The upcoming Barcamp for UK government webby stuff now has a social network, thanks to Ning!
In many ways, this is a copycat …err… following good practice attempt after the excellent network set up by Tim Davies for the UK Youth Online event back in September. Having a more social environment for people to talk to each other before, during and after the event might help foster connections made and help get things done.
Of course, it isn’t to everyone’s taste and those that prefer email can stick with the Google Group and dedicated wiki-ers can use GovHack or the event wiki if they choose to.
I’m overcoming some of the issues I have had with Ning – a lot of the designs are now cleaner than earlier efforts, they are making a good fist (sorry) at getting rid of the ‘adult’ networks, and it’s easy to pull in content from elsewhere. Also, the simple act of paying a bit to get rid of the ads improves things.
So do swing by http://www.ukgovweb.org/ even if you can’t make it on the day to be a part of the conversations around this great event!
Good work Dave, signing up now. As well as this being dead useful as a hub for all things barcamp, it will be interesting to get a feel for Ning too having not yet used it myself. I wonder, did you consider / have you previously tried alternatives like socialgo?