Diaspora: a Free, Open-Source, Secure Social Network

Hey, you remember when I was talking about Google blowing it with Buzz and Facebook’s increasingly dubious privacy policy? And how I proposed a distributed, Open Source, encrypted option? And then Facebook got worse?

Four NYU students apparently took up my challenge (and didn’t credit me! The nerve!) and have started a project called Diaspora*. I’d give an overview, but, uh, I already did that in the other article. They’re making exactly what I was talking about. Expect me to have one of the very first accounts. And expect to get an invitation from me.

0 thoughts on “Diaspora: a Free, Open-Source, Secure Social Network”

  1. So have you deleted your Facebook account yet? Will you, if Diaspora* pans out?

    And did you get my email address, which I sent to you via Facebook, in response to your Facebook chat request? 🙂

  2. I haven’t, I will, and I did, but then I couldn’t remember why I wanted to talk with you.

    Oh!

    Now I remember! JiffyCon Boston! June 26th! It’s a long way for a short con, but I’d love to be able to hang with you for a couple of days.

  3. Well, let me know how Diaspora* works out. I’m very curious, and basically not using Facebook any more, preparatory to deleting my account there.

    As for JiffyCon Boston, unfortunately that’s the same weekend as Origins, for which I’ve already made plans.

  4. I think the thing to do is start feeding it disinformation before deleting the account (or deleting the things from it, at least. There may not be a way to cancel an account).

  5. Supposedly there is a way to *delete* a Facebook account – not “deactivate” (that’s useless), but literally nuke all of your content.

    But I too find my finger hovering over that button, and I’m asking myself, why am I hesitating? And I think the answer is that I feel the need to do a complete inventory of my friends and reconsider who I really want to keep up with and who I can afford to lose touch with.

    Again.

  6. It’s OK. They’ll recommend you. That’s how these things grow.

    Hm. You know what’s neat? I bet you can do something like “invite your friends” to another site with Facebook. I bet you could invite them right off the service altogether.

  7. Actually, I seem to remember pages like this. FB tends to shut them down pretty quickly now.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *