Facebook Alternative to Go Live

The bad news is, it isn’t open to the public yet.The newest Facebook alternative is called “Diaspora” and after the source code was released back in September, the site is now in its private beta stage.

Diaspora was dreamed up by four New York University students about six months ago, during one of the many Facebook privacy scandals of this year.  Cashing in on the backlash against Facebook, Daniel Grippi, Maxwell Salzberg, Ilya Zhitomirskiy and Raphael Sofaer were able to acquire the funding to develop a Facebook alternative and Diaspora was born. Described then as “an open source personal web service that will put individuals in control of their data”, there was understandable interest in the project. The release of the source code, however, was not met with wholesale enthusiasm from developers and as there is currently no ongoing privacy scandal, interest has died down somewhat.

So what are Diaspora’s chances? That all depends on what it sets out to achieve. It takes nerves of steel to go up against Facebook’s popularity and, arguably, a complete detachment from reality to make any attempt to actually replace it. Henceforth, Facebook has survived many online privacy scandals as well as the release of hit film The Social Network, so what chance would a rival social network have?

In my opinion, to give itself the best possible chance, Diaspora should not attempt to emulate Facebook but to be as different as it possibly can. Diaspora was founded in order to offer an alternative, but that does not mean that it needs to actually replace Facebook. Any attempt to do that is likely doomed to failure, unless it has spectacular features to offer. Initial reports would indicate that Diaspora does not have spectacular features that could draw people away in the same way that Facebook drew people away from MySpace. What, then, is the incentive?

The one thing it has over Facebook is an obvious concern with user privacy. Unless monumental changes are made, Facebook will always be associated with privacy scandals and Diaspora’s founders would be smart to play up on that. In my own opinion, judgement on Diaspora should be reserved until the next privacy scandal erupts. This will be the time when people are most likely to seek out a Facebook alternative and may give Diaspora a chance to shine.

What would it take for you to start looking for a Facebook alternative? Let us know what you think in a comment.

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