I’ve been administering a community social network hosted on Ning for the past 3 months. It has only been promoted to people who follow our newspaper’s Twitter feed and to members of our Flickr photo pool. It hasn’t grown the way I had hoped. There has been very little content, other than photos, posted by the members.

However, I don’t consider it a failure. Through it I have made connections with some of the members that have led to other projects. In particular, I will be collaborating with a couple of members on niche video podcasts. And recently a new member directed me toward another local social network aimed at dog owners. Guess what, the newsroom is currently working on a series of articles on local pets and their owners. Walla Walla Dogs will be great resource.

The networks exist. Even in our small town. They are a great resource to the communities they serve and they could/should be a resource for journalists.