Ning's Gina Bianchini talks about networking, privacy and the rise of women in hot new companies.

Computerworld - Ning offers a Web-based service that lets users create their own social networks. Founded in 2004, Ning claims that its service now hosts more than 500,000 social networks, 65% of which are described as "active" -- meaning they've been used in the past 30 days. The list of Ning-run networks includes ImSaturn (http://imsaturn.com/), which was set up by General Motors Corp. for Saturn car enthusiasts.

What effect is social networking having on business? It's going to have a tremendous impact. I think it takes a decade or more for a new medium to really find itself in its true behavior. You saw it with radio [and] television.

In terms of its effect on business, people are going to have a ton of experiments going on, and they should. Not every company is going to have their own social network. A lot of them will, though, and they can be used in all sorts of interesting ways, whether it's a large computer company we know of that is using [Ning] for an internal social network, or what ImSaturn is doing in having a direct two-way conversation with customers.

Dossier

Name: Gina Bianchini

Title: Co-founder and CEO

Organization: Ning Inc.

Location: Palo Alto, Calif.

Favorite technology: "I think blogging in all of its current and future iterations is a true breakthrough. Any opportunity for so many new voices to express themselves and to be heard is truly profound."

Favorite nonwork pastime: "Reading. There is a lifetime to learn in books."

Role model: "My mother, who was widowed at 36 with three teenagers and has never done what other people thought she should, only what she thought was right. She taught me to trust my instincts, reach for the stars, embrace everything with a sense of humor and never give up."

Philosophy in a nutshell: "Go for it, and especially keep doing what scares you the most."

Favorite vice: "Us magazine, which I reserve for the treadmill. They somehow cancel each other out."

Ask her to do anything but: "Lie."

Why should companies use services like Ning for social networking? Wouldn't it be better to pull that in-house? The challenge in doing that is, by the time you get your social network set up and organized, what people want to do [will be] fundamentally different. So the question is, do you want to staff a team that is doing rapid releases every two weeks on your internal social network?

There is a lot of risk that people will not end up using the social networks that are created internally at great cost and certainly at great development effort.