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Diaspora: The Better Facebook

8/7/2012 3:26:05 PM

More control of your own data

If you are registered on a public Pod, you then pose the same question as for the other services: who are the operators and what will they do with my data? The developer of the official site is three students of the New York University (the fourth from the founding team died November 2011). They operate Diaspora as a charitable organisation which runs only on donations. The operator of other public servers has given up on the transparency. "However, many pod operators have already started leading the way as good examples and enter their information in detail without even considering data protection and the intended use", says Falko Kraft, a Community member. Donations for the service is required. Of course, they offer you the option of using your own server which will manage only your data. This means maximum control without having to give up on any function offered by the social networking site.

How to control your own data best?

Diaspora allows downloading of all the data from the server using an export function. This is provided if you want to shift from a public pod to your own server. The software required for your own pod can be downloaded - for free - under github.com/diaspora/diaspora/wiki. The setup is not absolutely trivial for a lay man but a detailed description is available on the site in a step by step manner. A private pod just needs a standard PC. A diaspora server has about 20,000 users running on just two computers, which has two Intel Xeon E3-1245 Quad Core with 16 GB work space and a 3TB hard disk. If you want to start the server for other users - maybe a friend or a family member, then you just have to ensure that the computer is connected with a stable DSL cable and is permanently online. Otherwise no one will be able to log in.

The use of Diaspora and the web user interface remains the same - irrespective of where you are on your own server or a public one. The time the source code was published in September 2010 there was a skimpy news stream to see the friend’s profile and the option to download photos. The data traffic in Diaspora network was coded right from the beginning - it was coded with the GnuPG encoding used in the mail traffic. The later versions followed the link from Diaspora to Facebook and Twitter such that the status messages were posted even here on request. Another innovation was the "Aspect" - standard word for a friend circle. Google later took this concept as "Groups" in Google+, where Diaspora also adapted the Google+ layout. Diaspora also took a few other functions from the competitors: Hashtags, a direct message system, and a "like" button. People who made the switch immediately started feeling at home - and started enjoying a few advantages: Diaspora is free of any promotional messages, you can use any type of pseudonym and the most important one here is that the data is not passed on to companies. However, data protection and control are not the only areas in which Facebook has room to improve.

Description: Facebook is massive and at times is so confusing that the user can just get lost.

Facebook is massive and at times is so confusing that the user can just get lost.

Facebook is massive and at times is so confusing that the user can just get lost. There is a certain method behind it because Facebook wants to record the associations of the users with each other in as many ways as possible - sticking to the company's main principles of opening the world and forming a connection.

On the other hand, the Special Interest networks have set a clear focus on one subject matter or an application purpose. It is since a long time that such portals have been available - like YouTube or the photo site Flickr. However, they were never developed while keeping the social network in mind. And this is exactly the gap which is now filled by the new services wherein the social networks have a strong bond among the users and a strong association with the contents.

Better organisation of the stream

Description: Tumblr and Pinterest are two of the latest fast growing portals; these make sharing of web contents easy.

Tumblr and Pinterest are two of the latest fast growing portals; these make sharing of web contents easy.

Tumblr and Pinterest are two of the latest fast growing portals; these make sharing of web contents easy. You can even share the content on Facebook but your messaging stream hardly matches. Thus, you will always get to see all the content of people or companies but these will always be sorted as per the topic (for instance landscape photography). That is why the interesting articles and contributions always keep going down at a rapid speed in the message stream. On the other hand Tumblr, which was already launched in 2007, can search for subjects like design, literature or technology this helps you in finding interesting contributions within a few seconds.

Description: The Social Nextwork: Twitter

The Social Nextwork: Twitter

The personal associations with others works in the same way as in Twitter, you can follow any Twitterer but he she has to accept your friend request. The difference with Twitter is that the the user is represented by a micro blog whose URL is determined during the registration. Thus, the user is not registered as a person but in the form of an URL. Anyone can post their contents in this micro blog - but is absolutely optional. Here, Tumblr functions just in the same way as the blog platform wordpress; the only difference is it's a lot simpler and is different in case of the social components like the favouritism criteria and re-blogging of the content. Using key words (Tags) you can also search for a particular content - and can even follow these tags. Thus, you will get new entries even from other users who have not been followed by you. Pinterest is another sharing platform. This digital photo and video pinboard has almost over 12 million users in the USA, but still requires invites. Even this site is split in categories which help find other users and thus enabling you to follow them. In addition to this, many users create their own "Boards" which define the other field of topic. The "Pin it" button - a small JavaScript bookmarklet available in the favorite list of the browsers - can be used to display all the images and videos of a website which can be pinned. In the beginning the websites could not prevent from the content from spreading in this manner - but this possibility was true in the meantime. The reason for this is the question whether one is even allowed to publish images on a website of any other site (the own Pinterest profile). A copy on the Pinterest server may not have been taken seriously and is published again without the creator's consent. The entitled person can quickly even recognize the violations here as the Pinterest is easy to search. The risk of a warning is much greater with Pinterest as stated by the lawyer Thomas Schwenke on spreerecht.de. The question now is that how fast will Pinterest draw attention of the entitled person as there has been no warning till now.

More recommendations by friends

New social networks do not change only the consumption of the web content but also the TV consumption. Thus, the user moves from Couchfunk to the latest TV program as it runs while talking of the possible culprits at the scene of crime. Such discussions are also seen on Facebook or Twitter which is seen to achieve the same number of messages that when someone gets the Oscar’s top rank award. However, it lacks in sorting those users who do not want to know anything about it. Such users stay by themselves when it comes to special services. And that just goes on: the USA analysis says that even today 40 percent of the TV viewers use a smartphone or tablet at the same time. Smart TV applications could even strengthen this trend.

Description: Couchfunk Social TV Teaser

Couchfunk Social TV Teaser

A different type of a social network which has formed is a location-based service like Foursquare. It runs as a smartphone app using which you can "log in" from any point of the world, using which you can find friends or specific offers (for instance discounts). Foursquare offers points and ranks for checking in - this is done to gain popularity - taking advantage of the play instinct of any user. Even Facebook has tried using the function "Places". But this does not offer rewarding system or any special offers and is thus used seldom. Consider the ever increasing popularity of the Smartphones with which a person can be constantly online uses services for local community like Shopping Apps for good deals in the surrounding areas - always popular as indicated by the increasing number of users. Such services makes it easier for the user to take a decision on the basis of the experiences had by other users - primarily from his/her own social circle. In addition to Facebook using several other networks means a lot of expenditure. A simplification that can be considered would be a standard protocol using which the user can communicate with each other across networks - just as SMTP standard allows it for e-mail traffic. Vodafone has been working on such an interface called "Onesocialweb" since middle 2010. However, the project has not been accepted as an idea till date.

Description: http://cdn4.digitaltrends.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/foursquare.jpeg

Foursquare offers points and ranks for checking in - this is done to gain popularity - taking advantage of the play instinct of any user.

Facebook has already started offering a programming interface a user can post content from other networks automatically on Facebook using this interface. In addition to this, this interface also allows registration using the Facebook log-in - something that reduces the pain of a new registration - and something which shows that Facebook does not foresee any competition in these services. On the contrary: Facebook even benefits from this as the automatic content sharing increases the activity on Facebook at the same time. Mirko Lange, the Managing Director of the Social Media Agency says which of this network has established later clearly depends on the usage as well as on a popular user interface with an intuitive operation. If the user finds the interface annoying he/she immediately moves out in search of a new interface - and then in the end goes back to Facebook.

Total No. of Users

Description: Facebook stands at the top rank in social networking sites without any doubt as regards to the number

Facebook stands at the top rank in social networking sites without any doubt as regards to the number

Facebook stands at the top rank in social networking sites without any doubt as regards to the number. But the users are more active on small networks thanks to its clearly defined objective or subject matter.

1.    Facebook: 800mil.

2.    Twitter: 300mil.

3.    Google+: 90mil.

4.    Tumblr: 33mil.

5.    Foursquare: 15mil.

6.    Pinterest: 12mil.

7.    Diaspora: 0.3mil.

Growth in users

Description: New services – Fourquare grown the best in User

New services – Fourquare grown the best in User

New services like Foursquare have grown significantly from July 2010 to July 2011 whereas the established ones like Facebook have hardly grown after that. MySpace, once the most popular, has fallen quite dramatically.

1.    Foursquare: 384%

2.    Tunblr: 218%

3.    Twitter: 31%

4.    Facebook: 14%

5.    Myspace: -50%

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