Best of the Week & Boilerplate Templates.

[Garfield Archivist]

I am really inspired by the Best of the Week Newsletters & the Templates that Ning Creators introduced. There are many dimensions of coolness I think these 2 features reach accross.

Best of the Week - Best of the Week is a 4 word phrase that uses the perfect amount of words to convey what it's trying to say. It clearly lets you know when you should be expecting them and what you will receive when you get them There is even the possibility that if you are at your best that week you may be included as some creators here have already.

I think it is so important for a Network to make sure it's voice is heard amidst the many forms of automatic communications that come through a network and once a week Broadcast Message is perfect for that. Broadcast messages are not expected to be a daily blog like it is for blog readers but for a community at least once a week would seem to mirror a blog's once a day especially if it is a summation of the best activities of the week. It communicates the "pulse" of the community at a steady rhythm even to lurkers and makes it easy for them by giving opportunities to participate or continue to lurk. After all I would assume lurkers are looking for the best stuff anyway throughout all their lurking. Best of the Week is like a weekly home delivery subscription for all of us - The Sunday edition..

Templates - Templates are powerful. One thing I hope Ning will continue to focus on is the education of Network Creators. I've made the analogy that Ning is like a Star fleet and each network is like a ship where the Network Creator is a Captain. The captain may have a crew/admins or they may not. However, they are still responsible for the ship and its inhabitants/members. The captain has to know how to run the ship or it will never get to its destination. (long detour I know I am making my point soon). Templates are prepared text "Star Fleet" has given to all Captains to communicates clearly and effectively to the members of the ship/network a new benefit they can take advantage of. It does not leave Captains to figure it out for themselves to possibly miss communicate the full benefit of these new features added to the ship.

Not all Network Creators can be a Captain Kirk or Janeway right off the bat even though we may have enough enthusiasm for it. Sometimes even having prior experience may get in the way. I think Ning places a lot of trust in us Network Creators. Our success is their success so going back to my earlier sentence I hope Ning will continue to focus on education & training of creators whether by example with Best of the Week or direct guidance through templates to help our members adopt to new features to benefit our networks.

Also as a Captain/Creator of a Network I believe you and I can get frustrated at Ning probably in the same way Captain Kirk asks Scotty to him more power when they are in the thick of battle. Scotty will say "I giving her all she's got Captain" and we press on for more but we should never forget we & Scotty are part of the same team and wants us to reach our destination because he is on the same ship.

I already have found these 2 actions by Ning as useful things to duplicate on my networks and also fertile ground for new ideas.