[iDC] Replacing Facebook

Sat May 22 22:12:24 UTC 2010

Thanks for this link. The article has a good point, in that it will only 
work if a critical mass of users will put some effort into "owning the 
cloud" themselves (and paying for it) as compared to the corporate suits 
owning the cloud (and monetizing it via ads). Today the technical 
infrastructure is not really ready to make this possible for a mass 
audience (hence Appleseed failed and Diaspora will likely too).

What is needed technically in my view, is a personal, encrypted, 
portable virtual machine (VM) with preinstalled "seed" software 
supported by readily available hosting services or personally owned 24/7 
connected internet devices. Such VMs are the "containers" which are 
owned by the user, are portable and contain the data and the software 
that uses the data and connects it to the world.

The building blocks are actually there (linux, virtualbox, protocols, 
3G, etc.) so I think developing the software is quite doable and having 
100K+ and publicity certainly helps. But I think software alone is not 
enough to make it fly, rather it involves a physical component ... "the 
thing that makes up the drop in the cloud". Unless the Diaspora project 
addresses this technical hurdle Skype-style (= slick and simple user 
interface that "just works" everywhere) nobody but geeks will be able to 
use the software. Handing out aGPLed bootable Linux CDs just won't cut it.

One needs affordable, reliable infrastructure support for a user run 
"cloud" which is even today quite difficult to come by:
- internet connected smart-devices like the iPhone are locked down and 
generally not powerful enough to run a VM
- PCs are seldom designed to be operated as 24/7 connected devices from 
a power, noise and security point of view
- internet providers forbid personal hosting in their usage policies or 
slow p2p-type traffic when detected
- professional hosting that would be capable of running such VMs is too 
expensive and difficult to use for the average user

So yes, I think Diaspora will probably fail practically, but in some way 
succeed in creating usable software for the VM "containers" of the 
future as well as stimulating this debate.

And one more really disturbing thing: If we really want to keep control 
over our bits, we would need digital rights management (DRM) for _all_ 
the content. Because without DRM, it is virtually impossible to delete 
something from a p2p system or public cloud. As an example, just search 
for your website from 1996 or later - if you had one - on the wayback 
machine (here is mine: 
http://web.archive.org/web/19961224215007/http://karlsberg.usask.ca/ ... 
in particular this homepage note is fantastic: " best viewed with a 
HTML-2.0 compatible browser like netscape 
<http://web.archive.org/web/19961224215007/http://www.netscape.com/>" lol).

--Andreas

On 5/21/10 2:21 PM, Sam Dwyer wrote:
> This may prove of interest:
>
> /Why Diaspora Will Fail/
> http://www.downloadsquad.com/2010/05/21/diaspora-social-network-fail-kickstarter-facebook
>
>
>
>
> On May 21, 2010, at 6:44 AM, Jon Ippolito wrote:
>
>>
>> On May 14, 2010, at 8:00 AM, idc-request at mailman.thing.net 
>> <mailto:idc-request at mailman.thing.net> wrote:
>>
>>> From: Andreas Schiffler:
>>>
>>> I wanted to post a quick link that would allow anyone who is fed-up 
>>> with
>>> Facebook's continuing path of commercializing the social graphs of its
>>> users to fund the development of an open source distributed replacement:
>>> http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/196017994/diaspora-the-personally-controlled-do-it-all-distr
>>>
>>> Seems like a worthy goal and technically feasible (although I admit 
>>> that
>>> I won't be donating, since I don't have a use for such a service).
>> Thanks, Andreas. I contributed, not because I have a use for 
>> Facebook, but because I have an interest in seeing it die. More 
>> background at "Your guide to the Facebook revolt of 2010":
>>
>> http://www.nmdnet.org/2010/05/18/your-guide-to-the-facebook-revolt-of-2010/
>>
>> Best,
>>
>> jon
>> ______________________________
>> Still Water--what networks need to thrive.
>> http://still-water.net/
>>
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