Social network platform provider Ning has signed a letter of intent with a major educational publisher to keep its service free for educators, The New York Times' Bits blog reports. Last month, the
once high-flying Ning announced plans to nix its free product, and, in turn, force "existing free networks to either make the change to premium accounts or migrate their networks elsewhere." To boot,
Ning CEO Jason Rosenthal -- who recently replaced the charismatic Gina Bianchini -- said the company had to cut nearly 70 employees, or more than 40% of its staff.
According to Bits, the loss
of what many institutions relied on as a free platform caused quite an "outcry among nonprofit groups." The service has apparently become very popular among nonprofit groups, and tens of thousands of
organizations established networks ranging in scale from teachers who set up networks for their students to sprawling efforts like T-Boone Pickens' PickensPlan, for people interested in alternative
energy that claims more than 200,000 users.
Read the whole story at The New York Times' Bits blog »