Diaspora (social network)

Diaspora

URL	Distributed network of pods/servers [nb 1]
Commercial?	No
Type of site	Social networking
Registration	Yes
Available language(s)	Various
Owner	None
Launched	November 2010
Revenue	Donations and t-shirt sales
Current status	Active, in alpha

Diaspora (styled DIASPORA*) is a non-profit, user-owned, distributed social network that is based upon the free Diaspora software. The project was founded in 2010 by four students at New York University’s Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Ilya Zhitomirskiy, Dan Grippi, Max Salzberg and Raphael Sofaer. Diaspora consists of a group of independently owned pods which interoperate to form the network.

The word Diaspora is Greek in origin and refers to a scattered or dispersed population.^[1]

While the Diaspora software is developed and managed by the Diaspora Foundation, the social network is not owned by any one person or entity, keeping it safe from corporate take-overs, advertising and other threats. In September 2011 the developers stated, "...our distributed design means no big corporation will ever control Diaspora. Diaspora* will never sell your social life to advertisers, and you won’t have to conform to someone’s arbitrary rules or look over your shoulder before you speak."^[2]

Diaspora has been specifically noted by US National Public Radio for its policy that allows the use of pseudonyms, in contrast to its competitors Facebook, which does not, and Google+, which is still considering whether to allow pseudonyms.^[3][4]

Technology

Main article: Diaspora (software)

The Diaspora social network is constructed of a network of nodes, or pods, hosted by many different individuals and institutions. Each node operates a copy of the Diaspora software acting as a personal web server. Users of the network can create an account on any server of their choice, but can interact with other users on all other servers.^[5][3][6]

History

Zhitomirskiy, Grippi (2011)

Grippi, Salzberg, Sofaer and Zhitomirskiy started the Diaspora project after being motivated by a February 5, 2010 speech by Columbia University law professor Eben Moglen. In his speech, delivered to the Internet Society's New York Chapter, "Freedom in the Cloud", Moglen described centralized social networks as "spying for free."^[7][8] In a New York Times interview, Salzberg said "When you give up that data, you’re giving it up forever ... The value they give us is negligible in the scale of what they are doing, and what we are giving up is all of our privacy." Sofaer said, "We don't need to hand our messages to a hub. What Facebook gives you as a user isn't all that hard to do. All the little games, the little walls, the little chat, aren't really rare things. The technology already exists".^[7] However, Salzberg has said that "Facebook is not what we are going after".^[9]

The group decided to address this problem by creating a distributed social network. To obtain the necessary funds the project was launched on 24 April 2010 on Kickstarter, a crowd funding website. The first 39 days were assigned to raise the US$10,000 that they estimated would be needed to get started. However, the initial funding goal was met in just 12 days and the project eventually raised more than US$200,000 from over 6000 backers (making it the second most successful Kickstarter project to date).^[10] Grippi said "We were shocked. For some strange reason, everyone just agreed with this whole privacy thing. Among the donors was Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg who contributed an undisclosed amount, saying "I donated. I think it is a cool idea."^[6][11][12]

Early development

Work on the Diaspora software began in May 2010. Finn Brunton, a teacher and digital media researcher at New York University, described their method as "a return of the classic geek means of production: pizza and ramen and guys sleeping under the desks because it is something that it is really exciting and challenging."^[6] A developer preview was released on 15 September and received criticism for various security bugs.^[13]

The first Diaspora "pod" was launched by the development team on 23 November 2010; as a private, invitation-only alpha.^[14]

In December 2010 ReadWriteWeb named the project as one of its Top 10 Start-Ups of 2010, saying "Diaspora certainly represents the power of crowd funding, as well as an interest in making sure the social Web is not centralized in one company".^[11] On 7 January 2011 Black Duck Software named the project one of its Open Source Rookies of 2010, for being "the privacy aware, personally controlled, do-it-all, open source social network. "^[15]

Since its release, features of Diaspora have appeared in similar forms in other social networks.^[16] In a September 2011 message the developers noted similarities such as Google+'s "circles" (a version of Diaspora's aspects) and new sets of user privacy controls implemented by Facebook. They said "we can’t help but be pleased with the impact our work has had".^[17]

Diaspora foundation

The Diaspora Foundation website was started on 29 September 2011.^[18] Its declared mission is "to build a new and better social web, one that’s 100% owned and controlled by you and other Diasporans."^[2]

In October 2011 the Disapora Foundation announced that it was starting a fundraising campaign. Maxwell Salzberg explained, "we are trying to obtain ongoing community support. We want to maintain Diaspora as a community-financed project, so the core product can remain non-commercial...The key right now is to build something that our community wants to use and that makes a difference in our users' lives. In the future, we will work with our community to determine with them how we could best turn Diaspora* into a self-sustaining operation." Within days of commencing the campaign over US$45,000 had been raised when PayPal froze the foundation's account without explanation. After a large number of complaints to Paypal from Diaspora users and the threat of legal action, the account was unfrozen with an apology from a PayPal executive, but still without explanation. This incident prompted the acceptance of other payment processors, including Stripe and Bitcoin.^{[19][20][21][22]}

On 12 November 2011 co-founder Ilya Zhitomirskiy died, at the age of 22. Currently, the cause of death is unknown.^[23].

Features

The Diaspora software allows user posts to be designated as "public" or "limited". In the latter case posts can only be read by approved groups (or combinations of groups) set up by the user, termed aspects. Several default aspects exist such as friends, family or work and custom ones can be added.^[24] It is possible to follow another user's post without the mutual friending required by other social networks.^[24][25][26] A user's news stream can be filtered by aspect.^[24]

The developers consider the distributed nature of the network crucial to its design and success:^[2]

Diaspora’s distributed design is a huge part of it. Like the Internet itself, Diaspora* isn’t housed in any one place, and it’s not controlled by any one entity (including us). We’ve created software that lets you set up and run your own social network on your own “pod” (or server) and connect your network to the larger Diaspora* ecosystem. You can have a pod all to yourself, or one for just you and your friends, or your family, giving you complete ownership and control over your personal social information (including your identity, your posts, and your photos) and how it’s all stored and shared. Or you can simply request an invite at joindiaspora.com, or sign up at one of more than 20 open pods.^[2]

Diaspora users retain ownership of their data and do not assign ownership rights. The software is specifically designed to allow users to download all their images and text that has been uploaded at any time.^[2]

In September 2011, although the network and its software was still in alpha, Terry Hancock of Free Software Magazine described it as "already quite usable for some purposes". While it supported text, photos and links, it still lacked some features, including link preview, the ability to upload or embed videos (although videos could be linked to on other services) and chat. Animated GIFs were supported, however.^[5]

Reception

On 14 September 2011 Terry Hancock of Free Software Magazine endorsed the Diaspora network in an article entitled Why You Should Join Diaspora Now, Like Your Freedom Depends On It, calling it "good enough" for mainstream use. In explaining his reasoning for encouraging people to sign up he stated:^[5]

With all of the concerns over who controls the “Social Web” (We’ve addressed some of these problems before in Free Software Magazine — regarding the Google+ name policy and other privacy issues, Facebook’s questionable ethics, and the overall danger of controlled networks. I think it is extremely important for a more decentralized, more democratic, more open, and more free solution to succeed in the interest of personal freedom on the internet. And it looks to me like Diaspora is an essential part of that solution, so I’m endorsing it now, even though it’s not entirely “ready”.^[5]

On 14 September 2011 Suw Charman-Anderson wrote in firstpost.com, in connection to Ilya Zhitomiskiy's death, about why Diaspora's slower growth can be an advantage:^[27]

One key difference, however, is in number of users. Google+ has 40 million, whereas Diaspora has just 180,000 users, in part because the service is still in alpha testing. This might actually work to Diaspora’s advantage in the long run as it will have more time to build a sense of community. Experience shows us that online communities that grow too fast fragment and can become fractious as different groups clash over what kind of behaviour they think should be allowed.^[27]

Notes

1. ^ Various pods/servers making up the Diaspora social network are listed at podupti.me

References

1. ^ Dictionary.com (2011). "Diaspora". http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Diaspora. Retrieved 1 October 2011. 
2. ^ ^{a b c d e} Grippi, Dan, et al (September 2011). "Diaspora* means a brighter future for all of us". http://blog.diasporafoundation.org/2011/09/21/diaspora-means-a-brighter-future-for-all-of-us.html. Retrieved 30 September 2011. 
3. ^ ^{a b} Kaste, Martin (September 2011). "Who Are You, Really? Activists Fight For Pseudonyms". National Public Radio. http://www.npr.org/2011/09/28/140879480/who-are-you-really-activists-fight-for-pseudonyms. Retrieved 30 September 2011. 
4. ^ Galperin, Eva (October 19, 2011). "Victory! Google Surrenders in the Nymwars". https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/10/victory-google-surrenders-nymwars. Retrieved 14 November 2011. 
5. ^ ^{a b c d} Hancock, Terry (September 2011). "Why You Should Join Diaspora Now, Like Your Freedom Depends On It". Free Software Magazine. http://fsmsh.com/3598. Retrieved 30 September 2011. 
6. ^ ^{a b c} Dwyer, Jim (May 2011). "Four Nerds and a Cry to Arms Against Facebook". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/12/nyregion/12about.html. Retrieved 30 September 2011. 
7. ^ ^{a b} Dwyer, Jim (2010-05-11). "Four Nerds and a Cry to Arms Against Facebook". New York Times (The New York Times Company). http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/12/nyregion/12about.html. Retrieved May 12, 2010. 
8. ^ "Internet Society — Eben Moglen — Freedom in The Cloud". 2010-02-05. http://www.isoc-ny.org/?p=1338. Retrieved 2010-07-03. 
9. ^ Shiels, Maggie (May 12, 2010). "The anti-Facebook". dot.Maggie. BBC News. http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/maggieshiels/2010/05/the_antifacebook.html. Retrieved October 28, 2010. 
10. ^ "Want An iPod Nano Watch? So Does Everyone. Idea Poised To Be New Kickstarter King". TechCrunch. http://techcrunch.com/2010/11/24/ipod-nano-watch/. Retrieved 2010-11-26. 
11. ^ ^{a b} Watters, Audrey (December 2010). "Top 10 Startups of 2010 - Page 2". ReadWriteWeb. http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/top_10_startups_of_2010p2.php. Retrieved 2 October 2011. 
12. ^ Van Grove, Jennifer (May 2010). "Mark Zuckerberg Donated to Facebook Alternative, Diaspora". Mashable. http://mashable.com/2010/05/28/zuckerberg-diaspora/. Retrieved 14 October 2011. 
13. ^ Goodin, Dan. "Code for open-source Facebook littered with landmines". The Register. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/09/16/diaspora_pre_alpha_landmines/. Retrieved September 17, 2010. 
14. ^ Grippi, Dan, et al (November 2010). "Private Alpha Invites Going Out Today". http://blog.diasporafoundation.org/2010/11/23/private-alpha-released.html. Retrieved 2 October 2011. 
15. ^ Black Duck Software (January 2011). "Black Duck Software Names Open Source Rookies of 2010". http://www.blackducksoftware.com/news/releases/2011-01-07. Retrieved 2 October 2011. 
16. ^ Gannes, Liz (October 13, 2011). "Diaspora Prepares to Launch Open Source Social Network". http://allthingsd.com/20111013/at-lunch-with-diaspora-the-non-profit-open-source-social-network-built-by-outsiders. 
17. ^ Grippi, Dan, et al (September 2011). "Diaspora* is making a difference". http://blog.diasporafoundation.org/2011/09/08/we-are-making-a-difference.html. Retrieved 2 October 2011. 
18. ^ Grippi, Dan, et al (September 2011). "DiasporaFoundation.org is now live". http://blog.diasporafoundation.org/2011/09/29/diasporafoundation-org-is-now-live.html. Retrieved 2 October 2011. 
19. ^ Brockmeier, Joe (October 2011). [The State of Diaspora and Fundraising Round Two "Title of Article"]. ReadWriteWeb. The State of Diaspora and Fundraising Round Two. Retrieved 14 October 2011. 
20. ^ Grippi, Dan, et al (October 2011). "Diaspora* — Share the love.". http://blog.diasporafoundation.org/2011/10/12/we-love-you.html. Retrieved 12 October 2011. 
21. ^ Kobie, Nicole (October 2011). "Diaspora accuses PayPal of blocking donations". PC Pro. http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/370624/diaspora-accuses-paypal-of-blocking-donations. Retrieved 14 October 2011. 
22. ^ Companys, Yosem (October 2011). "PayPal acts like a “pal,” unfreezes the Diaspora* community’s donations". http://blog.diasporafoundation.org/2011/10/20/paypal-acts-like-a-pal-unfreezes-the-diaspora-communitys-donations.html. Retrieved 14 October 2011. 
23. ^ Kumparak, Greg. "Diaspora Co-Founder Ilya Zhitomirskiy Passes Away At 22". TechCrunch. http://techcrunch.com/2011/11/13/diaspora-co-founder-ilya-zhitomirskiy-passes-away-at-21/. Retrieved 13 November 2011. 
24. ^ ^{a b c} Diasporial (undated). "Part II - Interface and Aspects". http://diasporial.com/tutorials/interface-and-aspects. Retrieved 2 October 2011. 
25. ^ Diasporial (undated). "Part III - Follows and Followers". http://diasporial.com/tutorials/follows-and-followers. Retrieved 2 October 2011. 
26. ^ Diasporial (undated). "Part IV - Conversations". http://diasporial.com/tutorials/conversations. Retrieved 2 October 2011. 
27. ^ ^{a b} "Could Diaspora ever challenge Facebook and Google Plus?". http://www.firstpost.com/tech/could-diaspora-ever-challenge-facebook-and-google-plus-130802.html. Retrieved 17 November 2011. 

External links

• Diaspora Foundation
• List of Diaspora pods
• Another list of Diaspora pods
• Diaspora tutorials