Here are some background pointers: A list of projects in this space. The Diaspora project is listed under “deployable on commodity webhosting”. I was under the impression that they are actually more of a p2p application. A set of ideas for this space on the GNU Social wiki. Adriana Lukas talks about the user-controlled web and the mine project. (She coins a fun acronym: Relationships on Individuals’ Own Terms - RIOT. ) (flash video removed June 2016) There seems to be quite a bit of activity with 20-30 projects, but the efforts are fragmented. Different projects have different goals and approaches. Some focus on a piece of the user experience and others focus on technology. For example, the Mine! project is a technology piece focused on rich sharing of data (including links, photos) with strong user control. OneSocialWeb is focused on messaging. With Elgg you can create social networks - but it’s not really user controlled. Diversity is great, but one or two well-thought out efforts need to win. Critical mass is a must in order to win in this space.
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