There are a ton of these companies cropping up. TechCrunch has a great review from Aug 2007 and a more focused review from July 2007. Some of these are also reviewed below. But to get the most up to date listing, follow this Google Search link. For business and keeping personally organized, I prefer 37Signals' Backpack.
http://pluck.com/ & KickApps.com
Bolt on social media features to your Web site.
appleseedproject.org: Appleseed is social networking software, (ie: Friendster, only distributed). Sites running Appleseed will interoperate, and form the ‘Appleseed Social Network.’ Appleseed is an open source social networking software, like MySpace, or Friendster. Except, Appleseed is interoperable, which means that one site running Appleseed can interoperate with another site running Appleseed. It's as if you were on MySpace, but you were able to interact with people on Friendster as if you both were on the same site.
AroundMe: is a free software solution for anyone wishing to create a collaborative web space. You can make your own web site, design it, add web pages and drop in tools such as a wiki, blog and forum wherever you want and invite your friends. You can also run a service (like MySpace or Ning) hosting your friends web sites.
collectivex.com: CollectiveX is a simple tool that enables you to quickly and easily set up a private website for sharing and networking within your group.” Features: Unlimited Users, Social Networking, Shared Calendar, Discussion Forum, File Cabinet.
Deme: Deme allows groups of people to discuss, brainstorm, collaborate, and make decisions together, at their own convenience, via the World-Wide Web. Groupspace.org is a host server for Deme, and is currently offered on a prototype, as-is basis for groups to use free of charge. Features: document-centered discussion, collaborative authoring, polling and integrating email with message boards, petition signing, survey design, event scheduling. David Taylor comments: “the most confusing software i have ever seen in my life.”
elgg.org: Elgg is an open source platform designed to easily connect and share resources. Elgg allows users to create their own social network and host it on your own infrastructure, modifying the features to fit your needs. How it works: Users establish digital identities and connect with other people, discovering new resources through their connections. Plugins allow users on different social networks to collaborate, and provide specific functionality for tasks like project management, mobile browsing and collaboration through user-controlled wikis. Users have the freedom to incorporate all their favorite tools within one environment and showcase their content with as many or as few people as they choose, all within a social networking site that you control.
hivelive.com: Web-based platform created to simplify the way groups, individuals, and co-workers collaborate, communicate, and share information. Functinality: (a) Build a vibrant self-supporting community around your company, your products, and your customers (b) Create a common body of shared knowledge and help others get up to speed quickly (c) Empower workgroups to self-organize and easily share information (d) Keep track of what everyone knows all in one place (e) Control who sees what without the need for complicated file servers or help from IT.
Ning.com is the big player in the space. A project of Marc Andreessen, of Netscape fame and an all around brilliant guy. I've been underwhelmed by Ning though - it's too confusing - tries to do too much - and makes for a very difficult user experience.
Organic Groups: Drupal is a open source social networking application. Drupal prides itself on allowing users to create flexible powerful sites. The software started out as a means for a group of friends to keep in touch and then turned into a personal experimentation environment in which members exchanged ideas about various web technologies and how they could be integrated into the Drupal community.
We.Riseup: https://we.riseup.net/ - has lots of interesting tools.
Hi Ben,
If I may, I disagree with the comment you make about the user experience @ Ning.
Since 2007, I have developed two social networks on Ning (one in English and one in Spanish) with users of varied technical competency (mostly non-technical) and the results I have seen have been amazing.
Also, as a network creator, I have found the platform to be very easy to set up and manage.
Last, the best part I have found is the pricing.
I invite you to check out Ning again: maybe you tried it out too early but even in the beginning I would say I found it to be very easy to use.
Posted by: Manny Hernandez | October 01, 2008 at 05:42 PM