Diaspora* a peer-to-peer secure social network focused on privacy

[Triple Zero]

check out what these guys are doing. It seems like it's going to be BIG, and if it does, it might just kill of facebook. they already got $23k in donations for their startup, and everybody is saying "this is exactly what people have been waiting for" ...

let's just hope they pull it off.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/196017994/diaspora-the-personally-controlled-do-it-all-distr
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/12/nyregion/12about.html

the basic idea is that it's a social network, like facebook, with comments, friends, apps, groups and all the works, except it's not on a centralized server (like facebook or twitter), but in a distributed peer-to-peer secure network, somewhat like BitTorrent. they use good encryption, and the end result is going to be a new kind of social network where everybody retains ownership of their data, as opposed to some big faceless corp selling your privacy to whatever advertisement network is willing to pay.

[Kai]

That would be way nice.

[Elder Iptuous]

but then, who will we direct our paranoia and ire at? (particularly when there is some eventual compromise of security)

i wonder what the numbers are in regards to people becoming invested in one social networking system and what it takes to switch to another system....
do you think the majority of facebook users would switch, given the amount of time that they have already put into it, if there isn't some significantly better feature set, rather than just some security aspect?

[Doktor Howl]

but then, who will we direct our paranoia and ire at?

EACH OTHER, OF COURSE!

AND YOUR MOM!

HAW HAW!

[Mangrove]

check out what these guys are doing. It seems like it's going to be BIG, and if it does, it might just kill of facebook. they already got $23k in donations for their startup, and everybody is saying "this is exactly what people have been waiting for" ...

let's just hope they pull it off.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/196017994/diaspora-the-personally-controlled-do-it-all-distr
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/12/nyregion/12about.html

the basic idea is that it's a social network, like facebook, with comments, friends, apps, groups and all the works, except it's not on a centralized server (like facebook or twitter), but in a distributed peer-to-peer secure network, somewhat like BitTorrent. they use good encryption, and the end result is going to be a new kind of social network where everybody retains ownership of their data, as opposed to some big faceless corp selling your privacy to whatever advertisement network is willing to pay.

Best news I've heard all day

[Rococo Modem Basilisk]

but then, who will we direct our paranoia and ire at? (particularly when there is some eventual compromise of security)

It's a good point, even if it was said in jest. There are a lot of people who seem to be on facebook solely for the sake of joining "facebook is killing our privacy!!!1" facebook groups.

[Cramulus]

I will be very curious to see how this develops

I wonder if open source software threatens to pop the bubble of PI markets and ad revenue

[Remington]

So it's an open-source, de-centralized, nonbroken social network? Coded by 3 or 4 college kids over the summer?

WANT.
Also, they have $37,000 already, they only needed $10,000. That's AWESOME.

[Requia ☣]

Was 39k when i went there.  One gets the impression a fair number of people want this.

I'm not sure how they intend to solve the problem of NAT though, in bittorrent it kindof muddles through because you only need to be able to talk to a small part of the people on the network, everyone has the same data.  In this it seems like you really need to be able to talk to everyone.

Also, if it has end user software you completely lose the part of social networking where it works from anywhere.  You couldn't use Diaspora at a friends house, or at the library (or at school or work, but those usually block facebook, I think).

It has to be better than Facebook too, some people might sign up for it just for privacy, but social networking is only useful if the people you want to network with use it too.  It needs a killer feature to draw people who don't care about privacy away from Facebook.

[Remington]

It has to be better than Facebook too, some people might sign up for it just for privacy, but social networking is only useful if the people you want to network with use it too.  It needs a killer feature to draw people who don't care about privacy away from Facebook.

Farmville v2.0

Totally calling it.

[Elder Iptuous]

It has to be better than Facebook too, some people might sign up for it just for privacy, but social networking is only useful if the people you want to network with use it too.  It needs a killer feature to draw people who don't care about privacy away from Facebook.

that was the first thing i thought of, but if this works, like they say, as a shell around other SN sites like FB and Tw, then people could use it as an amalgamating resource, even if nobody they knows use it.
then as people come on, it would have added functionality native to it that would be cake...

[Requia ☣]

Ah... ok yeah that would work.

[Precious Moments Zalgo]

There are a lot of people who seem to be on facebook solely for the sake of joining "facebook is killing our privacy!!!1" facebook groups.

Yeah, and all the people threatening to leave if Facebook follows through on their nonexistent plan to charge users $14.95 / month.

It has to be better than Facebook too, some people might sign up for it just for privacy, but social networking is only useful if the people you want to network with use it too.  It needs a killer feature to draw people who don't care about privacy away from Facebook.

that was the first thing i thought of, but if this works, like they say, as a shell around other SN sites like FB and Tw, then people could use it as an amalgamating resource, even if nobody they knows use it.
then as people come on, it would have added functionality native to it that would be cake...

If they implement the Facebook API, that will make it trivial for app writers to port their apps to the new platform.  Also, they could use the Facebook API themselves and allow their users to transparently connect to Facebook's hub so they can remain connected to their friends over there.

That would be very feasible technology-wise, but I have no idea if it would be feasible legality-wise.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I'll join in a hot second!

I only joined Facebook to get laid, anyway. If they charge for it I'm bailing, I hate Facebook. It's stupid.

It did get me laid though.

[Juana]

I'm going to keep track of this. I'd abandon Facebook in a minute if this works out.