4 ms·

I see Diaspora kind of like a third-party candidate in an election (in the US). They won't win, but it's not really about that. It's about forcing the big guys

by tansey 16y ago

I see Diaspora kind of like a third-party candidate in an election (in the US). They won't win, but it's not really about that. It's about forcing the big guys to take a better stance on their one important issue.

potatolicious 16y ago
I also see Diaspora like a third-party candidate in a US election, but in a different way: They won't win, they never stood a chance, and beyond a small legion of die-hard supporters, never had any public traction with the public beyond "oh hey, did you know what's-his-face is running?". And like most obscure third party candidates, they will impart no significant force upon the major candidates' policies or views. Sorry to be a debbie downer, but I have a hard time treating seriously a team that has no track record nor even the slightest bit of code written. Come on, we've been around that block to many times to be fooled by this, haven't we? Don't get me wrong, it may very well be that some agile startup will come along and eat Facebook for lunch. Hell, it'd be great to see some real competition in this sphere - but from everything we've seen of Diaspora, there's no real reason to expect them to do anything but sit around, write a bit of code (if they even get to that) and then fizzle out.
- jokermatt999 16y ago
  Honestly, I don't think it matters who the developers are or what their coding expertise is at this point. They were there in the right place at the right time for the media to latch on to their story and to bring those issues into the light. They could take the money and run away laughing at this point, and they still will make an impact on Facebook because the media were able to point to their business model and say "See, things could be different!". Yes, they have ideas that have been tried and failed before, but their story is "sexier" and better timed than those. It's not so much the people or the code, but the position and timing.
  - BerislavLopac 16y ago
    The problem with latching on by the media is that goes away as quickly as it comes. The main problem with Diaspora is that they're focusing on the technology, and on the servers. The real solution to the "Facebook problem" lies with the end users, not with the servers, however decentralized they were. I'm pretty sure Diaspora will produce an application. And I'm pretty sure only a handful of early adopters will set up the servers, and it will be used by even fewer zealots. The "real" users -- who are a majority on Facebook -- will never switch. And don't forget that there already is a project doing precisely what they intend to build: http://opensource.appleseedproject.org/ http://opensource.appleseedproject.org/
    - pwhelan 16y ago
      Agreed. The "Facebook problem" is not solvable by writing better software in my opinion. There is just a difficult balance to strike between over-sharing and not sharing enough to enjoy on social networks. Until consumers become more educated, or you are writing for a niche, that issue just won't go away.
    - jokermatt999 16y ago
      Yeah, I meant all that in the context of "making a difference in Facebook's privacy standards", not saying "Diaspora will succeed". Other than the exposure it has, I don't see it having any huge advantages.
    - mindcrime 16y ago
      And they're not the only ones: https://openqabal.dev.java.net/ https://openqabal.dev.java.net/ (disclaimer: OpenQabal is a project I started). I'm pretty sure there are a few other projects out there as well, doing more or less the same thing(s). If everybody working on one of these projects could get in sync, and agree to common protocols and formats, so that they could all interoperate, it would make it that much more likely for the federated / decentralized approach to catch on. I'm not sure it'll happen though. Nobody seems to really be talking about it (yet).

by tansey 16y ago

potatolicious 16y ago

I also see Diaspora like a third-party candidate in a US election, but in a different way: They won't win, they never stood a chance, and beyond a small legion of die-hard supporters, never had any public traction with the public beyond "oh hey, did you know what's-his-face is running?". And like most obscure third party candidates, they will impart no significant force upon the major candidates' policies or views. Sorry to be a debbie downer, but I have a hard time treating seriously a team that has no track record nor even the slightest bit of code written. Come on, we've been around that block to many times to be fooled by this, haven't we? Don't get me wrong, it may very well be that some agile startup will come along and eat Facebook for lunch. Hell, it'd be great to see some real competition in this sphere - but from everything we've seen of Diaspora, there's no real reason to expect them to do anything but sit around, write a bit of code (if they even get to that) and then fizzle out.

jokermatt999 16y ago
Honestly, I don't think it matters who the developers are or what their coding expertise is at this point. They were there in the right place at the right time for the media to latch on to their story and to bring those issues into the light. They could take the money and run away laughing at this point, and they still will make an impact on Facebook because the media were able to point to their business model and say "See, things could be different!". Yes, they have ideas that have been tried and failed before, but their story is "sexier" and better timed than those. It's not so much the people or the code, but the position and timing.
- BerislavLopac 16y ago
  The problem with latching on by the media is that goes away as quickly as it comes. The main problem with Diaspora is that they're focusing on the technology, and on the servers. The real solution to the "Facebook problem" lies with the end users, not with the servers, however decentralized they were. I'm pretty sure Diaspora will produce an application. And I'm pretty sure only a handful of early adopters will set up the servers, and it will be used by even fewer zealots. The "real" users -- who are a majority on Facebook -- will never switch. And don't forget that there already is a project doing precisely what they intend to build: http://opensource.appleseedproject.org/ http://opensource.appleseedproject.org/
  - pwhelan 16y ago
    Agreed. The "Facebook problem" is not solvable by writing better software in my opinion. There is just a difficult balance to strike between over-sharing and not sharing enough to enjoy on social networks. Until consumers become more educated, or you are writing for a niche, that issue just won't go away.
  - jokermatt999 16y ago
    Yeah, I meant all that in the context of "making a difference in Facebook's privacy standards", not saying "Diaspora will succeed". Other than the exposure it has, I don't see it having any huge advantages.
  - mindcrime 16y ago
    And they're not the only ones: https://openqabal.dev.java.net/ https://openqabal.dev.java.net/ (disclaimer: OpenQabal is a project I started). I'm pretty sure there are a few other projects out there as well, doing more or less the same thing(s). If everybody working on one of these projects could get in sync, and agree to common protocols and formats, so that they could all interoperate, it would make it that much more likely for the federated / decentralized approach to catch on. I'm not sure it'll happen though. Nobody seems to really be talking about it (yet).