170K is not just a funding for Diaspora, it is also a SOS to hackers all around for a decentralized social web.
Surely it got many people to read into it and its highly likely some other group will make a version which actually works.
Diaspora's Curse - Jason Fried
121–130 of 145 posts
Re: Diaspora's Curse - Jason Fried
#122Earlier quoted context omitted.
Think Wordpress. Fried just doesn't want you to have that option for project management. It's not about Diasopora, it's about Basecamp.
You've not making any sense. Diaspora is a Facebook competitor. Arguing that Diaspora threatens Basecamp implies that Facebook itself threatens Basecamp. Which isn't true. And, even if that were true, it will be still be wrong because vaporware isn't a threat.
Correction, diaspora is a wannabe facebook competitor.
Re: Diaspora's Curse - Jason Fried
#123Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
You are not trolling, are you? I am sorry, but do you think that Jason can "shut down" something that Google makes, just with his writing? And seriously, the idea of Diaspora competing with BaseCamp takes some imagination! At such an abstract level, almost any web app could be said to compete with any other web app.
> You are not trolling, are you?
Of course he is. Isn't that obvious.
Re: Diaspora's Curse - Jason Fried
#124Earlier quoted context omitted.
LOL Given that Diaspora has yet to be written, I doubt that J. Fried is particularly quaking in his boots regarding the hypothetical creation of a hypothetical plugin using a hypothetical API to provide a hypothetical service that would hypothetically be so great as to kill Basecamp. Disclaimer: I dont use basecamp, have never used basecamp and have absolutely no idea why someone would want to kill it.
If you asked MySpace/Friendster few years ago what they think about this student Zuck hacking something in the Harvard dorms, they would probably respond: LOL. What matters is the trend, and Fried is smart enough to see it. What unfair here is that he spoils it in the middle of the finance period. They got traction, they look like smart and honest guys. He can bash them one day after the finance is done. Disclaimer:…
Thanks for playing.
Slashdot misses you already, the door is --->> http://www.slashdot.org/ that way.
For the record, all that Jason Frieds posting has done is give more attention to diaspora.com, and will probably result in more funding.
Re: Diaspora's Curse - Jason Fried
#125Earlier quoted context omitted.
> they've shown they've had the chops to try and the initiative to think out of the box. 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 ne…
I would assume they've gone a little further than something on a napkin, and that by the end of the summer they will have something to show for their work and investment, and haven't spent the money on partying. Let's judge their results then. If it's a failure despite their best efforts, I certainly wouldn't count that against them, if they've learned from their mistakes and have written some good code in the proces…
> Let's judge their results then.
Absolutely, that was my point! I reacted to your statement that you'd hire them even if they'd failed miserably. If they're able to keep focus on what's important and end the summer with a concrete, open standard, even with little or no software, that's not a miserable failure, that's a little short of the goal.
But there are many, many more modes of failure than not getting people to leave Facebook by august. In fact, I'm pretty sure that's not even their goal.
Re: Diaspora's Curse - Jason Fried
#126Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
> they've shown they've had the chops to try and the initiative to think out of the box. 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 ne…
> The difference between me and them? A pretty website, a video and (probably the kicker) patronage by the NYT.
Also: the drive, initiative, imagination and brazenness to get it moving and get everyone talking about it.
Re: Diaspora's Curse - Jason Fried
#127Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
Is it really that provacative to say that an early stage venture will fail?
Re: Diaspora's Curse - Jason Fried
#128Diaspora'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…
From what I heared here and there, one of their plans is try to "embed" Facebook, allowing people to view Facebook info or switch to "private" P2P mode when the other one has diaspora that. So it's not either/or. 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 pr…
Right. I'm sure a large number Facebook's current users have devices on their networks that are more than capable of hosting an HTTP server (and maybe already do): the aforementioned DSL/cable modems, plus wireless routers, Roku boxes, video game consoles, etc.
Also, why not just host on the home's PC? Look at what the botnets have done. No technical knowledge required, easy installation, automatic upgrades, and no maintenance for the "host" (double meaning intentional).
Re: Diaspora's Curse - Jason Fried
#129170K is not just a funding for Diaspora, it is also a SOS to hackers all around for a decentralized social web. Surely it got many people to read into it and its highly likely some other group will make a version which actually works.
Exactly. Why is it so hard for geeks to see this?
Is it envy?
Re: Diaspora's Curse - Jason Fried
#130This is just echo chamber hacker nonsense. Nothing wrong with a little starter capital.
It's not "hacker nonsense". 37signals is generally fairly different in their opinions from most hackers (e.g., I strongly disagree with their opinion that Moore's law means web companies shouldn't wory about scalability: Gene Amdahl may beg to differ). What Jason is saying is common business sense: don't sell something you haven't built. Build something as you're selling it, iterating on the product and adjusting to…
This is not VC funding! This is seed capital... VCs hand out millions, not a couple hundred thousand. I believe in boot-strapping, and I boot-strapped my own start-up, but if these guys can get a small amount of money to work with, it is helpful.