Diaspora – The Right Time?
Taking a few minutes from the craziness (we just moved into a new office space!), I’ve had the chance to get back into my regular “information consumption routine” and came across an interesting article in the New York Times about a new in-development social networking website called “Diaspora” founded with the core concept that privacy of information is of the utmost importance. Diaspora provides this service by allowing its users to essentially create their own “mini” private social networks on which they completely control what is shared and what is private.
Diaspora is by no means the first website to embark upon the mission of toppling the Facebook giant, but this David and Goliath fight feels a bit different.
- They used social networks to raise money. Yes, it’s true. They got their start through a great website called Kickstarter, achieving their original 39-day goal of raising $10,000 in just 12 days from hundreds of backers. Since the posting of the article, the group has raised nearly $120,000 from over 3,000 donors. Crowdsourcing at it’s finest.
- It’s authentic. Best evidenced by their funding path, these guys are pizza-eating computer geeks sleeping under their desks.
- Social networks have matured. In the last several years, social networks have done a lot of growing up. The idea that segmentation into separate verticals has become a reality with the rise of two more goliaths in LinkedIn and Twitter.
- Cultural necessity. With this maturation has come an increasing cultural dependence on social networks as part of daily life that knows no generational bounds (the largest demographic of Facebook users at Boomers!). This deeper connection to our societal fabric also means that we share an ever-increasing amount of information with social media.
- Proven need. On the heels of the release of up-and-coming social networking website FourSquare was a website called pleaserobme.com. What did this website do? Used Foursquare updates to publish information about when individuals are not home. The website quickly shutdown after receiving adequate attention.
There’s no question that a lot has changed. But is the time right for Diaspora? Of course, if I knew the answer, I’d probably already be one of the 3100+ (and counting!) investors they have.
What I do know is that the problem this website is trying to address is a real one and the only question that remains is whether or not enough social network users are aware of or or care about the problem itself? It might take another pleaserobme.com campaign to make it happen…
The html title of this article is listed as ‘Disapora’, instead of ‘Diaspora’.
So the first mistake is pretty evident…
Obscure domain name that no-one, including the author of this article, can really remember how to spell properly.
Second mistake is, while they’re blabbering on about all the technical fundamentals (which has the potential to be of interest to geeks like myself) the general public doesn’t give a flying hoot how its all implemented.
The public just care about features, not the intricacies of academic whitepapers or how awesome it is that it all works.
Support for UDP? What does that even mean in the real world?
It’ll end up being a niche site for geeks.
I think its great they’ve found a project to be enthusiastic about, but there’s a big old heap of naivety about it all.
Facebook didn’t get big by targetting a niche group. They got big by presenting simple features, and making sure they worked, rather than giving the user a truckload of schpiel about nodes and encrypted backups.
If you’re technical enough to seriously care about any of this, you’re already technical enough to set up your own web server and overcome the ‘problems’ diaspora claims to solve.
Still, every huge company has always had its naysayers when it started out. Count me firmly in that camp.
Prove me wrong, I’ll be happy, albeit very surprised
Thanks for the feedback Carpii and I appreciate the catch of the html mispelling
. As you alluded to, I’m sure that’s not uncommon.
I think you are right and that, yes, features and benefits are the main draw for the masses.
That being said, what I find interesting is that the issue of privacy of information on the Internet has been moving slowly but surely up people’s priority lists. This, combined with the inevitability that with an ever-increasing connection between society and technology, more “Geeks” will be produced at a younger age – makes me think that sooner or later something will change.
I do think that there is a growing population of people that do care about privacy but don’t have the technical background to setup their own server (like me).
I like the idea. Open-source network sharing. I even like the name. I actually love it. A quick check to google showed diaspora means a cutlure sharing common knowledge. Clever name for something like social media.
However, open-source means you can pretty much cancel out Diaspora ever going mainstream. Linux has been trying an open source operating system since the beginning of the 1990′s, only to fail at ever capturing any major portion of the OS market. Wikipedia says Linux only has 1-2% of the desktop market, their original target nearly 20 years ago. I just don’t think the open-source system will support anywhere near the traffic a website like Facebook does. Not that it couldn’t, just that mainstream society won’t respond to an open-source site when they have the alternative of using what they always have in Facebook. That is just IMO though.
That being said, I like the point on internet privacy. Internet law and intellectual property law are by far the fastest growing legal concentrations. Taking an interest in intellectual property myself, I would speculate we are on the doorstep of a major legal precedent in the area. One of the giants (Facebook, Google, Apple, etc.) will face a lawsuit from some little guy like Diaspora that will define internet regulation for years to come. Again, just IMO.
Dustin,
Thanks for the feedback and I think the comparison to Linux is a very relevant one. I think that this connects with Carpii’s comment – the idea that open source usage is inherently connected with an individuals level of “geek.” While I think we are still a ways from having open source platforms be “accessible” to the majority of Internet users, the inescapable societal necessity is to elevate the level of “geek” in everyone to keep up with the strengthening and growing connection between technology and our social fabric.
I also think you are right about the impending change in Internet privacy – truly, the law has yet to catch up with the application at this point.
Mark