Web sites today are no longer the static and unchanging pages of yesteryear. These days, the popular websites (at least among those on the bleeding edge of technology) are all about interaction. Whether you are interacting with the website itself, interacting with a service or interacting with other people in the known universe through the site, websites today can be more participatory than information.

No longer are we relegated to be just consumers of information on the Internet, we can be producers with an increasing ease. You can quickly create your own blog to share your opinions or most personal thoughts using Blogger.com and a myriad of other services. To show off your photography skills, or the latest mug shots of your new kittens, you can post your photos on flickr.com or one of the many other photo sharing sites. You can create your own discussion groups on any topic through Yahoo! or Google. Wikipedia.org allows anyone to create pages or edit them in an on-line encyclopedia. Sites like Newsvine.com and Topix.net let you comment on global or local news events, or even write your own news. You can now publish text, photos, audio and video, all with a bit of creativity and a few clicks, and all for free.

All of these trends are pushing the average Internet user towards interacting with the world and increasing the amount of Internet content. Why? Not surprisingly, most indicators point in the direction of increasing ad revenue for the website owners. But there is also a surge of Internet applications (websites that "do something") which focus on bringing people together and sharing information. Sites like Meetup.com, Flagr.com and Scrapblog.com are in this genre, and the list of what some call "Web 2.0" applications is growing.

There seems to be a social web application for nearly every idea under the sun. But what if you think of something that hasn't been created yet? There is one more website that might be just what you are looking for. Ning.com is website that lets you build your own web applications. Once you sign up for an account and log in, Ning lets you get as deep as you like into building your own dream social web application. You can choose from a growing list of existing applications and clone one (make a copy for your own use), or you can dig right in and write some PHP code (or instructions) that controls how the site operates.

There are several generic types of application to choose from on Ning. There are review sites that allow you and your friends to comment on and rate anything under the sun. You could start with a site that features an interactive guide, including Google maps for local business and then start adding content for your own area. You could create a discussion group for people interested in library technology and send it to your favourite librarian. On a quick browse through the Ning application categories, there is a large number of possible applications to start from.

And, if you have a more technical (and controlling) side to your personality, Ning lets you customize nearly every aspect of your application. You will need to know a bit of CSS, HTML and PHP, but if you already have those skills under your belt, Ning could be a great playground for you.

All of the features are provided free of charge on Ning. Of course, there are additional "premium features" you can pay for if you need them. If you want to run Google or Yahoo! ads on your Ning application, run it under your own domain name, protect the source code for your application or increase your application's bandwidth, you will need to purchase a package for a monthly fee.

All things considered, Ning.com looks like a good place to experiment with social web applications. I'm interested in trying it out, just to see how well they handle the problem of spam.