Over the weekend, my Ning account got upgraded to beta developer status.  I’m pretty excited.

Ning is basically a Web site that allows you to build social applications. The best feature, in my opinion, is the ability to clone existing apps and create new ones which meet your specific needs.

I’m not a programmer, by any means, but it looks like you can at least get your hands dirty (and get yourself into trouble 😉 ) without a lot of programming experience.

I requested this account in particular because I’m interested in developing a social mapping application for a project we’re working on with the theatre department. When I’ve gotten a little further, I’ll post about it at the Smooth Elephant.

In the meantime, I definitely recommend checking out Ning. The possibilities for educational social applications seem intriguing.