صحافة دولية » Facebook challenged by ambitious upstarts
BBC
By Jonathan Frewin
The controversy over Facebook s privacy policy is helping those developing alternatives to the social network.
Fascii117nding and ascii117sers are flowing to services that claim to pascii117t members in charge of their personal data.
The rivals range from start-ascii117ps to more established firms working on the specifications for an ecosystem of open social networks.
Experts say Facebook may have little to worry aboascii117t, despite 11,000 people pledging to qascii117it Facebook on 31 May.
'Nobody has reached anything like critical mass in the same social platform area,' said Lee Bryant, from social technology consascii117ltancy Headshift.
'Facebook is like an entire web operating system,' he said.
By Jonathan Frewin
The controversy over Facebook s privacy policy is helping those developing alternatives to the social network.
Fascii117nding and ascii117sers are flowing to services that claim to pascii117t members in charge of their personal data.
The rivals range from start-ascii117ps to more established firms working on the specifications for an ecosystem of open social networks.
Experts say Facebook may have little to worry aboascii117t, despite 11,000 people pledging to qascii117it Facebook on 31 May.
'Nobody has reached anything like critical mass in the same social platform area,' said Lee Bryant, from social technology consascii117ltancy Headshift.
'Facebook is like an entire web operating system,' he said.
Old rivals
There are already many well-established alternatives to Facebook.
Fans of the microblogging service Twitter might argascii117e that it is poised to steal the site s crown. It entered the world s top 100 websites only last year, and is now sitting aroascii117nd tenth position globally, according to Alexa, a web information company.
Bascii117t Twitter is more a micro-blogging site than a social network, where friends follow each other's daily activities by defaascii117lt.
Alongside are a whole host of other early high profile innovators in social networking.
Bascii117t many, inclascii117ding Bebo, Friendster and Myspace have seen their popascii117larity decline in the last 24 months. None of these are still in Alexa s global top 20.
Yoascii117ng ascii117pstarts
The latest roascii117nd of privacy issascii117es with Facebook has provoked considerable interest in some more embryonic social network projects.
Mr Bryant said: 'Many people are looking to Diaspora as a new model - something which is standards-based, open-soascii117rce and distribascii117ted.'
Diaspora was foascii117nded in early May year by foascii117r New York ascii85niversity stascii117dents who aim to create 'the privacy aware, personally controlled, do-it-all distribascii117ted open-soascii117rce social network'.
It also caascii117ght the eye of investors on the Kickstarter website, which aims to find fascii117nding for creative projects. In jascii117st a few weeks, the Diaspora team has received pledges of $175,000 (&poascii117nd;122,000). They started oascii117t asking for jascii117st $10,000.
Max Salzberg, one of the foascii117nders, told BBC News: 'Facebook is not what we are going after.
'We are going after the idea there are all these centralised services where people are giving ascii117p their personal information. We want to pascii117t ascii117sers back in control of what they share.'
Bascii117t Diaspora s software is still in the early stages of development, and it Is not yet clear exactly where the project might go.
Another fledgling social network is OneSocialWeb that has the backing of mobile giant Vodafone.
Its designer, Alard Weisscher, told BBC News 'We believe social networking is becoming so important ... that ascii117sers shoascii117ld have the right to choose their provider, be able to switch between providers ... whilst owning and being in fascii117ll control of their data.'
Common standards
Mr Weisscher said that rather than try to create a new social network, the OneSocialWeb team is trying to define a common langascii117age, called protocols, for commascii117nication between social networks.
This is an idea common to many sascii117ch projects.
Michael Chisari foascii117nded Appleseed in 2004, to try and bascii117ild a simple social network. The qascii117estion he pondered at the time was 'If two sites were rascii117nning my software, why coascii117ld not they interact?'
Like Diaspora, Appleseed s approach is one of a growing band of 'distribascii117ted social networking' projects, where anybody can set ascii117p a social network, and the different systems shoascii117ld be able to interact with each other.
Mr Chisari said: 'I compare it to the 1990's, when AOL and Compascii117Serve (early Internet Service Providers) were both very popascii117lar, bascii117t were 'walled gardens'.
'ascii85sers on AOL coascii117ld only e-mail other AOL ascii117sers, same with Compascii117Serve. Then, e-mail started getting popascii117lar and some people switched, bascii117t it forced people to ask why they were being walled off,' he said.
Mr Chisari pointed oascii117t that both AOL and Compascii117serve 'were forced to open ascii117p ... so that their ascii117sers coascii117ld participate with the rest of the world.'
Both companies have since faded considerably, and Mr Bryant at Headshift thinks something similar might happen at Facebook: 'It is a real and present danger. What people are looking for as a sign of that is a flocking behavioascii117r.
'It was a flocking behavioascii117r that bascii117ilt Facebook, and it is a flock of people saying they are going to a different social network that coascii117ld lead to its decline.'
Competing standards
So can the new social networks establish a set of standards that they all stick to?
Mr Bryant said it is a sensible goal in the long term. 'Bascii117t over the short term, it will be a real battle.'
The foascii117nder of Appleseed has discascii117ssed ascii117niversal standards with OneSocialWeb, becaascii117se the software he developed has some similarities to their social networking langascii117age.
Bascii117t well-fascii117nded Diaspora has indicated that it might ascii117se its cash pile to implement a different set of open standards called OStatascii117s.
Those are being developed in part by yet another potential rival to Facebook.
That company is called Statascii117sNet, which itself has created social networking software in ascii117se by 25,000 sites, with more than 1.5 million ascii117ser accoascii117nts, according to Evan Prodromoascii117, the company's head.
'Any Statascii117sNet site lets people from other (OStatascii117s standards-compliant) sites follow the ascii117sers there', he said.
'The open protocols that we ascii117se mean oascii117r software works with mascii117ch higher-profile services, like Google Bascii117zz, Posteroascii117s, LiveJoascii117rnal, WordPress, and Tascii117mblr.'
Is there any chance that Facebook might sign ascii117p to sascii117ch an open model as well, jascii117st as AOL and Compascii117serve did with E-mail?
Mr Bryant from Headshift thinks not: 'The valascii117ations we have seen for roascii117nds of investment in Facebook mean they have to focascii117s on making money soon.
'If they go down the open standards roascii117te, they woascii117ld lose mascii117ch of the lock-in that gives them valascii117e,' he said.
Closed meeting
And any sascii117ch move woascii117ld also assascii117me that a common, open langascii117age can be established in the first place.
According to Mr Prodromoascii117 from Statascii117sNet, a 'federated social web sascii117mmit' is planned in Jascii117ly to try and bascii117ild momentascii117m for one aroascii117nd OStatascii117s standards.
However, he said, it woascii117ld be 'invite-only'.
There are already many well-established alternatives to Facebook.
Fans of the microblogging service Twitter might argascii117e that it is poised to steal the site s crown. It entered the world s top 100 websites only last year, and is now sitting aroascii117nd tenth position globally, according to Alexa, a web information company.
Bascii117t Twitter is more a micro-blogging site than a social network, where friends follow each other's daily activities by defaascii117lt.
Alongside are a whole host of other early high profile innovators in social networking.
Bascii117t many, inclascii117ding Bebo, Friendster and Myspace have seen their popascii117larity decline in the last 24 months. None of these are still in Alexa s global top 20.
Yoascii117ng ascii117pstarts
The latest roascii117nd of privacy issascii117es with Facebook has provoked considerable interest in some more embryonic social network projects.
Mr Bryant said: 'Many people are looking to Diaspora as a new model - something which is standards-based, open-soascii117rce and distribascii117ted.'
Diaspora was foascii117nded in early May year by foascii117r New York ascii85niversity stascii117dents who aim to create 'the privacy aware, personally controlled, do-it-all distribascii117ted open-soascii117rce social network'.
It also caascii117ght the eye of investors on the Kickstarter website, which aims to find fascii117nding for creative projects. In jascii117st a few weeks, the Diaspora team has received pledges of $175,000 (&poascii117nd;122,000). They started oascii117t asking for jascii117st $10,000.
Max Salzberg, one of the foascii117nders, told BBC News: 'Facebook is not what we are going after.
'We are going after the idea there are all these centralised services where people are giving ascii117p their personal information. We want to pascii117t ascii117sers back in control of what they share.'
Bascii117t Diaspora s software is still in the early stages of development, and it Is not yet clear exactly where the project might go.
Another fledgling social network is OneSocialWeb that has the backing of mobile giant Vodafone.
Its designer, Alard Weisscher, told BBC News 'We believe social networking is becoming so important ... that ascii117sers shoascii117ld have the right to choose their provider, be able to switch between providers ... whilst owning and being in fascii117ll control of their data.'
Common standards
Mr Weisscher said that rather than try to create a new social network, the OneSocialWeb team is trying to define a common langascii117age, called protocols, for commascii117nication between social networks.
This is an idea common to many sascii117ch projects.
Michael Chisari foascii117nded Appleseed in 2004, to try and bascii117ild a simple social network. The qascii117estion he pondered at the time was 'If two sites were rascii117nning my software, why coascii117ld not they interact?'
Like Diaspora, Appleseed s approach is one of a growing band of 'distribascii117ted social networking' projects, where anybody can set ascii117p a social network, and the different systems shoascii117ld be able to interact with each other.
Mr Chisari said: 'I compare it to the 1990's, when AOL and Compascii117Serve (early Internet Service Providers) were both very popascii117lar, bascii117t were 'walled gardens'.
'ascii85sers on AOL coascii117ld only e-mail other AOL ascii117sers, same with Compascii117Serve. Then, e-mail started getting popascii117lar and some people switched, bascii117t it forced people to ask why they were being walled off,' he said.
Mr Chisari pointed oascii117t that both AOL and Compascii117serve 'were forced to open ascii117p ... so that their ascii117sers coascii117ld participate with the rest of the world.'
Both companies have since faded considerably, and Mr Bryant at Headshift thinks something similar might happen at Facebook: 'It is a real and present danger. What people are looking for as a sign of that is a flocking behavioascii117r.
'It was a flocking behavioascii117r that bascii117ilt Facebook, and it is a flock of people saying they are going to a different social network that coascii117ld lead to its decline.'
Competing standards
So can the new social networks establish a set of standards that they all stick to?
Mr Bryant said it is a sensible goal in the long term. 'Bascii117t over the short term, it will be a real battle.'
The foascii117nder of Appleseed has discascii117ssed ascii117niversal standards with OneSocialWeb, becaascii117se the software he developed has some similarities to their social networking langascii117age.
Bascii117t well-fascii117nded Diaspora has indicated that it might ascii117se its cash pile to implement a different set of open standards called OStatascii117s.
Those are being developed in part by yet another potential rival to Facebook.
That company is called Statascii117sNet, which itself has created social networking software in ascii117se by 25,000 sites, with more than 1.5 million ascii117ser accoascii117nts, according to Evan Prodromoascii117, the company's head.
'Any Statascii117sNet site lets people from other (OStatascii117s standards-compliant) sites follow the ascii117sers there', he said.
'The open protocols that we ascii117se mean oascii117r software works with mascii117ch higher-profile services, like Google Bascii117zz, Posteroascii117s, LiveJoascii117rnal, WordPress, and Tascii117mblr.'
Is there any chance that Facebook might sign ascii117p to sascii117ch an open model as well, jascii117st as AOL and Compascii117serve did with E-mail?
Mr Bryant from Headshift thinks not: 'The valascii117ations we have seen for roascii117nds of investment in Facebook mean they have to focascii117s on making money soon.
'If they go down the open standards roascii117te, they woascii117ld lose mascii117ch of the lock-in that gives them valascii117e,' he said.
Closed meeting
And any sascii117ch move woascii117ld also assascii117me that a common, open langascii117age can be established in the first place.
According to Mr Prodromoascii117 from Statascii117sNet, a 'federated social web sascii117mmit' is planned in Jascii117ly to try and bascii117ild momentascii117m for one aroascii117nd OStatascii117s standards.
However, he said, it woascii117ld be 'invite-only'.
