Happy holidays from the Ning Team! While many people have today off, not all Ning Network members do. For instance: the members of MAPS (Michigan Association of Professional Santas), a Ning Network for Michigan-based Santas and their “counterparts” — elves, Mrs. Clause, etc. Members can take advantage of special offers for members (use of a reindeer, for examples).

Sometimes Santa needs a little help spreading the Christmas spirit. That’s where Operation Santa Claus comes in.

Operation Letters To Santa presents this venue for one simple purpose – to bring public awareness to the USPS volunteer program “Operation Santa Claus”. By working together we can celebrate Christmas in its purest form by bringing Christmas to a child who with only hope in their heart, writes a letter to “Dear Santa” each year with eager anticipation that Santa does exist, does care, and that they will indeed have a merry Christmas.

To help drive new members, Operation Letters To Santa recently held a contest; new subscribers to their enewsletter and members of their Ning Network were eligible to win an iPod Touch.

A waggle is the dance that an individual honey bee does, as he works for the greater good of the whole colony. Within a group of people working together, if each one does their own “waggle”, then a waggle force has been created. The Waggleforce Ning Network helps members collaborate with each other to create career clubs and get communities back to work.

Members can join a club to network and support other job seekers. Or, they can take on additional responsibilities by becoming club leaders; club leaders receive training, materials and support from Good Morning America’s Tory Johnson and the rest of the WaggleForce team.

One way the Ning Network is helping members is with free resume reviews. Members can submit their resumes, and then receive constructive feedback on what to update or correct. And while it isn’t easy to put yourself out there and say you need help finding work, the members of Waggleforce career clubs are stepping up to ask for help, while offering to help others. Judging from the testimonials, it looks like it’s working.

A recent study found that New Yorkers are the unhappiest residents of the U.S., coming in dead last in a study of all 50 states. So what’s a New Yorker to do? For some, there’s a simple answer – leave. But how do you find the strength to leave a city that inspired the quote: “The true New Yorker secretly believes that people living anywhere else have to be, in some sense, kidding”?

With help from friends and those who have been there already on Is There Life After New York, a Ning Network for New York ex-pats. LifeAfterNYC was launched after two friends moved out of the city, but then realized their bond to NYC was stronger than the previously realized.

One of the reasons people move to New York — and then ultimately may decide to leave — is the insane assortment of jobs, everything from finance to entertainment and everything in between. Those who have already left the city are looking back on their former employment with nostalgia (former gigs include ushering at the 92nd St Y, scooper at a boutique ice cream store, and personal assistant to a Bear Stearns exec.)

Like any good New Yorkers, the members of LifeAfterNYC love reminiscing with other ex-New Yorkers about their old hangouts and haunts. The Boulder branch of this Ning Network had a meet-up a week ago. They may never move back to the Big Apple, but these members are always remembering their New York roots, wherever they may ultimately end up.

There isn’t much more to say about Twilight at this point. If you haven’t read the books, caught a showing of the movie, stopped by the Twilight Saga Ning Network or chosen a side (Team Edward or Team Jacob), then you probably have found some secret lair that’s immune from the influence and effects of pop culture. In short, it’s been a Twilight Saga type of year and Ning has been the online destination for Twi-hards to head to, making this Ning Network one of the most active in 2009.

The Twilight Saga Ning Network just passed 250,000 members. This engaged group of fans is eager to discuss their favorite topics — Bella, Edward, Voltari etc. When author Stephenie Meyer offered to answer member-submitted questions in advance of New Moon being released, more than 2,000 questions were submitted. We’ve also seen Ning Networks spun off of the official Twilight Saga Ning Network, with a focus on fan fiction and role play. But the real action is on The Twilight Saga, where Team Edward debates Team Jacob, members post their passionate feedback on the films and the discussions continue, long after the books have been read and movies have been watched.

Technorati has a great interview up with eCoronado Network Creator Steve Johnson about how his Ning Network has come to be such a thriving part of the small, Coronado community. With fewer than 25,000 residents living on the island near San Diego, eCoronado acts as a social network and an online newspaper for residents. Steve has some great ideas for his Ning Network, and definitely has an engaged group of members, as he explains below. From the interview (TR stands for Technorati):

TR: You started eCoronado.com as a hobby seven years ago. Can you still run this site by yourself?
SJ: No. There are just two employees, me and my wife Lisa, and an intern (from Coronado High School) who does our video production. The real vitality of eCoronado is contributed by our member/users. They’re staff members, too — they’re as involved as we are.

TR: What do the member/users actually do?
SJ: Well, they post lots of pictures and comments, even articles – as many as eight to ten a day — a continuing flow which Lisa and I edit and put online. For example, when the city council proposed reinstating a toll on the Coronado Bridge, about 60 of our users posted comments, some of them very strong. The mayor, also a member/user responded directly on eCoronado.com. Likewise, every member of the city council is a member of eCoronado.

Another example – a member ate dinner at a restaurant in Coronado and didn’t like it, he put his review on eCoronado.com. The restaurant owner is also a member, so he replied directly to the review on our site. This happens often. You see, we have a function like Yelp.

Last week on a rainy day I put a notice on the site for free frozen yogurt for the first hundred members to show up — and within a couple of hours they did.

Steve has done a fantastic job getting the Coronado community online and participating on eCoronado. It’s yet another example of the ways people around the world are using Ning Networks to forge stronger connections with the people who live in their neighborhood, whether it’s across the street or miles down the road.

“If it’s crap, we’ll tell you.” So promises the Spill Crew, a lovable group of animated movie reviewers who have no qualms about saying that they like, and what’s, well, crap.

Spill Crew isn’t new to Ning by any means; they’ve been on doing impressive things since 2007. The basic premise of Spill is this; the Spill review team posts their animated takes on the current crop of movies in the theaters, like The Princess and the Frog. Members watch, either agree or violently disagree, and then post their own takes in the forums. With more than 25,000 members, there’s plenty of disagreement and discussion — the general movie category has almost 5,000 discussions posted in it.

While Spill Crew’s reviews form the backbone for this Ning Network, members keep coming back because they know it’s the place to find other passionate, excited movie lovers. And that’s why Spill is one of the top Ning Networks of 2009.

Interested in what UFC champ BJ Penn is up to on any given day? Head to his Ning Network where he’s livestreaming via UStream, adding discussions and posting behind-the-scenes photos. He’s also video blogging, pretty much every day. Head to his upload page, and you’ll see he’s uploaded almost 1,500 videos to BJPenn.com. His video blog gives fans insight in to his life, both public and private (check out this adorable video of his daughter Liuliu on the beach). BJ’s commitment to video blogging, interactions with fans and day-to-day activity on BJPenn.com, are why his Ning Network is one of the most active of 2009.

That said, his Ning Network is about more than just him. It’s about the UFC, and provides fans a place to discuss recent and upcoming fights and learn more about training and different styles. While the forums are active and members post their own photos and videos, it’s the content that BJ himself posts that keeps the 100,00o plus members coming back for more.

Tonight is the first night of Hanukkah, the Jewish holiday that celebrates the miracle of light. To celebrate the eight-night holiday, Jewish people generally play dreidel, eat fried food like latkes, give presents, and of course, light the menorah. It isn’t just around the holiday table that Jewish people are coming together. From socializing to political issues, Jews have found each other on Ning Networks, as well.

Jmix is all about mixing and mingling. And while members connect with each other on the Ning Network, they frequently take these connections in to the real world by meeting up at events. With Hanukkah starting tonight, there’s plenty of opportunities to eat latkes and meet up with other chosen people. Post Hanukkah is, of course Christmas; members of Jmix are attending a swanky get-together on Christmas Eve, while the rest of the country celebrates at home. Moms on Modern Jewish Mom are also making plans for the upcoming holiday. On Schmooze 2.009 it’s all about interesting Jewish news and discussion. A recent blog post covered the “Great Jewish Hope,” an aspiring rabbi, who in the meantime, is focusing on his boxing career.

Not all of the Ning Networks with a focus on Judaism and Jewish people are focused on social and cultural Judaism. There are political Ning Networks as well, specifically focusing on issues in Israel. The Israel Insider is one of these Ning Networks; more than 1,600 members advocate for Israel, discuss current issues and work towards the continued existence of the country.

From making it simple to post a classified ad, to providing a way to visually map members, the Ning Apps created by Apps.IO are adding new and interesting functionality to the Ning Networks they are installed on. Their newest Ning App, Listings, was a finalist in the Best Original Ning App category in the recently held Ning Appathon competition. Apps.IO President Benjamin Cavanaugh chatted with us about the origin of the company, the apps they’ve created, and offered up some tips for developers looking to get started developing on the Ning Platform.

Tell me a little bit about Apps.IO?
Apps.IO develops integrated hosted application features for social websites. Apps.IO’s products range from simple features to social content collaboration systems. In addition to offering free versions of our apps, we also offer premium advertising-free versions of our apps.

How did you decide to start developing on the Ning Platform? How long have you been working with Ning?
We started developing on the Ning Platform primarily because we saw a significant demand for add-on features for Ning Networks. We’ve been familiar with the Ning Platform since early 2007.

Had you ever used the OpenSocial API before developing?
Actually no. While we had heard about it when it was officially announced, our first introduction to actually using the OpenSocial API was while developing apps for the Ning Apps Platform.

What types of apps have you created? How do you come up with the ideas for your Ning Apps?
To date, we’ve created four apps that are already available in the Ning Apps Directory.

• Listings, our most recent app, allows network members to easily post classified ad listings. It’s very customizable, and supports custom categories and custom listing fields.
• Answers, a collaboration app, allows members to easily ask questions and crowd-source answers with other members of a network.
• Member Map, allows network members to share their location on a network-wide Member Map.
• Contact Page, adds a tab to your network with a simple customizable email contact form.

Customer feedback is essential when considering what to potentially develop. While we do have a general product road-map, we also have received ideas from customer requests.

Are there particular types of Ning Networks that you have in mind when you choose to develop a given Ning App?
We keep a wide variety of network types in mind throughout the development process, from professional to personal type networks. We also try to offer customization options that allow for an even wider range of uses for our apps.

What advice would you give to people who might be interested in developing on Ning?
If you’re new to developing on Ning, the Ning Developer Network is a great place to start, it’s full of helpful tips as well as links to important OpenSocial related sites. When developing your app, take advantage of the Latest Activity feed to help increase member engagement. It’s key to remember each Ning Network is unique and has its own demands.

Is there anything else you want to add?
If you’re currently using one of our apps and would like to stay updated about our services, or are interested in learning more about our apps, the best place to start is at our own Ning Network: The Apps.IO Customer Community.

Tomorrow we’ll take a look at how to add the Listings Ning App to your Ning Network if you want to integrate a classifieds feature.

LeWeb is one of the largest technology conferences in the world, and pulls in participants from all types of tech-related industries, including mobile, social networking and application development. Today, Ning’s Director of Business Development Cristian Cussen, participated in a round-table about platforms along with representatives from Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, which was moderated by TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington.  Since the LeWeb is held in Paris, we thought it was only appropriate to highlight some of the fantastic Ning Networks that have chosen “français” from the Language options available.

Planète Attitude is the french arm of the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF). Right now, the hot topic of discussion is the climate discussions that are being held in Copenhagen.

FUNKFrance is a Ning Network for people who love the FUNK brand of sunglasses. Members mug for the camera while rocking their favorite pairs.

Not all Ning Networks in french are for those lucky enough to live in the land of baguettes and fromage. New York in French is a Ning Network for New Yorkers who are learning to speak (or already can converse) in french. “Les Membres” use Groups to find other french speakers interested in similar topics, like art, theater, and teaching.