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Nexo: Websites for Groups

written by Blake Atwood
Tuesday, May 8, 2007

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I tried to envision an online space for our Bible Study groups, a secure site where any member could post prayer requests, or pictures, or update a shared calendar, or share valuable internet resources, or upload Bible study notes or Powerpoint presentations. And then I thought, I don’t have the resources, the talent, or the time to make such a place. But then I searched…and found Nexo.

From their site: “Nexo is a free service that allows groups to collaborate online. Groups can share interactive calendars, pictures, videos, tasks, polls, comments, blogs, files and much more. Nexo is free, flexible and secure.”

It’s easiest to call Nexo a Myspace for groups, but it looks better than Myspace and has a more intuitive feel. Nexo prides themselves on being easy to use, so easy a caveman could use it (wait, that’s another company completely) - so easy to use a 72-year old mother could use it and want to use it.

For a quick and quirky overview of what they offer, watch this video.

I’ve begun implementing this site with a few of our Life Groups (Bible Studies). My field test has yielded no results at the moment, but I’m anxious to see what kind of adoption rate and usage these sites will receive.

Nexo only launched at the beginning of this year, so they are a newcomer, but their product looks fairly polished. It’s free and ad-free for the time being, but I emailed the company to get a few answers that were not readily available on their website.

1. It will remain free but will become ad-supported in the Fall. There will be an option to pay $14.95/month per group to remove the ads. For some church members, ads could be a turn-off, especially depending on what types of ads they are.

2. I inquired about groups within groups, so our church could be a group and each Life Group would belong to the larger group. They’ve received many requests about just such a feature, so it might be in the works.

3. Storage: Your group has 1 GB for free to use for uploads, whether that be pictures or documents. Additional storage is $9.95/month for 5 GB more.

4. They are investigating different pricing for non-profits and multiple groups within the same group (i.e. many Bible Studies from the same church). If you look at the site and like what they have to offer for your church, I recommend that you email the company and ask about special pricing for non-profits. More voices equals a better chance for better pricing for what could be a very valuable service.

Have any readers heard of Nexo or have used their service? What are your initial thoughts on what they offer in regards to how we can best use it within the church?

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10 Responses to “Nexo: Websites for Groups”

  1. […] Here’s another link to a recent post of mine at BetaChurch: Nexo: Websites for Groups. […]

    Inside of a dog, it’s too dark to read. » Nexo Post at BetaChurch May 8th, 2007 at 4:56 pm

  2. Have you compared Nexo with Google Apps? It would be neat to do an a - b comparison.

    David Merwin May 9th, 2007 at 6:21 pm

  3. Like many others, I’ve been looking for something similar. With everything I’ve found, there was always a little something I didn’t like. Most of the group sites/apps were too complicated for my taste. Being a programmer, I’ve had it in my mind to create a simple, easy to use group site specifically for (our) church groups, in the vein of those crazy 37signals guys. Maybe soon…

    Brian May 10th, 2007 at 8:12 am

  4. I too have been looking for something that would let small group bible studies, ministry teams, etc at our church have an online space with good access controls. I’d been considering one of the forum packages, though they don’t include the other features you mention such as photo galleries, calendars, etc.

    Other than some of the larger church online s/w services, some of which are pretty comprehensive, I haven’t found anything that really suits.

    I hope you post follow-ups to the blog with what you find out, or comparing to other services such as google groups/etc.

    thanks,
    jeff

    Jeff W May 10th, 2007 at 11:32 am

  5. I have been using Nexo for my media ministry team for a few months now and I must say that I like it. I had tried different groups including Google but they just didn’t have all the functionality that we needed. The interactive calendar is probably the most used followed closely by the forum. Every time any changes are made a daily digest is sent out to every member by default. Each member can change the frequency of when they receive the digest. It works for me because I know that if I make changes to the calendar or upload cue sheets or create a post in the forum by the next morning every member knows about it. I think Nexo is a keeper.

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