to use it. Instead, those with programming skills can install it on their servers, test the code, and work on it — adding features via a shared code hosting service called Github, where the changes can be pulled into the main code base. Diaspora warned that there are known security issues with the code, making it clear this was a release for developers, not early adopters. The code is based on Ruby on Rails and MongoDB.

As its name suggests, Diaspora isn’t aiming to turn Diaspora.com into a replacement for Facebook.com, but instead is seeking to create software that allows people to have more control over their social network, without having a single entity holding all the data and making the rules.

The idea is to disperse social networking, so that it works more like e-mail, where users can sign-up for an account with any number of providers or buy their own domain name or use a hosted service or even run their own e-mail server — but all can still interact, regardless of how or where their e-mail service is. Diaspora isn’t the only effort at creating so-called federated social networking — there’s a number of other active open source projects, including the Appleseed and OneSocialWeb.

Diaspora was founded earlier this year by four New York University students as a way to create a social network that put users in control of their data. The four tapped into this spring’s anti-Facebook zeitgeist to collect $200,000 in online donations, even one from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

The founders moved to Silicon Valley this summer and have remained largely silent, except for very occasional blog updates.

On Wednesday, Diaspora made good on its August promise to release its source code in mid-September. On the Hacker News message board, fellow start-up engineers were generally pleased with the code, which focused more on user interface issues than packing in as many features as possible.

Diaspora says it intends to keep developing the product and that an “alpha” release aimed at users, not just developers, is scheduled for October.

Screenshot: The Diaspora Project’s activity stream as implemented in its developer release.

Follow us for disruptive tech news: Ryan Singel and Epicenter on Twitter.

See Also:

• Open-Facebook Competitor Diaspora Sets Sept. 15 Launch Date …
• Open Facebook Alternatives Gain Momentum, $115K
• Mark Zuckerberg: I Donated to Open Source, Facebook Competitor
• NYU Students Aim to Invent Facebook (Again). We’ve Got Your Back
• Five Things That Could Topple Facebook’s Empire
• Facebook’s Gone Rogue; It’s Time for an Open Alternative

Authors: Ryan Singel

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