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I Kickstarted Diaspora - Step 1 in Quitting Facebook

I've been wanting to make an investment in some Kickstarter program for a while. A friend of mine got involved in the early pre-alpha stage, but I couldn't find a project that I got that passionate about until now. I love Kiva and the idea behind it, but the idea behind something that could radically change social networks is pretty sweet too. These guys could easily steal my percentage of the $70K that they raised and go buy beer too, which is cool too and I'm happy to support them for having the chutzpah for doing that. I've never really been able to get behind Facebook. I post all of my updates via Twitter and respond to email from about 4 people on it. I find it a bit mundane in terms of what is being shared and I, no offense, only have a few friends that add interest and value to my life. The rest is just kind of nice to see. I like these people, but I don't need the updates about their lunches and they don't need mine. Frankly, if I lost 90% of my friends (who aren't really friends but mostly distant acquaintances), I wouldn't lose a lot of sleep over it. Throw on all of the headache behind the privacy stuff and I start to think about dropping the whole program. I don't know if I'll go so far as to completely pull the plug on FB, but I find myself, in my old age, caring less and less about what other people happen to like nor do I feel so compelled to share what I like. Odds are, you don't like what I like. Jason's post really swayed me this morning. Not so much to quit FB, which I think is coming for me, but to also start exploring other alternatives. In the words of Archers of Loaf, the underground is over crowded. Diaspora was getting a lot of traction today. I loved the video and really like what these guys are trying to do. I think that old people are going to have a tough time getting it, but if you think about bitorrent for social networks, that sums the premise up nicely. It is obviously still a long ways away from going primetime and having grandma hit you up for a friend request, but I don't think that it is as far away as others are saying. $70K buys a lot of coding time from 4-talented devs living on raman and Coke. If I can launch an open source version of FB for free in 15-minutes (terrible video), these guys can do it in 3-months. Of course, the Diaspora video also seems like this is the kind of scam that was concocted over large amounts of cheap beer and bad coffee, so who knows. UPDATE - TechCrunch, of course, has a another post on Diaspora.

Diaspora is a great idea, deserves all its miracle funding, but will it work? (inquisitr.com)
About New York: Creating a Network Like Facebook, Only Private (nytimes.com)
NYU Students Aim To Invent Facebook (Again). We've Got Your Back. (wired.com)
The Beginning of the End of Facebook (broadstuff.com)

Tagged Coffee Featured Kickstarter Online Communities Open source Social Networking Social network beer diaspora facebook twitter

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It's My Birthday! Forget Beer, Give Water

Hey you, how's it going? Yeah, so nice of you to remember, my birthday is coming up. 37, sucks huh? Not quite 40, but well past 35. Listen, it is really cool of you to want to take me out and buy me a drink, but candidly, I'm getting a bit plump so I don't need it. But other people do need a drink. No, not alcoholics. I'm talking about people that actually don't have any clean water to drink. Can you imagine drinking water out of a pond, a swamp or just a puddle? Yeah, me either, we're lucky. But for 1.1 billion people, they don't have a choice. So this year, instead of buying me that nice lager or that sweet Ocktoberfest, maybe you could contribute that $5 to Beer for Water. It would be going to a much better cause, you'd feel good & we'd still hang out. It is a winner all the way around!

Beer for Water - What I Want For My Birthday

View more presentations from Scott Schnaars.

Tagged Beer for Water Good Things beer birthday charity:water clean water water water shortage

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It's My Birthday! Forget Beer, Give Water

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It's My Birthday! Forget Beer, Give Water

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