Grou.ps: A Social Network Platform

In my search for a tool that would enable me to create a network for a group of teachers I'm working with, one social networking platform I have been impressed with is Grou.ps.

It seems to provide a full compliment of features for free, including the ability to add static pages and to combine pages into drop-down menus. It includes numerous modules including videos, files, photos, text chat, and video chat, as well as 3rd party modules for things like music, maps, and subgroups. In addition to the regular forums and blogs, it also provides a wiki and a built-in polling feature.

So far, I've been pleased with the degree to which the permissions and the settings can be customized and have found the administration to be intuitive and problem-free.

You get the first 10GB of storage and the first 100GB of data transfer for free. After that you will need to buy credits. I may be wrong, but I think the needs of this group will fall within the free limits for some time to come.

I've recommended this tool to the group and as we use it I'm sure we'll learn more about its strengths and limitations.