Diaspora Goes Alpha, Free Keys For Comments

Privacy and social media is nothing new, and Diaspora has set out to resolve what Facebook destroys.

Amidst the release of The Social Network, several privacy scandals and comments from Mark Zuckerberg essentially calling his users idiots, several students from NYU rallied to create what Facebook once was. A social network locked down to just your friends, and it even required you to be a current college student. Moreover, the exclusivity pushed the publics lust to want a Facebook account and peer into the mysterious world. All that change when Facebook went public and they change their goals from sharing to making ridiculous amounts of money.

Diaspora was funded by the public and therefore released in an opensource format. Not only is the code opensource, but they have created a functional version of the code, which is now in the Alpha testing phase. As a personal backer, I have received several keys to invite individuals to the network. While their idea was for the original backers to invite our friends as it would likely cause more discussion and a chain of like-minded invites, I would rather share with you the possibility to join early and lock down your name.

Want a key? I have five available and you only have to do two things:

1. Comment on this post and tell me what you think is the most important part of an online community. The more details the better.
2. Make sure the comment you use has an e-mail address you actually use. I will send invites out to those addresses.

I should also note as part of the invites, it requires me to add you to an aspect (similar to a list or group). So you will see my information, but there is nothing really there aside from a photo, my age and a two sentence bio. For those who are not lucky enough to gain access to Diaspora just yet, I will be putting together a short series of screen shots from the inside. There is not a lot there right now, but it’s a clean design and boasts the privacy many have requested. Those who receive invites also have the ability* to invite others. For those who do have access to the site, if you find bugs it would also be swell to provide feedback to them. Diaspora is built for us, so you might as well lend a hand.

*This may change as the developers expand the site.