Student-Created Diaspora Takes on Facebook
May 21, 2010 | VReitano
Facebook’s new privacy settings, or lack of such, have upset many users and some have taken things into their own hands, literally. Students at New York University have raised over $100,000 to create a Facebook alternative called Diaspora, according to an article on Mashable.com.
According to the article, “an open source personal web service that will put individuals in control of their data,” which is a direct hit at Facebook’s new use of the open software that allows websites to gather information about you by allowing you to use Facebook Connect and to “Like” websites directly from their own pages instead of having to log in and out of your personal page each time. This is what has directly angered many consumers and Facebook users and the team behind Diaspora has clear evidence of that–they were able to reach their goal of $10,000 in 12 days by using Kickstarter, an online platform that allows users to donate to causes they believe in.
These students, a team that includes Daniel Grippi, Maxwell Salzberg, Ilya Zhitomirskiy and Raphael Sofaer, have created an idea so unique that more than 2,300 people have backed it via Kickstarter. Their interviews on Mashable show that they are dedicated and ready to begin this project.
Would you back them? Do you think it’s an interesting idea? Would you use it?
