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Yes, the secret sauce here is potentially Automattic. With WordPress.com, Gravatar and a substantial hold on WordPress.org, they have a rare opportunity to crea

by ekaln 14y ago

Yes, the secret sauce here is potentially Automattic. With WordPress.com, Gravatar and a substantial hold on WordPress.org, they have a rare opportunity to create a centralized platform.

drivebyacct2 14y ago
So the question I've asked elsewhere applies... what advantage is it that WordPress is open source now? If they're going to turn it into a social network, they're either going to have closed components (specific to Wordpress.com) or they're going to have to re-invision (and reimplement larges chunks of) it as a distributed social network, something that you seem to be happy to dismiss Diaspora of trying to do. Otherwise, it's just as "closed" as Facebook if I have to use a Wordpress.com site. I feel like there is a massive misunderstanding of what Jetpack does and provides in the way of a social network. All indications I've seen is that Jetpack just shares to other social networks. It does... effectively nothing... to provide an alternative free of other social networks. I mean, you even call out Gravatar as being "owned" by Automattic. I don't mind Gravatar but it's a bit stale and certainly not in the vain of a distributed or "open" social network. Maybe I'm misunderstanding but I don't see how Wordpress is anything like a social network other than you citing the fact that it can tie into other ident providers and share to other social networks. That describes... a metric ton of sites out there.
- ekaln 14y ago
  Sure, it may be that Automattic may need to release more closed products if they want to implement this vision It may not even be the vision they have for Automattic ... but I do think it's an opportunity they have. For Gravatar, no it's not a social network at all, but it's a potential part of a bigger, wider identity platform.
  - drivebyacct2 14y ago
    >it may be that Automattic may need to become a more closed if they want to implement this vision If we're just discussing Automattic becoming a closed Facebook competitor, sure it's possible. I think they have the position to do so, but I'm certainly not interested in another closed platform, even if bits of the core software are free. Gravatar is a wider identity platform, but it too just piggy backs on email. It's an avatar platform that piggy-backs on the email identity platform. And sadly, the avatar platform isn't distributed either. In my opinion, BrowserID has a much better chance of being the technical and featureful identity provider. Anyone can be a BrowserID provider and provide any level of security from literally none to quadruple factor auth with PKI if they wanted. I would love to see proposals on how to layer functionality like Gravatar on top. That's a social network alternative that I could get excited about!
- lmm 14y ago
  There's nothing wrong with the idea of Diaspora, just the execution.

by ekaln 14y ago

Yes, the secret sauce here is potentially Automattic. With WordPress.com, Gravatar and a substantial hold on WordPress.org, they have a rare opportunity to create a centralized platform.

drivebyacct2 14y ago

So the question I've asked elsewhere applies... what advantage is it that WordPress is open source now? If they're going to turn it into a social network, they're either going to have closed components (specific to Wordpress.com) or they're going to have to re-invision (and reimplement larges chunks of) it as a distributed social network, something that you seem to be happy to dismiss Diaspora of trying to do. Otherwise, it's just as "closed" as Facebook if I have to use a Wordpress.com site. I feel like there is a massive misunderstanding of what Jetpack does and provides in the way of a social network. All indications I've seen is that Jetpack just shares to other social networks. It does... effectively nothing... to provide an alternative free of other social networks. I mean, you even call out Gravatar as being "owned" by Automattic. I don't mind Gravatar but it's a bit stale and certainly not in the vain of a distributed or "open" social network. Maybe I'm misunderstanding but I don't see how Wordpress is anything like a social network other than you citing the fact that it can tie into other ident providers and share to other social networks. That describes... a metric ton of sites out there.

ekaln 14y ago
Sure, it may be that Automattic may need to release more closed products if they want to implement this vision It may not even be the vision they have for Automattic ... but I do think it's an opportunity they have. For Gravatar, no it's not a social network at all, but it's a potential part of a bigger, wider identity platform.
- drivebyacct2 14y ago
  >it may be that Automattic may need to become a more closed if they want to implement this vision If we're just discussing Automattic becoming a closed Facebook competitor, sure it's possible. I think they have the position to do so, but I'm certainly not interested in another closed platform, even if bits of the core software are free. Gravatar is a wider identity platform, but it too just piggy backs on email. It's an avatar platform that piggy-backs on the email identity platform. And sadly, the avatar platform isn't distributed either. In my opinion, BrowserID has a much better chance of being the technical and featureful identity provider. Anyone can be a BrowserID provider and provide any level of security from literally none to quadruple factor auth with PKI if they wanted. I would love to see proposals on how to layer functionality like Gravatar on top. That's a social network alternative that I could get excited about!
lmm 14y ago
There's nothing wrong with the idea of Diaspora, just the execution.