Another reason institutions and organizations must be 'eyes up' in using cloud services or web 2.0

Ning, a great little network creation service, finally moves from free to fully paid.  Nothing wrong with that.  One always wonders how these folks earn a living providing free social network hosting for millions of people anyway.  But the lesson here is for anyone who builds a network:  Better have a backup plan, an escape route, or shell out for the services.  Any of these three options are acceptable.  Expecting free services - not too smart.

Ning Blog » An Update from Ning

As part of this change, we’ll be phasing out our free service. On May 4, 2010, we will share with you all of the details of our new offering, including features and price points, through a series of blog posts, emails, and conference calls. We recognize that there are many active Ning Networks for teachers, small non-profits, and individuals and it’s our goal to have a set of product and pricing options that will make sense for all of them. For Ning Creators using our free service who choose to move to another service, we will offer a migration path and time to make that change.