by Clarity Jones

Created on: May 18, 2010   Last Updated: May 20, 2010

    Diaspora is the newest online community that is sweeping the Internet... and it hasn't even been created yet! The actual definition of Diaspora is software that is going to create a way for everyone to communicate socially online without sacrificing your privacy. Also, it will allow us to keep all of our personal information in one place instead of several different websites. At this point, Diaspora is just an in depth idea of four very enthusiastic New York University students named Daniel Grippi, Maxwell Salzberg, Ilya Zhitomirskiy and Raphael Sofaer. They have promised to finish this project by the end of the summer, but they are asking for financial support. They have already have already accumulated enough to start the project and financial contributions keep coming in. It seems that this project has created some excitement in the social online community.

    For those of you who are computer illiterate, like myself, you might be wondering why this piece of software is needed. I was under the impression that as long as I set my page to private, that no one will be able to see my information, except my friends. Therefore, I did some amateur spy work and opened a “dummy” Facebook account under my pen name Clarity Jones. I searched for my Facebook account and saw that not all of my information was private, even though I set my page to be completely private to everyone except my friends. People, outside of my network, are able to see what network I'm in, what city I live in, the groups that I have joined, and the friend that I have added. Luckily I have nothing to hide, but I am a person that likes to keep my private life private. What can a person do, outside of not participating in online socializing, to keep their information completely private?

    Ideally everyone will have a Diaspora “seed” that you enter. This is a personal web server with all of your information saved to it. This server will allow your to securely share information with only your friends. You, as the owner of your Diaspora “seed”, will be able to completely control your information. In addition, this personal server will allow you to combine all of your personal information into one server instead of it being spread out to different websites. Truly this seems like an innovative idea that will revolutionize privacy on the Internet. However, is this just that… an idea? The young men dedicating their entire summer to this project seem to think its way more than an idea. They are willing to give up jobs and internships for the summer to ensure that this project is completed by the end of the summer.

    Privacy on the internet seems to be a major concern amongst many Americans. Now there is an idea that will help solve this. Not only can we keep our information private, but now we can keep all of our information in one place. The four young college students seem to enthusiastic and capable of completing the software. I hope to own my own Diaspora seed by August 2010.

    For more information on this project visit www.joindiaspora.com.

Learn more about this author, Clarity Jones.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.