{"id":4220,"date":"2011-09-17T20:20:00","date_gmt":"2011-09-17T20:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/2024.thenexus.today\/index.php\/2011\/09\/17\/4-things-diaspora-can-learn-from-google-2\/"},"modified":"2024-01-20T05:06:20","modified_gmt":"2024-01-20T05:06:20","slug":"4-things-diaspora-can-learn-from-google-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/2024.thenexus.today\/index.php\/2011\/09\/17\/4-things-diaspora-can-learn-from-google-2\/","title":{"rendered":"4 Things Diaspora can learn from Google+"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Part 2 of <strong>A Crucial Time for Diaspora<\/strong>. \u00a0Originally posted on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.talesfromthe.net\/jon\/?p=3120\">Liminal States<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>This weekend I received an invitation through Facebook to join Diaspora. I had tried to join Diaspora last year when I learned about their Kickstarter success while writing my book on crowdsourcing, but I couldn\u2019t get in. So of course I was curious and went immediately to sign up.<\/p>\n<p>And then I was puzzled. Diaspora looked just like\u2026Google+. Or did Google+ look just like Diaspora?<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Aliza Sherman, <a href=\"http:\/\/babyfruit.typepad.com\/mediagirl\/2011\/09\/google-meet-diaspora-or-maybe-you-know-them-already.html\">Google+ meet Diaspora \u2013 or maybe you know them already?<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Yeah really. \u00a0Dan Tynan has similar comments in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.itworld.com\/it-managementstrategy\/197329\/will-real-anti-facebook-please-stand\">Will the real anti-Facebook please stand up?<\/a> \u00a0Given that \u00a0G+ emerged some seven months <em>after<\/em> Diaspora went public, I&#8217;m guessing Google was taking notes. Sure, the basic idea of having Aspects (in Diaspora) or Circles (in Google+) to \u00a0organize your acquaintances isn&#8217;t new,* but G+&#8217;s web layout sure looks a heckuva \u00a0lot like Diaspora&#8217;s.<\/p>\n<p>What\u2019s that they say about <a href=\"http:\/\/www.phrases.org.uk\/meanings\/imitation-is-the-sincerest-form-of-flattery.html\">the sincerest form of flattery<\/a>?<\/p>\n<p>And conveniently enough, a large corporation has just spent millions of dollars on a \u201cfield test\u201d that offers plenty of learning for Diaspora. \u00a0Thanks, Google!<\/p>\n<p>So last week I started asking people what they thought Diaspora could learn from Google+. \u00a0 Since then Kathy, Helena, Greg, Amy, Stephen, Gretchen, Dan, Paul, Andreas, David, Cindy, Geeky, powlsy, Drew, Terry, Sylvia, Edward, Anne, Hrafn, Shiyiya, Cavlec, Wiring, Madeleine, @PRC_Amber, @blakereidm, Arvind, Dan, and many others came up with new suggestions and refined the list in discussions on Google+, Dreamwidth, Diaspora, \u00a0Twitter, earlier draft, and email. \u00a0Thanks to everybody who got involved! \u00a0As usual, the majority of the good ideas came from others; all of the clunkers and mistakes are mine.<\/p>\n<p>The Diaspora team\u2019s getting a ton of feedback these days \u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/diasp.org\/posts\/230127\">130 responses just since yesterday<\/a>. Feedback from early users and passionate supporters is a sign that they want you to succeed, and the best roadmap to improving the product. At the same time, though, there\u2019s only so many hours in the day; and my guess is the team\u2019s list of tasks to accomplish is already more than full.<\/p>\n<p>So I\u2019ve tried to concentrate here on a handful of areas with fairly immediate impact that won\u2019t add much work for the core team and where the community can do the bulk of the heavy lifting. \u00a0Without further ado, here they are.<\/p>\n<h1 id=\"1-focus-on-the-%E2%80%9Cnew-user-experience%E2%80%9D\">1. Focus on the \u201cnew user experience\u201d<\/h1>\n<p>Google+ got 25,000,000 people to sign up in the first few weeks, but only a few million stayed. \u00a0In the comments to the fascinating \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/plus.google.com\/109895887909967698705\/posts\/4N3DAT5ydBS\">feedback Friday<\/a>\u201d thread community manager Natalie Villalobos kicked off last month, a lot of people talk about how difficult the experience is for new people, especially if their friends aren\u2019t there yet. \u00a0Where are the discussions happening? \u00a0How do you meet others? \u00a0 Who\u2019s interesting to follow?<\/p>\n<p>Diaspora\u2019s got the same challenges \u2014 even moreso, because it\u2019s so hard to find good help information. There are good resources out there <a href=\"http:\/\/diasporial.com\/tutorials\/connecting-diaspora-to-other-services\">on Diasporial<\/a> and elsewhere (Elo\u00ad\u00edsa Valdes has a nice <a href=\"https:\/\/diasp.org\/posts\/215986\">short list<\/a>), but no way for new people to discover them. \u00a0 And as Twitter and now Google+ are discovering, a \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.talesfromthe.net\/?p=3033\">suggested users \u00a0list<\/a>\u201d is fraught with peril.<\/p>\n<p>A few straightforward things could help a lot here:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>have a \u201cwelcome\u201d message for each new user, pointing them to resources and giving some suggestions for getting started. \u00a0Ideally this would be something that\u2019s easy for individual pod administrators to customize to add their own twist to it.<\/li>\n<li>more awareness of and easier access to the #help hashtag. \u00a0Perhaps a link in the top right menu?<\/li>\n<li>since a lot of people still have most of their friends on Facebook, publicize Friendrika and other ways of bridging the gap<\/li>\n<li>create a volunteer-led \u201cwelcoming committee\u201d to greet new users, help them through the inevitable gotchas, and answer questions*<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h1 id=\"2-make-it-easier-for-people-to-extend-the-system-and-host-their-own-pods\">2. Make it easier for people to extend the system and host their own pods<\/h1>\n<p>Different people prefer different ways of interacting with the system \u2014 \u00a0dense information vs white space; text-heavy vs. image-heavy; comments \u00a0expanded or contracted by default; and so on. \u00a0From very early on, Chrome extensions like <a href=\"https:\/\/chrome.google.com\/webstore\/detail\/oacdcllhgpddmlnhajiacfakhlilbicp\">G+me<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/chrome.google.com\/webstore\/detail\/pidkbnhjgdngcfcaikoocdanfijkgdli\">Plus Minus<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/chrome.google.com\/webstore\/detail\/amhpngpcnpkpfhchniggoncicagacnkc\">Auto-colorizer<\/a>, and the all-important <a href=\"https:\/\/chrome.google.com\/webstore\/detail\/fadjoojmlelmmmibangomfobihpphdhh\">Troll remover<\/a> make a huge difference in Google+\u2019s usability. \u00a0 Some good examples and instructions \u2014 as well as better visibility for <a href=\"http:\/\/groups.google.com\/group\/diaspora-dev\/browse_thread\/thread\/c88412d39a2c27a6\/fb3e0fd70599fb7d?lnk=raot\">the extensions people are already working on<\/a> \u2014 could unleash the same creativity in the Diaspora* world.**<\/p>\n<p>One of Diaspora\u2019s big advantages over Google+ is that people can install \u00a0it themselves and run small pods for friends, families, clubs, churches, or roller derby teams. \u00a0But for people to really take advantage of it, the installation needs to be as easy as \u00a0 WordPress*** and ideally offer \u00a0\u201cone-click\u201d installation \u2014 on Amazon, Heroku, and eventually ISP as well. \u00a0 \u00a0There are lots of sysadmins and IT professionals in the early Diaspora* community who have a much better idea about what\u2019s needed on this front than I do. \u00a0Is there a way for a working group of them to take the lead here?<\/p>\n<h1 id=\"3-get-ready-for-trolls-hate-speech-harassment-and-spammers\">3. Get ready for trolls, hate speech, harassment, and spammers<\/h1>\n<p>Remember \u00a0when Google thought that its odious \u201creal name\u201d policy \u00a0would cut down \u00a0on bad behavior?<\/p>\n<p>Hahahahahaha.<\/p>\n<p>Soon enough, just like \u00a0every other \u00a0online site, there was plenty of ugliness \u2014 and unlike Live \u00a0Journal, \u00a0Dreamwidth, Slashdot, or even the old Usenet groups with their \u00a0 killfiles, there aren\u2019t any good tools to deal with it. \u00a0But as weak as Google\u2019s moderation tools and <a href=\"https:\/\/plus.google.com\/103325808503679220346\/posts\/DtyapmgRiJ7\">processes for reporting harassment<\/a> are, they\u2019re still a step up on Diaspora*. \u00a0 So far, <a href=\"http:\/\/getsatisfaction.com\/diaspora\/topics\/block_hide_users\">nothing\u2019s been implmented in Diaspora*<\/a>; the vague description of <a href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/diaspora\/diaspora\/issues\/1734\">what\u2019s planned for pre-bata<\/a> makes it seem like it\u2019s repeating Google+\u2019s mistakes (see <a href=\"https:\/\/plus.google.com\/117903011098040166012\/posts\/G45xDb18yWf\">Kee Hinckley<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/plus.google.com\/102533732658641069172\/posts\/PZdupChgcTC\">Linda Lawrey<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/plus.google.com\/114753028665775786510\/posts\">Lauren Weinstein<\/a> for the problems with this approach).<\/p>\n<p>This would be a great place to follow Dreamwidth\u2019s model for community-driven discussion and design and come up with a better specification before the team implements something ineffective. \u00a0And not to sound like a broken record or anything, but it would be great to have the equivalent of <a href=\"https:\/\/chrome.google.com\/webstore\/detail\/fadjoojmlelmmmibangomfobihpphdhh\">Troll Remover<\/a> for Diaspora.<\/p>\n<p>As for spammers, all those <a href=\"https:\/\/plus.google.com\/113117251731252114390\/posts\/ep39RCgR7RC\">pretty women just out of college who love to advertise Southwest Air<\/a> are going to discover Diaspora soon enough. \u00a0What\u2019s the strategy to deal with spammers signing up on open pods? \u00a0What happens when spammers start to set up pods of their own and add people to their aspects? \u00a0And are pods vulnerable to spammers hacking into them? \u00a0 If the \u201cprivacy friendly social network\u201d turns into a spam factory, it\u2019ll be a huge blow to Diaspora\u2019s momentum.<\/p>\n<p>Once again, this seems like an opportunity for the community to take the lead. There are plenty of early Diasporans who have hosted forums or run blogs and other sites that have dealt with spam. \u00a0And while I haven\u2019t seen a lot of security experts there so far, a lot of hackers support Diaspora\u2019s goals, and I have to believe that reaching out to them could help with security testing as well . \u00a0Even something as simple as a weekly \u201chack this pod\u201d contest could start getting the community involved in discovering problems before the spammers do.<\/p>\n<h1 id=\"4-reach-out-to-the-people-google%E2%80%99s-ignoring\">4. \u00a0Reach out to the people Google\u2019s ignoring<\/h1>\n<p>It\u2019s a huge challenge for any new social network these days to attract \u00a0an audience. There are so many sites out there already \u2026 who has \u00a0time for one more? \u00a0 \u00a0So it makes \u00a0sense to start by working with people whose needs <em>aren\u2019t <\/em>getting \u00a0 met today. \u00a0 Google+\u2019s core demographics are techies, 20-45 year old guys, affluent \u201ckids and cabernet\u201d couples, and social media experts. \u00a0Diaspora\u2019s likeliest successes are with everybody else.<\/p>\n<p>More specifically, the estimated 40% of people online who prefer \u201cscreen names\u201d or pseudonyms are an really good target audience right now. \u00a0Geek \u00a0Feminism\u2019s \u00a0 \u00a0 excellent list of <a href=\"http:\/\/geekfeminism.wikia.com\/wiki\/Who_is_harmed_by_a_%22Real_Names%22_policy%3F\">Who is harmed by a \u201cReal Names\u201d policy<\/a> and the \u201cWho\u2019s affected?\u201d list on <a href=\"http:\/\/my.nameis.me\/\">My Name is Me<\/a> can be the basis of a great outreach and recruiting plan.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s not rocket science to reach out to a community \u2014 especially if there some passionate early adopters already on Diaspora. \u00a0A few basics:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Work with people in the community to come up with scenarios and personas highlighting showing how Diaspora helps with the challenges people have today<\/li>\n<li>Blog posts and articles from people within the community to raise awareness<\/li>\n<li>Lists of people within the community who are already on Diaspora* to help newcomers get involved<\/li>\n<li>Set up a virtuous cycle by providing ways for the community to influence the design and development of future versions of the product<\/li>\n<li>Set up a pod specifically for this community<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Women (who are 25 times more likely to be harassed online than men), LGBTQs (at risk for bullying or worse \u2014 and already likely to look on \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Diaspora* favorably because gender is a text field), and activists \u00a0could be \u00a0 \u00a0 good groups to start with. \u00a0There are lots of other possibilities as well.<\/p>\n<h1 id=\"an-interesting-next-few-months-%E2%80%A6\">An interesting next few months \u2026<\/h1>\n<p>Needless to say, these suggestions are only the tip of the iceberg. There\u2019s a ton of stuff that needs to be done on the product side, including dealing with <a href=\"https:\/\/joindiaspora.com\/posts\/404422\">questions about security<\/a>. \u00a0And there\u2019s plenty of marketing as well. \u00a0In a comment on an earlier draft of this post, Dan Tynan suggested \u201cGet Robert Scoble to be your cheerleader. Or Om Malik, or Guy Kawasaki, or one of those other guys.\u201d \u00a0Indeed! And maybe also some women \u2026<\/p>\n<p>Will the Diaspora team and community step up to the challenge?\u00c2 \u00a0I\u2019m optimistic.\u00c2 \u00a0As I said in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.talesfromthe.net\/?p=3122\">A crucial time for Diaspora*<\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>There are plenty of people (including me!) who are passionate about \u00a0what open-source distributed social networks mean for intellectual \u00a0freedom. \u00a0And just as importantly, there are plenty of people (also \u00a0including me!) whose social networking needs aren\u2019t being met right now.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>One way or another, it\u2019ll be an interesting time for Diaspora* over the next few months. \u00a0Stay tuned!<\/p>\n<p>jon<\/p>\n<p>image from Giorgio * <a href=\"https:\/\/diasp.org\/people\/27634\">via Diaspora*<\/a><\/p>\n<p>* Ardith Goodwin is piloting this on Google+; free-association.net, and no doubt other sites, have used similar approaches in the past.<\/p>\n<p>** Speaking of which, even a limited read-only API that\u2019s likely to change over time can lead to exciting apps like Mohamed Mansour\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/plus.google.com\/116805285176805120365\/posts\">Stream+<\/a>, developed and released the same day Google published their API. \u00a0I realize that API design is challenging, but at this there\u2019s a lot of value in something that\u2019s temporary and \u201cgood enough\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>*** Cindy Brown suggested WordPress as a model on G+; Dan Patterson goes into more detail <a href=\"http:\/\/www.readwriteweb.com\/archives\/how_can_diaspora_help_us_in_a_facebook_and_google.php#comment-308678821\">in a comment on <em>Read Write Web<\/em><\/a><em>, <\/em>and <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Part 2 of A Crucial Time for Diaspora. \u00a0Originally posted on Liminal States. This weekend I received an invitation through Facebook to join Diaspora. I had tried to join Diaspora last year when I learned about their Kickstarter success while writing my book on crowdsourcing, but I couldn\u2019t get in. So of course I was [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,1],"tags":[481,470,482,325],"class_list":["post-4220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tales-from-the-net","category-uncategorized","tag-disapora","tag-fediverse","tag-learnings","tag-social-networks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/2024.thenexus.today\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/2024.thenexus.today\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/2024.thenexus.today\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/2024.thenexus.today\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/2024.thenexus.today\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4220"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/2024.thenexus.today\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4220\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4326,"href":"https:\/\/2024.thenexus.today\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4220\/revisions\/4326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/2024.thenexus.today\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/2024.thenexus.today\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/2024.thenexus.today\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}