Zuckerberg donated to Diaspora, the open-source Facebook competitor

Filed under: Web services, Open Source

You'd think Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg would be dismissive of Diaspora, the upstart effort to provide an open-source Facebook alternative, but Zuck says that's not true. In fact, he donated to the crowd-funded Diaspora project via Kickstarter. Although the amount he donated is unknown, the Facebook founder told Wired he saw himself in the Diaspora kids, who are current NYU students.

My take is that Zuckerberg doesn't feel threatened by Diaspora, and that he might actually see it as an incubator for new ideas that Facebook can use to push its agenda of opening the Web. [See Microsoft bailing out Apple back in 1997! -Ed] It also wouldn't be surprising to see Zuckerberg make an attempt to hire the Diaspora team at some point, although I doubt they'd be swayed by the offer. Including Zuckerberg's donation, Diaspora has raised nearly $200,000 on Kickstarter.

For more on Diaspora, check out Download Squad's point-counterpoint series: Why Diaspora Will Win and Why Diaspora Will Fail.

Zuckerberg donated to Diaspora, the open-source Facebook competitor originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 31 May 2010 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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