Thing #22 - What is in a name?

As you all probably could have predicted, I wasn't much of a math student throughout my early years. That side of my brain didn't really kick in until later in life... No, I was born a right-brainer: words, language, reading, writing, and expression were more to my liking.

Math, not so much. I can't explain what it was that eluded my comprehension, but I always felt lost. As early as 3rd grade and long division I remember having difficulty with math. I don't know why - My mother and father - they were math people. They got it. I can remember my mother looking at a division problem and saying, "Oh, 499 divided by 19? That's easy! Just round 499 up to 500 and 19 up to 20, and you know that the answer is one more than 25." I thought she was speaking another language. I could only solve the problem one way, and poorly at that.

So, my career as a mathematics student was spent trying to achieve invisibility, praying that I wouldn't be called on and thereby expose my ignorance. I never, never, asked a question. Never. I feared that one question would reveal the depth of my ineptitude, that my teachers would look at me and think (or far worse, proclaim aloud to the whole math lovin' world) "That child is as dumb as a stump! We need to send her back to elementary school and start all over again!" And as teachers, haven't we all felt this way? We know, despite platitudes that suggest otherwise, there really are some dumb questions. Well, I wasn't going to be the one to ask the dumb questions then, and I hesitate to do so now.

Oh, so you are realizing I have a potentially stupid question? I'll bet a number of you all do, as well. I find myself thinking that some of these "things" are awfully similar. Blogs, wikis and nings? Aren't they all pretty much the same?

I have to stop and apologize to our kickball captains right now. Can't you hear them? "Good Grief! Didn't she read the information? Didn't she follow the links? Send her back to Thing#1 and make her start all over again!"

Hoping to avoid the scenario described above, I read everything on the learn2play pages about the three networks. And here's what I found... the answer to my own question! Yes, Virginia, they are very similar! All are social networking sites, and all hope to capitalize on the idea of exponential growth. Anyone can create a blog, wiki, or ning, invite a few friends to join, and watch it grow as users continue to spread the word. Once the group gets large enough and loses some of its focus, sub-groups, splinter groups, sects, and special interest groups can split off and form their own social networks. (This ,by the way, is exactly what the creators hope for... More users equal more money!)

For example, what once started as a group of ten friends in the Houston/Galveston area interested in baking could easily grow into a group of 1000 people from all over the country sharing recipes, tips, etc. And little subgroups could form and break off- a cupcake coalition, a pat-in-the-pan party, another for fondant aficionados, a sarcher torte sect, cobbler, slump, and grunt groups - just imagine all of the possibilities.

Ok, so wikis, blogs, and nings are social networks, but what differentiates each? Well, at this point I can only speak to nings, but here is what I figured out. (Oh, I have attached my sources below...)

Nings (Chinese for peace, apparently...) seem to have three advantages the other social networking options don't: one, the groups of users are more focused around a central subject - let's say the work of the new poet laureate Kay Ryan. Users might share her poetry, offer analysis and insights, report on sightings and book signings, etc. There would be no reason for a fly-fishing expert or professional card stacker to intrude and leave some random remark or post an off-color limerick.

Another reported advantage is that the conversations are reportedly easier to follow than the strings on wikis and blogs. You know how you often have to work backwards through blog entries to find the original topic? Apparently nings resolve this dilemma by posting the original topic first and subsequent discussions follow chronologically.

A third feature that might be of some interest is discretion. Nings seem to offer a little more privacy than other sites - an advantage over purely social sites like myspace and facebook. As a teacher, this offers a definite advantage: there is something creepy about too much familiarity with your students. I remember as a twenty-year-old student teacher, a young man asked me "If I see you at a club, will you dance with me?" And thus began my career as a hermit... Seriously, there are some parts of a teacher's life that should remain private, don't you think? (Like her midriff, and hence my argument against low-rise jeans!)

And students need their privacy, too. Of course, we know that the high degree of disclosure encouraged by myspace and facebook users offer little protection, but that is another argument altogether... Anyway,with nings we don't have to worry about bumping into each other in cyberspace. (Unless, say, we share a passion for rapper Fiddy Cents.)

Nings are more exclusive than other social networks, even to the extent of invitation only sites. So, if you wanted a place to organize your upcoming family vacation, and you didn't want the whole world to have access to the details, a invitation-only ning would be perfect for you!

Focus, ease in following discussions, and privacy - these are just a few of the qualities that separate nings from the other networks out there. There are probably a myriad of other features and subtleties that I missed, but I am satisfied with my answer for now. Calculus might scare me, but nings don't!

Sources:

http://whatsit06.blogspot.com/2008/01/as-i-see-it-in-nutshell.html

http://www.shore.com/commentary/weblogs/2007/03/nings-bling-ningcom-enables-private.html

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/125/nings-infinite-ambition.html

http://education.ning.com/forum/topic/show?id=1027485%3ATopic%3A28948&x=1&page=1