Diaspora
September 7, 2010 | Written by Dave Cannon
We are 140-character ideas. We are the pictures of your cat. We are blog posts about the economy. We are the collective knowledge that is Wikipedia. The Internet is a canvas, with which we paint the broad and fine strokes of our lives. It is a forward extension of our physical lives: a meta-self comprised of ones and zeros. We are all that is digital; if we weren’t, the Internet wouldn’t be either.
Taken by itself, this brief manifesto is vague and puzzling, yet somehow compelling. The existence of Diaspora, and its ambitious plans to become what some have labeled “the anti-Facebook,” is, in some ways, old news. It was covered by BBC News and The New York Times back in May, but as their summer work draws to a close, the four NYU students responsible for its creation report that they are a mere week away from releasing the social network.
But I should clarify: this release is not what you might expect. For all intents and purposes, the network will probably still be inaccessible to average Internet users. On September 15, the Diaspora project will release its source code to the public. That’s right — Diaspora will be entirely open source, giving users free range to scrutinize and modify the inner workings of the network, provided they have the technical know-how. Imagine Facebook doing that.
What this means is that those who adopt Diaspora will take social networking into their own hands, and no longer be subjected to undesireable privacy restrictions (or, for that matter, any restrictions at all). According to the Diaspora blog, an emphasis has been put on creating an “intuitive way for users to decide, and not notice deciding, what content goes to their coworkers and what goes to their drinking buddies.” Those worried about a complex interface can take comfort in a claim from the designers that they “have pushed back more technical features like plugins and APIs in favor of simple and high value features.”
Could Diaspora create serious competition for Facebook? While Facebook sports a lead of 500 million users, Dispora has leverage: a widespread dissatisfaction with Facebook, and demand for a viable alternative. Even the name “Diaspora” hints at this shift — a settlement of people away from their original homeland (read: Facebook). And while it may seem like a small detail to many, the fact that Diaspora will be open source spells a huge advantage over any commercialized social network. The collaboration and mutual support of an entire community with common goals holds enormous potential. The mention of Wikipedia in the above passage is no coincidence.
Because we haven’t seen a functional version of the network, it’s hard to say what exactly it will look like. However, the designers have written that they’re considering features like OpenID, voice over IP, and instant messanging protocol. When September 15 rolls around, we’ll be sure to keep an eye on Diaspora’s progress.
Special thanks to Megan Levi for inspiring this post.
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Tags: diaspora, open source
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