Jon Dale

Just what the doctor ordered: Why Ning's gutsy move to ditch their free service is actually brilliant

Yesterday, Ning CEO Jason Rosenthal announced to employees a drastic change in direction and sweeping layoffs.  While the mainstream "new" media is saying that Ning's bubble has burst, as a Ning client I'm really excited about this move.  Essentially the core of the announcement (leaked to TechCrunch yesterday) is that Ning will be dropping their free options and focusing 100% of their efforts on premium networks.

Over the last few years my company has helped our clients launch some of the most successful networks on the Ning platform.  However, we've struggled with the tension we knew Ning was living under as it tried to serve paying clients like us and at the same time serve millions of free network creators.  In the early days we could email Ning support and hear back within minutes.  Lately its to the place where getting a response from Ning takes days (and we have "connections").  This had to change.

In yesterday's company wide email, Jason said, "All of our product development capability will be devoted to making paying Network Creators extremely happy."  As an often frustrated "paying Network Creator," this is a breath of fresh air that's much needed.

There's an incredible (and highly profitable) opportunity for Ning to dominate the hosted white label social network space.  However, I believe they can only do this if they're freed up to focus on supporting their premium network creators and giving them the features that they need and have been asking for. 

Like Seth says, "It takes vision and guts to turn someone down and focus on a different segment."  For the last year Ning has been so busy becoming huge (with free networks) that they've been saying "No" to the wrong group (the paid customers).  I'm optimistic that that's about to change.

So, Jason and Marc, I'm proud of you for making an extremely gutsy move and being willing to make really difficult decisions. Thanks for being brave!

And to my friends at Ning who no longer have jobs, I'm really sorry, I know this is a tough time for many of you.  Having worked with you I'm confident that you'll land on your feet. You're amazing people. If you'll drop me a note with your address I'd love to send you copy of Seth Godin's newest book, Linchpin.  I think you'll find it really helpful right now.

Why you should ignore the mainstream "New" media and buy an iPad today

In the interest of full disclosure, I should probably say that while I am writing this post on an iPad (yes, there's an app for that), I don't own any Apple stock. 

A lot of people I really respect have asked lately what the big deal about the iPad is, "It's just a big iPhone" they say. In fact, I think they have it backwards. The iPhone is actually a pocket sized iPad (I've taken to calling mine an iPad Nano). 

The real question is do you want to interact with the world leaning forward at a desk or leaning back into your couch? 

Ironically, the one place the laptop was never really used was on your lap. Let's be honest, it was at best a nomadic desktop. The iPad is used in your lap, in your hand, in bed and yes (thanks to this little guy) in the bath, try doing that with your laptop. 

If you're an iPhone user (which if your reading this blog you probably are) and a business traveller, how often do you really have to pull out your laptop? I pull it out for a couple of reasons, writing (not reading) long emails, giving presentations (although lately thanks to Mighty Meeting I've been using my phone for that) and browsing the internet. 

Well, the ipad provides a great email experience, a superior web browsing experience and has keynote built right in. Plus, my laptop can do so many things that my MacBook Air can't (like get through security without emptying my bag). 

There's been a lot of talk about the iPad's lack of multitasking, but I think that's misleading (I'm not sure if at this point I should point out that I'm listening to the new XX album on my iPad while I write this post). Most situations don't really call for multi-tasking. What they call for is instant on, instant suspend apps, which is exactly what the iPad has (I actually copied and pasted this paragraph from Pages, but more about Pages later). In many ways this is much better than true multitasking because it uses less system resources which makes for a much more pleasant user experience. 

I won't go into a lengthy review, if you're looking for that there's a great list here. I'm going to leave you with a few highlights and encourage you to get your hands on one as soon as you can. 

What I love about my iPad: 

1. It just makes sense (browse the web on it for five minutes and you'll never go back). 
2. It's genuinely mobile in a way the laptop never was. 
3. With the ingenuity of developers there's no limit to what it'll do. 
4. The games are amazing. The big screen makes all the difference. My favorites, Sandstorm HD and Asphalt 5 HD. 
5. My kids get it right away. Even our three year old knows how to use it (thanks to hours on the iphone in the last year). 
6. Pages (only $9.99 in the app store) may be the best document creation tool ever. 
7. Magazines are amazing on the iPad. Finally a way for me to avoid destroying them in the bath.

What could be better: 

1. At 1.5 lbs its a little heavy (did I really just say that?). 
2. A built in camera (front and back) would be really nice. 
3. In really bright light there's some screen glare and you see all the fingerprints 
4. I keep trying to use my laptop screen as a touchscreen now. It just feels like it should be, I hold my iPad responsible for that. 
5. I've not figured out the keyboard shortcuts with an external keyboard yet (help please) and why can't I use whatever the opposite of delete is by clicking Apple+Delete.