81–90 of 145 posts
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Actually, iirc Facebook started with college students in Harvard and other US universities, not geeks.
Yes huge difference. It still amazes me that some geeks have trouble identifying that they are not their own target market.
I agree that they're probably screwed--on top of the normal how-do-you-get-enough-people-to-switch-that-users-get-real-utility-out-of-the-social-network issue, people now expect, by virtue of the fact that they've got $170k and lots of attention, that they have something ready to compete with Facebook by the end of the summer--but I don't think they would have done any better waiting. By doing it this way, they got t…
If they did fail miserably, I'd still hire them like a shot - they've shown they've had the chops to try and the initiative to think out of the box. The experience they would get through failure - whether the failure is technical. marketing or finance - would be an invaluable lesson for their future careers, far better than some internship at big company X. An employer who would negatively judge a teenager on the fai…
Really? Are there any serious geeks that haven't hashed out a basic architecture (napkin-level) for a distributed Facebook-replacement over a beer or some coffee? I know I have, twice. The difference between me and them? A pretty website, a video and (probably the kicker) patronage by the NYT.
I agree that it shouldn't reflect negatively on them, quite the opposite, but are we back to 1998, where a good idea, "out of the box" and CS-grad in the same sentence is a qualification?
Diaspora's going to do one of two things. Option one, with approximately 98% probability, is "fail hard". A few geeks will run nodes and brag about it on places like HN, and that'll be it. Option two is that Diaspora succeeds, which will require some way around making everyone run their own node; basically, some company with the infrastructure to step in and host services for people, for cheap or preferably free. If…
Concerning hosting, yeah there's google etc, but as they seem to have discussed with Elben Moglen, they will possibly also consider his ideas about self-hosting on small pluggable computers. And yeah, you probably already hava one: your DSL box. Some providers could play a a cool move on this one.
edit: I don't know if they will have the time, but with encrypted replicated data and external data stores, many things are possible. E.g. you could host the most sensible personnal info and links on your box backed up somewhere and have your photos at Flickr.
I'm more interested in the idea that is could compete with Facebook at all. Facebook has become too big for a small startup to just step up and replace it.
The reason I say this is that startups tend to follow the founders' vision, then get iterated based on customer feedback.
But "replacing Facebook" isn't a solidified enough vision to act upon. The project team would need to first find out what "Facebook" means to the average user. Because, like it or not, the readers of HN are NOT the average FB user. There would need to be some dedicated research done to determine what feature set would even appeal to the masses.
Once that is done, then we can talk solutions and build a team to make it happen.
But trying to point at any extant project and say it is the replacement project... I just don't buy it.
Diaspora's going to do one of two things. Option one, with approximately 98% probability, is "fail hard". A few geeks will run nodes and brag about it on places like HN, and that'll be it. Option two is that Diaspora succeeds, which will require some way around making everyone run their own node; basically, some company with the infrastructure to step in and host services for people, for cheap or preferably free. If…
> What sort of company would do that, you ask? Why, the company which already has all the info Facebook doesn't know about you, and would love to get access to the info Facebook does. You know, that search engine with the colorful logo. And that's fine. But because they'll commit to integrating into the open standard that Diaspora defines, at any given time, you can take your friends and leave. If GMail (apps) starts…
Fried just doesn't want you to have that option for project management. It's not about Diasopora, it's about Basecamp.
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I don't think that the author has ever tried to undermine what diaspora is trying to do in any one word of the short article. What he has tried to tell everyone is what is essentially the best advice those people can ever get. Somebody has to put a reality check on things. I seriously believe that a reality check has to be put on the dream run the diaspora team is getting. Essentially they are getting money just for…
The thing about selling the dream is that everybody has a picture in their own minds that makes it exciting. If we were to put actual code to it, it doesn't look like what I had in mind. So, alot of people will then say it's junk. Now this 37 signal's guy might say hey, the expectations are too high. Yes it is. But like any it is a problem to be solved. Just off the top of my head frequent release of the progress wou…
That's really very important. What you just said better describes what is my problem with them getting so much money. Essentially they are selling junk for at least 50% of the backers. The ideas are always different in one way or another than implementation thus people are paying up for something they think is what they want
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> What sort of company would do that, you ask? Why, the company which already has all the info Facebook doesn't know about you, and would love to get access to the info Facebook does. You know, that search engine with the colorful logo. And that's fine. But because they'll commit to integrating into the open standard that Diaspora defines, at any given time, you can take your friends and leave. If GMail (apps) starts…
Think Wordpress. Fried just doesn't want you to have that option for project management. It's not about Diasopora, it's about Basecamp.
And regarding Basecamp/Diaspora: I can already get most of the same functionality I can get from Basecamp in plenty of other products, both hosted and open-source. Basecamp is popular because it's really, really good, not by a long shot because they are the only option.
A project management application on the Diaspora platform would have zero advantage over Basecamp because of that. And even if it would have, Diaspora is open, and 37S could just implement Basecamp as a node.
Fried says Diaspora is going to fail because it's the provocative thing to do, and that's what Fried does on his blog.
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Think Wordpress. Fried just doesn't want you to have that option for project management. It's not about Diasopora, it's about Basecamp.
Well, wordpress.com isn't a player in the e-mail space, which was the analogy. And regarding Basecamp/Diaspora: I can already get most of the same functionality I can get from Basecamp in plenty of other products, both hosted and open-source. Basecamp is popular because it's really, really good, not by a long shot because they are the only option. A project management application on the Diaspora platform would have z…
Diaspora is a paradigm shift, and it will be easier to implement a better Basecamp without single point of registration and billing.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> What sort of company would do that, you ask? Why, the company which already has all the info Facebook doesn't know about you, and would love to get access to the info Facebook does. You know, that search engine with the colorful logo. And that's fine. But because they'll commit to integrating into the open standard that Diaspora defines, at any given time, you can take your friends and leave. If GMail (apps) starts…
Think Wordpress. Fried just doesn't want you to have that option for project management. It's not about Diasopora, it's about Basecamp.
Or do you think that somehow Diaspora will be a product management solution? Will it also do my taxes? Perhaps it will print bingo cards, organize my book collection, and bake the world's tastiest pies?
This is exactly what Fried is talking about: When you launch a pure-vapor product you encourage people to project fantasies onto it. That sends you lots and lots of false signals and sets the public up to be disappointed.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well, wordpress.com isn't a player in the e-mail space, which was the analogy. And regarding Basecamp/Diaspora: I can already get most of the same functionality I can get from Basecamp in plenty of other products, both hosted and open-source. Basecamp is popular because it's really, really good, not by a long shot because they are the only option. A project management application on the Diaspora platform would have z…
Than how do you explain his (successful) campaign against the free google chat that competes with Campfire? Google shut it down, basically, because it's "unfair to J.Fried". Since Google did it, nobody else dare to compete directly with Basecamp, as is. Diaspora is a paradigm shift, and it will be easier to implement a better Basecamp without single point of registration and billing.
Nobody dares to compete with Basecamp? Are you kidding me?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_project_managemen...