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Hyperlocal in the UK

Ning alternatives for community groups – Webs, Socialgo, Grou.ps

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We are working our way through the different DIY social networks to find an alternative to Ning for hyperlocal community activity.  Talk about local helps people find a local voice online as a public service.  We don’t have a magic answer to the Ning problem yet – it may be that Ning’s charging regime is benign for genuine local community groups.  Their recent post is helpful, starting to redress the appalling communications handling of the initial announcement.

Today in talk about local land we had a look at Webs, Socialgo and Grou.ps We used the time honoured scientific method of piling in and having a go to create a network, post some pics, invite each other to join and maybe embed a video with a view to whether we could train basic, cautious web users to set up a network.  It’s not quite a Top Gear road test nor a restaurant review – we welcome comments in case we have mis-understood.

Webs none of us took too.  The interface seems well suited to designing web pages but it the repeated return to a WYSIWYG editing interface was confusing.  Nicky managed to get a social-network looky site first time but it took me three goes.  The biggest problem though was Webs taking an hour or two to send out the invite and confirmation emails – we wouldn’t be able to train with this long a lag for the confirmation loop.  Maybe that was just a glitch today but there wasn’t a notice on the site saying so that we could find.

Socialgo (thanks Nathalie McDermott) was pretty straightforward – Mike and I quickly got something set up that looked just like a ning.  Nicky however had huge problems getting her username and password reset after it snagged and shut her out.   None of us like the rather crass banner ad for some IT kit at the top of the page.  We shall return to this.  The company behind Social Go is based in Wiltshire, UK with financing of $600,000.  The charging increment for widgets is either realistic or steep depending on your point of view. But we shall examine more.

Grou.ps (thanks Paul Webster) was also straightforward – Nicky had something running very quickly.  I had some trouble with the email login and some long lags here and there but that might have been the local internet here.  Mike though didn’t immediately take to the interface – which wasn’t quite a intuitive as socialgo.  Grou.ps has raised some finance but only 10% of Nings and is part based in Turkey.  It has open sourced some of its code.

We shall persevere with these to test their suitability further for hyperlocal groups and we’ll be having a go at some others in the next few days. Any suggestions welcome.

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William Perrin

Founder of Talk About Local, Trustee of the Indigo Trust, Tinder Foundation, 360Giving, co-founder Connect8, former member of UK Government transparency panels, former Policy Advisor to UK Prime Minister, former Cabinet Office senior civil servant.Open data do-er, Kings Cross London blogger. Loves countryside. Two small children.
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  1. This is really helpful, thank you. Several projects I am working with different sorts of communities are involving Ning or they’ve had sights set on using it – as a low level networking tool – and the new charging structure is a pain/unpleasant/not really part of the change the world/non-profit ethos! Thank you again.

  2. Thanks a lot for the websites I found another ning alternative here since Ning became paid listing alternatives should help some people out.

  4. If want you really want is to host local interactivity that leverages third party tools, I encourage you to take a look at how you can mix an e-mail list or Word Press blog with Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

    At E-Democracy.org we host community Issues Forums in four UK communities (8 in the US and 1 in NZ too). Here for example is Oxford Headington and Marston: http://e-democracy.org/hm

    We use the web feed from the online group to also feed Twitter and Facebook. If “news” is at the center of your model, then I’d try WordPress.com not our approach. If community and -inclusion- are at the center, then go with a tool that allows you to sign up people on paper at the local pub: http://blog.e-democracy.org/posts/639

  6. Thanks for this. Lots of people looking for alternatives, and I’d been spreading around links to this post. How’s it going with the persevering? Any other sites under review?

    Have you looked at e-democracy? http://forums.e-democracy.org

    It doesn’t have the flashiness of ning or of the sites you’ve reviewed, but I see high participation rates, and a new mutual-support club for group leaders: http://forums.e-democracy.org/groups/locals

    It’s old school, in the sense that it’s email driven. But I’d noticed that I’ve been responding more to messages that hit my inbox than to those I have to go find.

    I’m inclined to use e-democracy for a new community-building effort we’re launching in West Oakland California, and would appreciate your evaluation.

    Thanks; Leo

    PS: Is there a way to subscribe to replies on your blog (so I get notified by email when people respond)?

  7. There is another alternative launched yesterday in beta at http://www.zonkk.com. Zonkk is an elgg based social network creator that is free to join and has many applications and options. There is also paid upgrades which you can sign up for if you wish.

  8. IF
    your are looking for a tool that shows the community all its members, helps neighbors get to know each other, helps neighbors live more cooperatively, fosters and supports unified online neighborhoods, fosters and facilitates resource sharing, supports the whole community, promotes neighborliness and DOing GOOD
    THEN
    please check out http://www.toolzdo.com/

    ToolzDO brings groups within the same city out of isolation from each other by enabling smaller groups to be part of their larger City groups so you do not miss information that may impact your safety, or opportunities to connect, save money, grow, take action, get involved.

    Your neighbors remains your neighbor no matter what group they belong to with a common profile and single access point. It’s a replica of your real community.

    Also groups gain more exposure within their online community facilitating member growth.

    ToolzDO is for community builders and FREE to serious community builders. We partner with builders to help grow vibrant online communities around the world.

    We do not support ads because we believe in providing a level playing fields. We love fairness, equality, and the good old fashion way of doing business: connection, relationship and quality.

    Sustainability is through a unique revenue model that supports the growth of the entire community which we share with community builders.

    So if you are a community builder with a group or groups, or would love to see your entire city online with a goal of building stronger community AND share the same beliefs express above, let me know. Go to Contact Us on ToolzDO.com (there is also a number there).

    If you are primarily in this space (hyperlocal/neighborhood groups) for the money (don’t really give a squat about your neighbor or community), then ToolzDO is not for you.

    Carline, Founder
    http://www.ToolzDO.com

  9. Hi,

    I tried Grou.ps and I have to say I quite like it. Some things were better than Ning – especially the link sharing module. However, the event module is a bit rubbish. One thing that rang alarm bells – is that it’s seemingly impossible to delete your account, or network, with them once you’ve set it up.

    Now that I’ve seen Nings pricing structure, we’ve decided that it’s actually pretty good value for money – and that it’s worth paying for the reassurance that we won’t have the hassle of having to move everyone to another platform (and then again if it goes bust in a few months/years time!) and at least we get rid of the google ads.

    Drupal Gardens is one that seems to be well worth watching/ playing about with too.

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