How to: Create A Social Network that isn’t fucked up…

Ello is this talk of the internet right now.  A new social network, that doesn’t ask for, nor collects personal information.  Every few months a new “Facebook-killer” pops up… but the ones that seem to get attention are the ones that specifically target all of the media published controversy surrounding facebook.

Why Ello is Flawed?
First off, venture capital.  After getting less than a half million dollars from VC funding… *cough*…. People don’t invest unless there is a payoff.  Second, you lose control when VC’s are involved.  While the idea is nice, the reality of the situation is, it’s a social network in a single group/person/corporations hand.   As soon as some time goes by, those VC’s will want a payoff, be it IPO, folding and selling user data (which has happened time and time again) or something that will get a return on their investment.  At the time of this writing, some of the developers are already backing away from the venture.  Paul Budnitz, the founder, is known for starting over a dozen businesses, Looking for the next thing to make a buck.

What is Diaspora
Back up to 2010… Diaspora was a much hyped social network that, like Ello, focused on privacy issues, users retaining control of their data, and lack of advertising.    Diaspora was the buzz for almost a year, founded by 4 twenty-something undergrads, the idea was great.  In 2010 the 4 launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise the $10,000 they estimated it would take to start the project in 39 days.   With all of the buzz it was ensured that the group reached their 10k goal in just 12 days.  By the end of the 39 days the group managed to raise more than $200,000, breaking records for Kickstarter.

Aside from the well received ideas that countered the practices of Facebook and Google+, the technology model behind Diaspora was what, to this day, is incredibly appealing

Remember to take regular breaks away from the screen, even if it’s only to get up and talk to a colleague instead of emailing them. You can also check computer reading glassesand monitor are correct, and don’t forget to blink regularly.

The Technology model was to create a completely decentralized social network.   An idea similar to the TOR network, Bittorrent and other similar distributed platforms, Diaspora would operate by independently operated nodes (pods) which would interoperated with each other.   The idea behind this model was that the social network could not be owned by one person.  This means no corporation or one person could ever own or be in control of the social network, and because of the decentralized nature of the network, it could never be sold.

The idea was sound.  The technology model is what needs to happen again, we need to target the right person at the right time to have successful marketing strategy, here’s a more details about Facebook Markeging company. Visit to read more tips here – SecurityInfo here about security and its importance.

If Diaspora was so great, what happened to it?.
There are many reasons why Diaspora didn’t catch on.  After their Kickstarter campaign, the lofty ideas of the 4 founders ended up being a lot more than ever expected on the development side.   The project ended up being in Alpha for 2 full years without ever getting to the Beta stage.  Because of all of the media buzz, as well as how high profile the project had become, security experts found numerous security bugs with the software.   One of the 4 founders committed suicide, which is assumed to be due to the high stress nature of the project.

All in all, it was a lot for 4 developers to pull off.   As those two years passed, the buzz faded,  interest faded,  and everyone forgot about them.

After slow security fixes, and slow progress, the remaining founders turned the project over to the community.  The community finished the development and brought the software to version 1.0.  By this time, it was too late.  The buzz was long gone, and the project was no longer on anyone’s radar.

Currently Diaspora is functional and boasts over a million users.    Are you on there?  Or are you just waiting for the next “buzz”?  Personally I would love to see the next big social network embracing this decentralized model…