32 ms·

What programming experience do the Diaspora guys have?

by joubert 16y ago

jacquesm 16y ago
At their age? Not a whole lot. But then again, Zuckerberg was about that age when he built the first version of facebook. It's not rocketscience. The problem is, there is facebook now. And that sets the bar pretty high. Going up against the proverbial 800 pound gorilla makes for a great story but it will probably end in some squashed egos. The book rights will be worth something though :) Just like duck-duck-go isn't going to overtake google tomorrow though, they might find a niche they can exploit. Facebook exiles most likely.
- andymoe 16y ago
  What they are proposing is significantly more difficult than what Facebook initially wrote. Facebook, at one point, was just another web app with a nice story for bootstrapping new users via the college networks. These guys are trying to build a distributed, secure, encrypted network on which to build social networking functionality. If they do it correctly it could be the basis for a whole lot more. And even if they don't work it out entirely as long as they release the source code it is a step in the right direction and others can continue to work on it or something similar.
  - jacquesm 16y ago
    Yes, but if they hire say cperciva or someone with credentials and experience like that I can see that part as 'solvable'. The technology is doable, after all, skype was built by two guys on top of a library created to distribute mp3s. If you look at the top of the pledge page they write "Decentralize the web", they do not specifically mention facebook, so they seem to be aware of the fact that this could be the basis for a whole lot more.
  - anigbrowl 16y ago
    Well, GPG is fairly mature, and so is the BitTorrent protocol, which Bram Cohen launched at ~25. they're ambitious to be sure, but the basic concept is not that far out. Anyway, they now have enough money to hire a competent programmer or two if they get stuck :)

What programming experience do the Diaspora guys have?

by joubert 16y ago

What programming experience do the Diaspora guys have?

At their age? Not a whole lot. But then again, Zuckerberg was about that age when he built the first version of facebook. It's not rocketscience. The problem is, there is facebook now. And that sets the bar pretty high. Going up against the proverbial 800 pound gorilla makes for a great story but it will probably end in some squashed egos. The book rights will be worth something though :) Just like duck-duck-go isn't going to overtake google tomorrow though, they might find a niche they can exploit. Facebook exiles most likely.

andymoe 16y ago
What they are proposing is significantly more difficult than what Facebook initially wrote. Facebook, at one point, was just another web app with a nice story for bootstrapping new users via the college networks. These guys are trying to build a distributed, secure, encrypted network on which to build social networking functionality. If they do it correctly it could be the basis for a whole lot more. And even if they don't work it out entirely as long as they release the source code it is a step in the right direction and others can continue to work on it or something similar.
- jacquesm 16y ago
  Yes, but if they hire say cperciva or someone with credentials and experience like that I can see that part as 'solvable'. The technology is doable, after all, skype was built by two guys on top of a library created to distribute mp3s. If you look at the top of the pledge page they write "Decentralize the web", they do not specifically mention facebook, so they seem to be aware of the fact that this could be the basis for a whole lot more.
- anigbrowl 16y ago
  Well, GPG is fairly mature, and so is the BitTorrent protocol, which Bram Cohen launched at ~25. they're ambitious to be sure, but the basic concept is not that far out. Anyway, they now have enough money to hire a competent programmer or two if they get stuck :)