Diaspora Social Network Releases Open Source Code

(Sept. 16) -- Developers have taken their first glance at Diaspora -- the so-called "Facebook Killer" -- which revealed its open source coding to the Internet on Wednesday.

"This is now a community project and development is open to anyone with the technical expertise who shares the vision of a social network that puts users in control," reads a statement from the Diaspora blog. "From now on, we will be working closely with the community on improving and solidifying Diaspora."

The self-described "privacy-aware, personally-controlled" social networking platform aims to create a user experience that is more privacy friendly compared to the often criticized policies on Facebook.

The site is the project of four New York University students -- Daniel Grippi, Maxwell Salzberg, Raphael Sofaer, and Ilya Zhitomirskiy -- who raised an astounding $200,000 dollars for development through Kickstarter.com. The four students were frustrated with the lack of transparency in Facebook's privacy policy and set out to create an alternative.

Here's a sampling of how the Internet is responding now that Diaspora's code is out in the open.

Blogosphere:

"We've extensively debated Diaspora's chances of success here on Download Squad, and the real test is about to begin." -- Jay Hathaway, Download Squad

"While the Diaspora team has had hopes of messiahdom thrusted on them by people dissatisfied with Facebook, it's worth remembering that they're a couple students who coded this over the summer: With that in mind, it seems like a cool project with room for improvement, and we'll be following its progress with interest." -- Robert Quigley, Geek-O-System

"The first version of the site is extremely clean and simple and although some of the functions looks similar to Facebook, it has a distinctly simpler look and feel." -- Nick Bilton, The New York Times Bits Blog

"Now that the code is open to everyone, could Diaspora become to Facebook what Firefox was to Internet Explorer?" -- Stan Schroeder, Mashable

"Let's see exactly where Diaspora heads. If nothing else, perhaps it can challenge the purveyors of today's very closed social networks to rethink their models." -- Sam Dean, Ostatic

"Facebook had to deliver a platform, users and traffic before it won publicity. Diaspora is getting it while they're still writing code." -- Dana Blankenhorn, ZDNet

Twitter:

I wouldn't bet a penny for #diaspora success. Let's hope they'll succeed.less than a minute ago via EchofonKostis Mamassis
kmamas

The open-source, non-evil Facebook competitor "Diaspora" is making good progress! http://tcrn.ch/cc0OJvless than a minute ago via TweetDeckTim O'Regan
vemrion

tried to resist the following joke; can't continue any longer:: 'Diaspora' - v., Greek term meaning "to reinvent the wheel."less than a minute ago via identicaNathan Willis
n8willis