The open social network project Diaspora, started by four NYU students to build an open alternative to Facebook raised more than $200,000 in month. Diaspora is a “privacy aware, personally controlled, do-it-all distributed open source social network” aiming to be the next Facebook.
Diaspora started out in April 24 to raise just $10,000 by June 1. Diaspora used Kickstarter to reach out to people asking for donations. Kickstarter is an online site that helps small projects to get funding through donations. A project is funded in Kickstarter, only if the project reaches its goal within a time limit.
Diaspora Raises More Than $200,000 in a Short Time
Thanks to Facebook privacy troubles/Facebook bashing, and a New York Times article, Diaspora’s call for monetary support was heard loud & far. The money started pouring down; First, Diaspora reached their goal of raising 10,000 within 12 days. Within 20 days Diaspora raised more than $100,000. Diaspora’s final tally on 1st June is $200,642. More than 6450 individuals backed the project by contributing to Diaspora.
Facebook Helped Diaspora in Many Ways
Facebook bashing definitely helped Diaspora. In addition to this, Diaspora even caught the attention of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Mark Zuckerberg told Wired magazine that he sees a little of himself in the Diaspora team and he thought it is a cool idea. He even contributed to Diaspora’s fund raising by donating an undisclosed amount. He further added that Diaspora reminds him of his project called Wirehog.
Diaspora Team Promises To Deliver
Expressing surprise at the huge response Diaspora’s team said in its blog
When we started our Kickstarter, we thought our $10,000 would come from our immediate friends, family, and a small handful generous strangers.
Boy, were we wrong.
Diaspora team promised that although Diaspora got more than they wanted the team will be focused on building a great tool. In its blog, Diaspora said
We started with the goal of working hard, staying focused, and making great software, and that’s exactly what we’re going to do. With the surplus of attention and monetary support, we are now able to position ourselves amongst some of the best developers around. You may not hear too much from us in the coming months and we will try our best to provide regular updates, but our silence means we are hard at work.
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