My first Ning social network

I'm getting caught after a long hiatus on this blog. I was on the road, then seriously ill (with bronchitis), then busy creating my first Ning-based social network.

Ning is Marc Andreessen's next startup, and it's providing everyday folks (read: non-programmers) like me the ability to create social networks for their communities. I've created one for my church. (FBCers who haven't gotten an invitation for our alpha test, register here.)

Sorry, the network is for church members only, but I have this to say about how easy the process was:

• Super easy! It took me about an hour to get a pretty full-featured site for the church up and running -- including features like profile sharing, photo and video sharing, blogging, a calendar with upcoming events, a random Bible verse of the day, and more.
• Powerful customization abilities. Ning allows you to create groups in your social network. In a church context, we often call these groups "ministries" instead of groups. In less than 5 minutes, I made the change from Groups to Ministries throughout the site.

If you've always wanted to host a private-label version of Facebook + Flickr + forums for your affinity group, head on over to Ning and you could be up and running in about an hour.