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Once upon a time, all Internet protocols were distributed, passed-along by ISPs peering bandwidth (email, IRC, Usenet). The users paid their ISPs, and the ISPs

by KingMob 11y ago

Once upon a time, all Internet protocols were distributed, passed-along by ISPs peering bandwidth (email, IRC, Usenet). The users paid their ISPs, and the ISPs had agreements to share and not bill each other (sort of). This broke down, because most people monetizing an idea don't want others to host it outside their control. And now, even the peering agreement is breaking down, as Verizon tries to shakedown both sides of a network connection, and not just their subscribers. We had a friendly, open Internet, and now we have ads and closed-ecosystem apps. In Africa, Facebook Zero is trying to create the illusion that there's no other Internet, just Facebook. If things like Diaspora had the resources Facebook did, we could totally have distributed social networking, paid for by users.

mburns 11y ago
Usenet still exists, but herding cats never got any easier, and the cost for hosting didn't go away. There is a reason it became marginalized: user experience. Facebook Zero is no longer doing what you allege, and never actually did. It was just a plan that was scrapped. Diaspora never had a design or plan to work. It was a couple college kids who thought it would be neat despite never having written a distributed protocol before. We've had lots of smart people attempt this, and haven't gotten anywhere close to a usable "distributed" social network prototypes. If your idea can't bootstrap itself from zero users the way modern startups work, maybe it isn't such a great idea after all.
onewaystreet 11y ago
> In Africa, Facebook Zero is trying to create the illusion that there's no other Internet, just Facebook. If there is no Internet access then there is no Internet. Critics of Facebook's initiatives should need to provide compelling alternatives if they want to be taken seriously.
dump100 11y ago
Diaspora has resources on higher side, Mark Zuckerberg had little cash from friends, Diaspora raised it from Kickstarter.

by KingMob 11y ago

mburns 11y ago

Usenet still exists, but herding cats never got any easier, and the cost for hosting didn't go away. There is a reason it became marginalized: user experience. Facebook Zero is no longer doing what you allege, and never actually did. It was just a plan that was scrapped. Diaspora never had a design or plan to work. It was a couple college kids who thought it would be neat despite never having written a distributed protocol before. We've had lots of smart people attempt this, and haven't gotten anywhere close to a usable "distributed" social network prototypes. If your idea can't bootstrap itself from zero users the way modern startups work, maybe it isn't such a great idea after all.

onewaystreet 11y ago

> In Africa, Facebook Zero is trying to create the illusion that there's no other Internet, just Facebook. If there is no Internet access then there is no Internet. Critics of Facebook's initiatives should need to provide compelling alternatives if they want to be taken seriously.

dump100 11y ago

Diaspora has resources on higher side, Mark Zuckerberg had little cash from friends, Diaspora raised it from Kickstarter.