Facebook Competitor Diaspora Revealed 306
jamie writes "A post has just gone up on Diaspora's blog revealing what the project actually looks like for the first time. While it's not yet ready to be released to the public, the open-source social networking project is giving the world a glimpse of what it looks like today and also releasing the project code, as promised. At first glance, this preview version of Diaspora looks sparse, but clean. Oddly enough, with its big pictures and stream, it doesn't look unlike Apple's new Ping music social network mixed with yes, Facebook."
Re:The network effect (Score:4, Interesting)
If a social network were geared toward linking groups of three for some maximum objective (business partnerships, sex, friendship, counseling, etc.) then by the same reasoning its value should vary as the cube of the number of nodes, and then this thricebook would kill facebook.
Re:All flash, no substance. (Score:3, Interesting)
Ok, time to return to Appleseed [appleseedproject.org], the distributed social networking software which already is in development for several years now, already has working beta-servers, and is probably much closer to a final release than Diaspora.
Re:It's the protocols, stupid! (Score:2, Interesting)
Moving data from one node to another could be part of the protocol. Server A says to server B "give me this user's stuff". It would be the smart way to handle transfers anyway.
Those buzzwords don't fit my router! (Score:4, Interesting)
And here I was thinking that the likes of Diaspora could be nicely installed on my router [dd-wrt.com]. With a load of luck and a pitchfork I might be able to get it on there because this router has more memory than my previous laptop but you might as well forget about getting this incarnation of Diaspora running on a WRT54GL. If lightning had not struck last month I'd still be running one of those with no plans to replace it until, well, lightning would strike.
I will try to keep an eye on what they are doing but I'm really more interested in the protocols and APIs they use and develop. One it all settles down I'd create something which interacts with their implementation without all the buzz they deem necessary in some nice, compact and high performance language. It might even fit on a WRT54GL then which would give it an instant base of who knows how many nodes...
Re:I dunno, man... (Score:3, Interesting)
What if facebook becomes the place that "old people" use ?
Re:All flash, no substance. (Score:2, Interesting)
You realize that there will be free public servers to host this thing, just like we have free email providers now.
And it will eventually be translated into other languages as well.
competitors and/or file types (Score:3, Interesting)
Google might pick it up. Android shows Google's willingness to adopt openness as a "scorched earth" policy against competitors who're doing end runs around Google's core business. All the other social networking sites like hi5 might adopt it for strength in numbers vs. facebook. You could even imagine IM programs like skype jumping on the social networking bandwagon through variation on Disapora's protocols.
Also, friends-to-friend file sharing is the untapped killer app for social networking, as easy invisible widespread friend-to-friend piracy could finally muzzle the MafIAA bullshit. For example, Skype could steal facebooks thunder tomorrow if they built social networking into their client, but supported filetypes beyond merely photos. Friend-to-friend file sharing might emerge in Disapora if people started using stand alone clients, just support more filetypes than merely photos.
Re:I dunno, man... (Score:3, Interesting)
So everyone knows that Google is a mispelling of Googol, which is the name of the number 10^100?
Every Wikipedia user knows the definition of "wiki"?
Every one of the millions of Orkut users know the name came from its creator, Orkut Büyükkökten?
People don't type URL, they use search engines.
diaespora: first result.
diesporah: first result.
dyespora: first result.
I seriously doubt the name will eb the thing to kill it. It probably just won't have anything "new" that makes people change.
Maybe if they offer integration with other social networks, by creating and maintaining derivatives of your Diaspora profile in those sites transparently, and then can use those profiles to interact with your friends that use that other network.