My friend, Tim Spalding, from LibraryThing sent me an email inviting me to a network for "Social Catalogers," or people who make social cataloging applications. (This is because Katherine and I run the website RecipeThing). He used Ning to set it up, in essence, creating a professional association with a few mouseclicks.

If you don't know, Ning is a web 2.0 that started in 2004, although it's getting some serious trade press right now in TechCrunch, etc. Its goal is to enable anyone to create a social network, i.e., to form an association.

From the Ning website: "From eBay sellers in Upstate New York to bead store owners in Maine, aspiring hip hop artists in New Jersey, pop culture junkies in New York City, college professors in Germany, young deviant artists in North Carolina, and even a few big media companies in LA, with Ning anyone can create the perfect social network for them.

So, with a few clicks, you can start a group and invite your friends. Then, your friends invite their friends. You can upload documents, videos, any kind of media you like. Great way to host unconferences and ongoing community. So tools like this are going to do a couple things for us in associations. Either we're going to realize what they can do, and get in front of it, enable it, and have a voice - or it can happen around us.