One problem with trying to figure out if the use of a particular technology is going to pay off is that experimentation tends to be expensive. Not only is there a manpower cost, but simply getting something up and running can be a serious investment, particularly when testing requires supporting a large user population. If that has been the kind of hurdle keeping you from exploring the potential for social networking in your organization you might want to take a look at Ning.

Co-founded by Marc Andressen (who is rather well-known in Internet circles), Ning is a sort of social networking playground.

After signing up (which is free) you enter the name of your social network; whether it will be public or private (invitation only); its tag line; description; icon; and keywords. You then select which features your social net will have (forum, music, photos, blog, videos, RSS feeds, groups, member list, etc.) then choose a template and optionally customize it.

Next you can specify profile questions that new members are to be asked on joining (these can be multiple choice, single line, multi-line, date, URL, or date responses) and be individually set as required or private (only the network owner can see the answers) and that’s it, you can launch your social network.

There is lots more primping and polishing you can do, the look and feel are usually pretty slick. There are also other features such as Flickr importing, Facebook promotion, statistics, and promotional badges and widgets that you can use to enrich your network.

Now all you have to do is get other people to join in. As I know you’re interested in Web applications, I set up a Ning social network just for you: click here and check it out!

Ning is monetized by Google ads as well as premium services such as use your own URL ($4.95 per month); additional storage and bandwidth (you get 10GB of storage and 100GB of bandwidth for free and additional multiples of those resources are $9.95 each per month); get source code access (on application); remove Ning promotional links ($7.95 per month); and the ability to run your own ads or not run any at all ($19.95 per month).

I’m really impressed with Ning. It’s well-designed, well-executed, and as a playground for social networking experimentation there’s nothing like it.

So join my Ning network and tell me what you think.

Mark Gibbs is a consultant, author, journalist, columnist and blogger.