Ning network switching to a fee-based system

[Matthew Shapiro]

Hello MPF Network Members:

As of July 20, Ning (the service that has hosted this group and every other for free) is going to start charging a monthly fee. If we want to stay here, and not go through the disturbance of finding a new site and migrating all of the members, the options range from the minimum of $2.95 a month to a better package at $19.95 a month. We would simply go with the lowest program, which would serve our needs, but it only allows 150 members. Our network has more members than that, with more likely to come.

Please contribute your thoughts on what we should do. Below is a link to the pricing plans.

http://about.ning.com/announcement/plans.php

Regards,

Matthew Shapiro
MPF Network "Coordinator"

[Pauline Graham]

Dear Matthew
I am happy to agree with the general consensus, as I have no specific view on the matter.

Could you please let me have yur own email address. I asked Emmanuel and he gave me [e-mail]. Is this correct?

Regards
Pauline

[Matthew Shapiro]

Yes, Pauline - that email address will work. And I still haven't read your paper on systems :-( !

M.

Pauline Graham said:

Dear Matthew
I am happy to agree with the general consensus, as I have no specific view on the matter.

Could you please let me have yur own email address. I asked Emmanuel and he gave me [e-mail]. Is this correct?

Regards
Pauline

[Ian Glendinning]

Hi Matthew, send a reply to the private message .... happy to repeat the gist here.

Basically, yes I would support paying a share of the fee (rather than re-build elsewhere) and I believe there would be enough of us prepared to do that to cover the relatively small costs you need on a voluntary donation basis. (I don't believe we need the admin of paid membership etc ...)

Important that you actively email the membership I believe, not just passively post the question on the site.

[Regina Mullen]

Hello!

Without Albie's leadership and generous introduction, my world would've been vastly different, so I'm offering to co-sponsor year one, and if one other person joins me, we can be good for a while. Ning may not be the best tool for the job, but that would buy the group time to figure things out.

It will come through ALASSN (the "Agile Lawyers Association," which was finally incorporated last week), so I'll be in touch around that.

I came to the work of MPF through mediation, but I quickly found that her impact went well beyond that into the core of organizational behavior. Certainly there's plenty of scholarship around her to begin to surface the impact on the Agile/Lean movements, so what I would personally like to see is an open space conference hosted by...eh...Harvard.

Don't know about you guys, but I'm getting really tired of "seminars" where there's no sharing or collaboration around creating new directions and connections. Outside of maybe a daily short keynote, I'd rather have experts use their internal dialogue and knowledge to facilitate conversation.

A smallish event that would give us a chance to build a greater sense of community around her work and expand the core of people who recognize their present dependence upon her brilliant insights is definitely in order!

[Darryl E. Cloud]

I will be more than happy to contribute/share in the delivery and continuation of this networking opportunity.

Kindest Regards to all,

Darryl E. Cloud

[Peter Spence]

Hello Matthew,

I too am happy to go with the consensus - with membership contribution the cost would be negligible for all involved - the benefits of sharing great. Any thoughts of a future conference/group meeting and perhaps bundling the cost into this as say an annual event?

Kind Regards
Peter

[Rosa Zubizarreta]

Hi Matthew,

I got your e-mail about this.

1) Yes, I am happy to contribute to this, and I think it makes sense to keep it here. I also think the "better package" makes sense. If you were to ask people for a $10 yearly membership fee, that should be plenty to cover it, and it would be a very reasonable amount. (We'd really only need 20 people signing up to cover the fee... and, maybe there are other ways we may want to invest any additional funds?)

2) One concern I have about Ning... once someone has contributed to a conversation, it will send you an e-mail update if anyone else contributes. This is very helpful. However, if new conversations are started, we don't get anything in our in-box, under the present system...

I think it would be VERY helpful, with regard to increasing traffic, if there were a way to have a monthly e-mail sent from the Ning group, with a brief summary of each of the conversations that are currently active, and a link to each. I think it would go a LONG way toward increasing traffic onto the site...

I know that I often don't have time to "browse the web", but will respond to an e-mail with a hot-link embedded in it. The way the system is currently set up, there might be a great conversation happening on the Ning, but unless i have ALREADY contributed to it, I won't hear about it...

OK that's my two cents for now...
thanks again for all that you do!

all best wishes,

Rosa

[Albie M. Davis]

Dear Matthew and Forum members:

Count me in for continuing with NING for the year ahead and contributing to a fund to pay for the $199.99 yearly package with unlimited membership, which will allow us to grow AND share ideas about how to improve the network. I very much like Rosa Zubizarreta's suggestions on some hopefully simple ways to keep network members aware of entries of interest to them.

Albie Davis (Thomaston, Maine, USA)

[GROUTEL]

Hello from Normandy,

It will be an honour to contribute.

Emmanuel

[GROUTEL]

Dear All,

To be pragmatic, what shall we do ?

As said before I am open to contribute...it is the less I can do.

Matt. thks for the news.

Emmanuel

[Matthew Shapiro]

Several members have stepped forth to contribute to the $200 annual fee for the network. One member has volunteered to pay the full year up front, and we need to find a way to send the individual contributions to her to lighten the load. I will contact the contributors and we will get an address, etc. to facilitate that sharing. Thank you for your support!

Regards,
Matthew

[Matthew Shapiro]

We'll be paying for the network on a monthly basis. I will contact those individuals who've offered to contribute individually to help cover subsequent costs. Thanks much!

Matthew