What if someone swipes your school's address on Ning?

[Ivan Nieves]

I have set up a few Ning networks for teachers at my school to use with their classes and have found it to be fantastic. I was all set to create a new network for my school in order to utilize it for the entire school, roll it into curriculum, take advantage of it as a resource . . .

Except somebody has beat me to it. Someone has created a ning network called winsorschool.ning.com. They have used our colors and a graphic from our website. I have attempted to join the network but was not granted an invitation.

Two problems- For our community, creating an online presence using our branding is against our acceptable use policy and is grounds for disciplinary action. Yuck.
Two, it creates a logistical nightmare for actually trying to implement a successful social networking tool at the school.

I wish there was a way of sending a message to the admin of a Ning site.

[Steve Hargadon]

Interesting.

So you might want to consider getting your own domain name for the site. Like www.classroom20.com goes to the site I originally set up as classroom20.ning.com, but you'd never know it now. You could either do something like winsorschoolcommunity.com, or if you have an existing domain, you can also do community.winsorschooll.com. I particularly like the second option and do it all the time.

You will have a modest monthly fee from Ning to do this, but probably worth it! :)

[Ivan Nieves]

it's funny you mention that. I am a week behind in rolling out a massive google sites project with over 130 students because of dns problems with connecting our domain name.

Sigh.

I wonder if I could use the domain name I am having added, web.winsor.edu for both our google sites implementation and a ning implementation?

[Steve Hargadon]

I doubt you could use it for both. Could you just do winsor-school.ning.com for now.

[Ivan Nieves]

I could, but I also have a difficult dilemma. A student or parent using our school's name or creating a site claiming an association to the school is in conflict with our acceptable use policy. I am trying to communicate with that person to protect them from disciplinary action. I don't actually 100% agree with the policy, but I think it was developed to give the school leverage in protecting students from online bullying and harassment. If I create a site that is one character off from this other site, it is going to draw more attention to the issue, confuse some of our community, etc. Someone hears: "go to the winsorschooldotningdotcom." They log in to the site, it has our school colors and a graphic from our website. It looks legit.Then they get flamed, someone pranks a snow day, someone posts a link to a Divas & Dons video. A big stink is raised, and folks that really can't understand the mechanics of the situation start clamoring for the blocking of all social networking sites, the banning of anything web 2.0, stacks of macs and pc burning in the main quad, the cessation from the interweb . . . you get the idea.
My sysadmin contacted Ning. He got a message back intoning if there was some sort of trademark infringement, our lawyers could contact Ning, then ning would send a message to the admin of the site. Great. If I pull the school lawyers into this, that kid could get kicked out of school, or at least get a disciplinary action, which means that their parents might pull them out of school.
It seems a bit shortsighted, if I may, that there is no simple mechanism or policy for having the sysadmin of a school contact the ning admin of a website claiming to be that school. Especially if Ning is interested in tapping into the educational market.That whole "ad-free for highschools" option leads me to believe that they are. I can't believe I am the first school administrator to run into this. I also can't believe that when I first started introducing my students and teachers to Ning last year, I didn't park winsorschool.ning.com.

[Steve Hargadon]

Sounds to me like you should just buy windsorcommunity.com or something that is unique enough that it doesn't lead them to the other.

[Anne Van Meter]

You don't suppose that a *teacher* at your school created the ning and just forgot about it? I've been known to find a good idea online, create an account, and then not find a use for it immediately. Maybe you could post or message the owner of the ning so that s/he received an email notification that the official school district is wanting to use the site...

[Ivan Nieves]

I wish that were the case. I sent out an email to the school. Some folks thought it was a viral marketing scheme to get them to use it!
I think I will try to get folks at my school to use the classroom 2.0 ning site to communicate with me about the projects we are doing. I hope that exposure to other peoples work will motivate them to connect outside of the school.

Or something. ;)

[Steve Hargadon]

That's too bad. Creating a group within CR 2.0 might not be a bad way to get them going, and then you could transfer them to your own network later. Good luck!