I just signed up for Diaspora* account to see how “The Anti-Facebook” really looks like. Diaspora* project is still in alpha but there are already several working pods so I used one of them. If you are not familiar with Diaspora* concept: rather than using centralized social networking website like Facebook, they allow users maintaining their own mini websites (they call them “pods”), so in order to enter the Diaspora* network you either need to set up your own website or use one of existing pods hosted by independent providers.
The pod which I randomly selected from the list which I found on wiki (for some reason the official Diaspora* website does not provide any information on how to sign up for the account) claims they are in beta... Doesn’t it sound weird that the product is in alpha but one of its service providers is already in beta? Anyway, eventually I managed to sign up. Discussion about bugs and design is out of scope of this article. Much more important is the idea behind decentralized hosting od social network accounts: privacy. You do not give up your privacy to social network owner such as Facebook which sells information about you to third parties. Sounds very reasonable and promising! However, what happens in reality? If you are not a computer geek, who intends to participate in development of new social network project, I doubt you will have enough time, motivation, technical capabilities, and which is most important - knowledge - to maintain your own pod website. Therefore, in order to join Diaspora* you will have to open account in one of existing pods. Instead of giving your information to at least well known and somehow responsible Facebook, you will have to trust the same data to one of randomly selected unknown hosting providers? Note that Diaspora* is all about open source so there is no any licensing or other controlling mechanism, and literally everyone can set up new Diaspora* pod and start maintaining user accounts which in fact means - owning user information!
The idea of decentralization and “privatization” of social networks is great, but this particular implementation is practically not there yet... So who is next?
By the way, you can find me on Diaspora* at [email protected]
The pod which I randomly selected from the list which I found on wiki (for some reason the official Diaspora* website does not provide any information on how to sign up for the account) claims they are in beta... Doesn’t it sound weird that the product is in alpha but one of its service providers is already in beta? Anyway, eventually I managed to sign up. Discussion about bugs and design is out of scope of this article. Much more important is the idea behind decentralized hosting od social network accounts: privacy. You do not give up your privacy to social network owner such as Facebook which sells information about you to third parties. Sounds very reasonable and promising! However, what happens in reality? If you are not a computer geek, who intends to participate in development of new social network project, I doubt you will have enough time, motivation, technical capabilities, and which is most important - knowledge - to maintain your own pod website. Therefore, in order to join Diaspora* you will have to open account in one of existing pods. Instead of giving your information to at least well known and somehow responsible Facebook, you will have to trust the same data to one of randomly selected unknown hosting providers? Note that Diaspora* is all about open source so there is no any licensing or other controlling mechanism, and literally everyone can set up new Diaspora* pod and start maintaining user accounts which in fact means - owning user information!
The idea of decentralization and “privatization” of social networks is great, but this particular implementation is practically not there yet... So who is next?
By the way, you can find me on Diaspora* at [email protected]
Click to set custom HTML
RSS Feed
