Diaspora is being hyped as a Facebook killer but could ultimately be doomed
Facebook, and its founder Mark Zuckerberg, have come under heavy fire over the past couple of weeks. The primary accusations have been that Facebook has a less-than-healthy respect for its users' privacy.
These accusations have manifested in a range of ways from articles in the Wall Street Journal accusing Facebook and MySpace of selling on user information, dredged up reports of Zuckerberg's cavalier approach to privacy and accusations that rather than fixing the problems, Facebook is hiding them within ever more complicated layers of complexity.
Some well-known figures in the online world have voiced calls for users to shut their Facebook accounts and a growing number of users claim that they will do this later this month.
It is in this environment that talk of a Facebook alternative has emerged. And one of the initiatives being talked about is Diaspora, an open source, decentralized social network that some users are hoping could be the answer to Facebook concerns.
The brainchild of four New York University students, Diaspora's underlying proposal is to decentralize the social network and build it on a peer-to-peer basis. Although there is yet to be a working example of Diaspora and it is still in the development stage, the idea has gained some traction with users who are frustrated by Facebook. Appealing to users to donate to the building of Diaspora, the developers have already secured more than US$180 000 in funding.
And yet, despite the obvious support financially and philosophically from many users, Diaspora faces an uncertain future.
The first obvious hurdle is that Diaspora has intention and money but doesn't have a product. All of the attention that the project is receiving through the media is both helping it and harming it. The growing hype that the four founders are the answer to all of the problems posed by Facebook is creating a level of expectation that few could match. They're almost doomed to under-deliver when, and if, a working version of Diaspora is released.
Diaspora is also challenging not only just a very popular social network but a social network with over 400 million users. And most of those are not disgruntled with Facebook. Even if many of these users do have Facebook issues that irritate them, most are too invested in the platform to simply move or close their accounts. Many have hundreds of friends, thousands of photographs and a good handful of groups they belong to.
Most people won't switch networks unless their friends do. Without their friends, the "switcher" would be in social network isolation. Not a place most Facebook users want to be.
Which is not to say that Diaspora can't do something interesting. It's just unlikely to be the Facebook-killer the media is hyping.
Diaspora is very likely to be adopted by geeks and those more technically-inclined users. It is, after all, likely to be a little more challenging to use than simply logging onto Facebook. Most average users won't have the motivation nor the inclination to set themselves up on Diaspora.
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Morgue[FLB
If Diaspora doesn't have a "FaceBook-import" function, it's game over
Except, they're both "social networks", so Diaspora will certainly be a 'copy' of FaceBook in one way or another (if it ever surfaces).Hawk
The whole point is to get away from FB, not copy it!
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Except, they're both "social networks", so Diaspora will certainly be a 'copy' of FaceBook in one way or another (if it ever surfaces).Hawk
The whole point is to get away from FB, not copy it!
One problem it... uh... 'faces'... is that its name is really terrible. "FaceBook" is a brilliant combination of elements, but "Diaspora" means very little to most people. And then there's the fact that Diaspora is only a concept at the moment, not a reality. And, as mentioned in your original article, since most FB users are so heavily invested in FB already, they have no incentive to move to something else.
But a FB-import function would make it easier for them to try Diaspora out. And just because that function might import contacts and photos, doesn't mean that Diaspora has to look or work the same way that FB does.
:)
Morgue[FLB