Over the past couple of years, facebook has faced an increasing onslaught of whiplash to changes in their privacy rules and regs. Corporations now have more access to user's info and files than ever before, and not necessarily after asking them for permission:

"The changes made to Facebook recently allow third-part websites, like news outlet WashingtonPost.com and music site Pandora Radio, to automatically tap into a users' profiles and their friends' activities without being first asked for permission. "

For the last couple of months, I've become increasingly annoyed with the changes to facebook and the ease of access to our information.

Yes, I know, if I put something on the web, it's not really personal, yada yada.

1 month ago, I found a site that allowed me to enter any facebook username, and it would return bits of info such as their events, selective posts and messages to others....and I wasn't even their friend. (This recently came out with a new tool for developers for fb apps).

But I digress.

I don't want to talk about facebook's problems anymore, or how we're going to get screwed more and more as it tries to make money.

Instead, I'd like to bring up

Diaspora.

A personally controlled, distributed, open-source network.

For those of you who haven't heard of it, please take some time and read about it here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/12/nyregion/12about.html

or visit their site, here:

http://www.joindiaspora.com/


What do you think is going to happen?

I'd like to think it'll take off, just from the complaints I've seen about facebook. Of course, it's not realistic to say it will pass facebook too quickly but I definitely think it is the direction that social networking will move in, and I hope I love it when it finally get's released.

Lookin forward to it, Sept 2010.



- Richard

P.S. I love the fact that they used kickstarter to raise money to support the project for the initial 3 months. The goal for pledges was $10,000. Within 12 days they had reached that goal. Now, only 20 days since the project was posted, they have raised $171,343. Wow.

Originally Posted by aviaf

I'd like to think it'll take off, just from the complaints I've seen about facebook. Of course, it's not realistic to say it will pass facebook too quickly but I definitely think it is the direction that social networking will move in, and I hope I love it when it finally get's released.

I wouldn't bet against it, but how many people thought facebook would easily eclipse myspace?

Interesting... But yes, facebook does have some pretty ridiculous privacy problems. I actually stopped adding applications to my facebook a long time ago because I don't even know where/who my information is going to anymore.

Originally Posted by KayakerDan

I wouldn't bet against it, but how many people thought facebook would easily eclipse myspace?

I know exactly what you mean. I for one, think that it will eventually pass facebook, it's more a question of when.

I think the biggest obstacle to this could be the people themselves: how many of them actually care about privacy?

There's also a site dedicated to harvesting and allowing searching of open profiles:

http://youropenbook.org/

Apparently some people will never care about privacy, but I believe most people would prefer their information isn't completely wide open. I'll definitely be installing a Diaspora seed when the software becomes available.

Originally Posted by aviaf

or visit their site, here:

http://www.joindiaspora.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaporware

Originally Posted by rohan10

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaporware

im still allowed to dream aren't I?

Although, the Microsoft courier did bite the dust earlier this week, I was very sad.

Diaspora needs critical mass and some momentum to ever overtake facebook (enough people joining to grow rapidly and eventually reaching enough users so that you think "everyone" is on diaspora) and unless diaspora is significantly better than facebook (ignoring the privacy aspect) I doubt it can do that. I just don't think there are enough people annoyed with facebook's privacy settings to ditch it in favor of a similar (but likely less robust) site to give the site enough momentum to overtake facebook in the foreseeable future, especially if a majority of their friends don't migrate as well.

All that it needs in order to overtake Facebook is enough people to get accounts on both. Very few people who switched from MySpace to Facebook decided one day that they didn't like Myspace and would try something different. It was people who were curious, made an account on Facebook, and then slowly started using it more and more. The more Myspace deteriorated, the more they used Facebook. Eventually, when enough people are on Facebook they'll make the switch. It also helps if you can nail a key demographic, the way Facebook did with College/University kids.

Diaspora might get the OSS enthusiasts, but I don't think that would be enough. And I really don't think that the privacy issue is enough to drive people away. It wasn't the ads that killed MySpace, it was the spammers. Applications on FB upset a small crowd (more people liked them), but the number of applications that spammed your inbox/notifications was bad. People "becoming a fan" of the most pointless stuff is also something that annoys a lot of people. A viable alternative and a few more annoyances are all it would take to drive people away.

I somehow think it will be a Google product that soaks up the loss though. Orkut already has Brazil, maybe it will spread! :p

Here is another article on this, I doubt anything is gonna happen...

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/new...ivacy_concerns

Originally Posted by aviaf

1 month ago, I found a site that allowed me to enter any facebook username, and it would return bits of info such as their events, selective posts and messages to others....and I wasn't even their friend. (This recently came out with a new tool for developers for fb apps).

What was the site?

I lost faith in facebook the minute they started charging money to play bubble pop. even though if it were still free I would have failed exams.

Originally Posted by Rob Mac

What was the site?

hehe, fortunately for the people you know, I don't remember what it was.

Well, if/when the time comes:


********************* ********************* *********************
****Break asterisk box in case of facebook death emergency or complete
change in loyalty to Diaspora:

http://www.facebook.com/help/contact...delete_account


Also in case of Zombie Apocalypse********
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