Diaspora vs. Goliath?

Will the new, open-source social networking site give Facebook a run for its money?

Next month sees the release of the highly anticipated film The Social Network, a fictionalized account of the origins of Facebook. The trailer has created a strong buzz and tapped into a pop cultural hunch that, more than with most tech companies, the kids aren't all right at Facebook.. Google flip-flops on net neutrality and Apple dictates to its users which content is safe for consumption, but neither produces the kind of love-hate relationship that Facebook does.

Facebook brought much of this on itself, given its ubiquity, confusing and convoluted privacy policy, and flippant disregard for public opinion (the company, in its treatment of user data, prefers to beg for forgiveness after the fact than to ask for permission to share it). In the past year, Facebook has faced controversy over both its use of language that suggests ownership over material uploaded by users, and a plan to share personal user information to third-party sites without explicit authorization. This has made members of the public rightfully anxious, even as they continue to log on. Coincidentally, October also sees the alpha release of Diaspora, the awkwardly-named open-source alternative to Facebook.

The public got an early peek at Diaspora last week when the developers released the source code via its website. Diaspora promised greater control and privacy for users, but in its infancy has yet to deliver – disconcertingly large security gaps in the code have been reported. While the media was quick to pick up on the Diaspora vs. Facebook story, portraying it as a David and Goliath battle, the online community was less enthusiastic, writing cautious, mixed reviews of the source.

It was impossible for the four NYU students behind Diaspora to live up to expectations. The idea came about as a response to the growing frustration over Facebook having seemingly overstepped the unspoken social contract it had with its users. When the developers solicited $10,000 in contributions from the fundraising site Kickstarter last April, they ended up getting $200,000.

The Diaspora team may have captured the zeitgeist, but the money raised constitutes a relatively tiny budget in the start-up world. Unfortunately, the limited resources and short time frame are obvious from the work. In general, the Diaspora crew have been praised for their enthusiasm, while the source code itself has been panned – it's in such bad shape that one critic suggested a complete re-write. The project is dependent on coding contributions from the community, but the public’s enthusiasm to help seems to have dwindled.

In terms of public adoption, Diaspora requires users to host it on their own servers, a step that requires technical know-how most casual users don’t have. Even if an elegant solution is found, Diaspora thus far appears to be a one-issue pony, with enhanced privacy projected to be the core differentiation from other products on the market. This won't be enough to convince most Facebook users that the costs of switching would be worth it.

It was always unrealistic to position Diaspora as the chief alternative to Facebook; however, unless October brings a surprising turnaround for the underwhelming product, we may have already seen the greatest impact it will have, when 6,500 people on Kickstarter gave it a vote of confidence with their dollars.

In the long run, Diaspora will likely be seen as a step toward convincing Facebook to be more open. Currently users have to sign up for a social networking site to connect with users from that site; it's akin to limiting people to making phone calls only to those people with the same telecom. Ideally, people should have the ability to connect with one another regardless of the social networking site.

This will happen only when the public demands it. As frustrated as Facebook users may get, very few actually are willing to log out for good. However, as stubborn as Facebook can be, the corporation usually compromises when facing negative media coverage and user outrage.

As for Diaspora, the hype about its October release has waned. To prevent it from becoming a Wikipedia footnote, the gents behind it will have to rally the online programming community to help build Diaspora into something sturdier and more innovative. If they need a lesson in ambition, there's a film coming out soon about a forward-thinking Harvard student that might be relevant.