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diff --git a/posts/2013-06-30-diaspora.md b/posts/2013-06-30-diaspora.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..32a8991 --- /dev/null +++ b/posts/2013-06-30-diaspora.md @@ -0,0 +1,53 @@ +title: Find Me on Diaspora +date: 2013-06-30 15:00 +tags: foss, diaspora, federated, decentralized, rails, wsu +summary: I have started using and contributing to Diaspora. +--- + +With all of the recent news about the NSA’s widespread spying, I have +decided to ween myself off of proprietary, centralized web +services. Facebook, Google, and other such corporations hold onto +massive amounts of our data that we’ve willingly given to them via +status messages, “like” buttons, searches, and emails. Using and +contributing to free (as in freedom), decentralized (like email) web +services is a really great way to re-establish control of our +data. These services rely on many small, interconnected nodes to +operate, rather than a monolithic website that is under the control of +one entity. If the distinction between centralized and decentralized +isn’t clear, consider how email functions. There are many email +providers to choose from. Users can communicate with others that +choose to use a different email provider. This is how web services +should work, but unfortunately very few work this way now. + +The centralized web application that I spend too much time using is +Facebook. I have knowingly given Facebook a “frontdoor” into my life +for years now and I’m ready to move on. I think that the concept of a +“social network” is fun, so I wanted a Facebook replacement. +Fortunately, there is one: [Diaspora](http://diasporaproject.org/). + +Diaspora is a [free](https://github.com/diaspora/diaspora), +distributed, social networking web application written in Ruby using +the Rails framework. Diaspora is a community-run project. Its success +depends upon users, developers, technical writers, user interface +designers, etc. investing their time and/or money into making it +better. The Diaspora network is broken up into many servers, known as +[pods](http://podupti.me). Users have the choice of which pod to store +their data on. Pods assert no ownership over their user’s data, unlike +Facebook, and do not use that data for targeted +advertisements. Diaspora is still a rather young project, but it does +everything that I need it to do. Goodbye, Facebook! + +Since I’m a programmer, I naturally wanted to hack on some code and +contribute. The main developers are very friendly and give great +guidance to newcomers that want to help out. Every Monday is a “Bug +Mash Monday”, where a list of open issues is presented to entice +contributors to resolve them. In the past few weeks, I have made two +contributions to the Diaspora project: a +[bug fix](https://github.com/diaspora/diaspora/issues/2948) and a +[small feature](https://github.com/diaspora/diaspora/issues/2948). Diaspora +is very hackable and I encourage other developers with Ruby/Rails and +Javascript knowledge to join in. + +TL;DR: Diaspora is great. Create an account. Check out my +[profile](https://joindiaspora.com/u/davexunit). Start sharing. Happy +hacking. :) |