[iDC] Replacing Facebook

[Ian McArthur]

Regardless of the technologies and the capablity of the developers  
Diaspora will likely only gain a measure of the market if it has  
appeal to the market (cred, cool, usability etc...) - Diaspora is  
actually a pretty unappealing name despite the apparently intent  
behind it. Maybe you think naming is irrelevant? I don't think it will  
fly if it is called that. Not if we are talking about a product that  
wants to compete with Facebook (maybe that's not the real goal - I  
don't know...). If it's aimed at geeks only well who knows.

The privacy and intellectual property concerns that seem to be driving  
the move to develop Diaspora and one might assume other alternatives  
to Facebook might also be reframed - even just to consider the  
possibility of alternatives. The 'face' of it seems pretty sinister I  
agree. On the one hand my first gut response is to be concerned about  
my privacy but on the the hand when I reflect a bit deeper that  
response is actually running counter to my interest and support of  
Sharism. Isaac Mao's essay, Sharism: A Mind Revolution over at  
Freesouls is a great overview:

http://freesouls.cc/essays/07-isaac-mao-sharism.html

An example: I've been interacting with a new co-working space in  
Shanghai called Xindanwei. They have a small online project happening  
that is completely transparent - there is no 'privacy' at all and it's  
kind of liberating.

http://xindanwei.com/

Maybe another way to look at all this is to break up the assumptions  
we have about intellectual property and privacy and consider  
alternative models. Maybe it's a case of don't be part of Facebook if  
you don't want to 'share'...

Ian McArthur




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