I’ve been re-introduced to some social networking tools this past few weeks. I was thinking I’d build a custom Joomla website for the Patagonia Tools for Grassroots Organizer’s Conference I’ll be attending at the end of the month, and then had the idea that I was really missing an opportunity to do something better — and easier.

Instead of a Joomla site, I’ll be using Ning.

Ning is a social networking site, and it’s free. What’s a social networking site you may ask? Basically it’s a web site that has tools allowing people to connect online across shared interests, activities and backgrounds. Think MySpace, or Facebook, etc.

With Ning, I can make a private, invitation only network (which seems very anti-social as I write this) so that anyone who has attended a Tools Conference can continue a dialog and shared association after (and perhaps before) the conference. Keeping people connected - that’s the idea. A social networking site will gain value with everyone’s voice. Adding comments, posting resources in the forums, writing a blog about successes or failures faced - sharing information.

By working together, we can all do much more. That’s the take away from using a social network.

Ning is cool because not only is it free, it’s really easy to customize. Making a new look and feel for the Patagonia Tools site was simple - and fast. A forum, a blog tool, the ability to bring in RSS feeds, announcements, posting of files… all native to Ning. Did I say it was free?

Another worthwhile, at least interesting to me that is, social network is LinkedIn. I’ve been a member of LinkedIn for many years. Here’s my profile: Drew Story.