He's got a branding problem as well. 'Socknet'? And foolishmortal.net looks like pre-beta HN.
Geeks sometimes don't seem to understand the power and value of word choice, or design. Smart word choice and updated design is not sufficient, but in a Web 2.0+ world, it's necessary.
> I looked over the web and I found the same thing that I'm sure you found: several projects without much steam behind them.
Maybe they found socknet too ?
That wiki was filled on may the 19th, well after the diaspora stuff hit the media, or it hasn't been updated in ages before then.
http://socknet.net/wiki/index.php?title=Special:RecentChange...
That money the diaspora guys raised has one definitely negative side effect, there will be quite a few people that may try to get a share of the cake.
Is there a rule that says that if you're going to work on a distributed social network you have to be bad at naming things? socknet, really?
Also, do we really need a solution that is distributed or would a dropdown box on Facebook that says "Visible to:" and lets you select a group (e.g., Friends, Family, Everyone) do?
Why did this need to be an open letter?
I think all this decentralized social networking is unnecessary. All we really need is an easy way to switch social networks. Something like a list of UUIDs as your friends list which can be imported into your social network of choice, and exported when you want to leave.
Even email is centralized.
The only problem would be getting the current industry leader, facebook, to willing adopt such a thing. They probably won't so this would be more of a consideration for the next generation of social networks.
Off topic: if you look at the kickstarter page for Diaspora http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/196017994/diaspora-the-p...
Notice how for anyone who donates more than $5 they need to send them a CD with Diaspora on it. $25 gets them a t-shirt etc.
For 6k donors, they're going to spend ~$50-100k of the $200k they raised just meeting their commitments. Not to mention a huge amount of time dealing with the logistics.
Edit: Jesus, if you account for the fact that they promised 1 year hosted service, and 1 year phone support for anyone who donated more than $350, these guys are already underwater.