[kwlug-disc] Quit Facebook Day..

[Khalid Baheyeldin]

On Mon, May 31, 2010 at 12:59 PM, Oksana Goertzen <ogoertzen at gmail.com>wrote:

> So what are the alternatives to Facebook?
> What do other people like? Anyone using an open source alternative?
>

First, here is the link to their site http://www.quitfacebookday.com/

They mention alternatives, but not the ones that I list later.

The problem is not an open source alternative or closed source.
The issue is that they have your data, and not that they close their
source. And they accumulate the data and use it in ways that are
"too creative" to be comfort.

The problem is where else are all your "friends" are?

Facebook has been the only way that I reconnected with people from
grade school (that is quite a few decades ago). So, it has the critical
mass that keeps it going.

Since you asked about alternatives, I will mention them here

First, there is the Salmon Protocol which makes for unifying conversation
on various sites/services.
http://www.salmon-protocol.org/
This means applications that support that protocol will be able to sync
with each other no matter what these applications are.

Then you have Appleseed, which is an Open Source Facebook wannabe
http://opensource.appleseedproject.org/

And then there is Diaspora, which is vaporware at this stage, though
people gave them money to work on it.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/196017994/diaspora-the-personally-controlled-do-it-all-distr
http://www.joindiaspora.com/

Again, the issue is that of privacy, not of closed source, and that they
have critical mass.
-- 
Khalid M. Baheyeldin
2bits.com, Inc.
http://2bits.com
Drupal optimization, development, customization and consulting.
Simplicity is prerequisite for reliability. --  Edsger W.Dijkstra
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. --   Leonardo da Vinci
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