace out of business, however.
