Taking on Goliath - Diaspora

On the 21st of September I got a little email from one of the many projects I have an interest in. I blindly skimmed through it and labelled it in my “Read Someday” folder according to my GTD (Getting Things Done) system I attempt to follow religiously. A day later I was engaged in a little Social Media debating about the very platform when a friend of mine mentioned that he received a mail from Diaspora too. Keeping up with the context of the debate prompted me to return to the email I labelled as “Read Someday” and read it on the spot. Immediately light emanated from behind my head and I could hear the sound of angels singing (not really, I’m using dramatic effect here, please don’t commit me.) This inspired me to write the following open-letter to the current developers of Diaspora.  

Dear Diaspora* Developers,

It is with delight and inspiration that I write this letter of praise to you with a hint of guidance.

For any content driven media, be it television (in whichever incarnation it may be), music or new-media such as Search and Social Networking, there are basically two profitable business models. The first is to charge the user for content. The second is to charge for advertising exposed to the audience. This has proved far more successful than any other business model associated with media content. It is the way Google has become a mega corporation in a very short time. Its the reason Mark Zuckerberg has become one of the most powerful people in the world before hitting thirty. 

We as individuals, as consumers of media, have been placing our power in the hands of corporations, by allowing them to decide what we think about. To some extent, maybe far to often than we care to admit, even our opinions are shaped by these corporations.

This is why I am encouraged by Diaspora and have been inspired whilst debating the contents of your recent email (Wednesday, September 21st, 2011) sent to people like me. 

I am enthralled by the fact that Diaspora follows a decentralised model for social media, but this got me thinking: Power and money are two highly synonymous concepts in the world we find our selves in. As a free thinker at heart I find myself constantly bashing heads with idealists who have great concepts but negate the intrinsic influence of these aforementioned forces. This often plays out as follow: 

I might have a conversation with an Open Source proponent, or proponents of sustainable living, but the same stumbling block always comes up. There seems to be two schools of thought and a great chasm divides the two. The first school of thought believes that the world can’t change because of its reliance on power and money, the need for an idea to make money. The opposing view is that one needs to rid one self of this concept and give everything out for free. Now, this is a grand concept and may work one day in the distant future when we have evolved beyond our current psyche. It may even work presently in isolation at AfricaBurn or other Burning Man festivals, but its not currently sustainable. I believe that a community can stand together and overcome this chasm.

What Diaspora is attempting to do, and what many idealists (myself included) wants to do is take on the big boys. Taking on the likes of Facebook will not be easy. For victory to be achieved you need to recognise that you are preparing for battle. Before you take up your sword you must educate yourself in the Art of War. Yes, internalise the wisdom of Sun Tzu. It has proven itself to be truthful countless times since its writing. 

The decentralised nature of Diaspora allows for a unique and potentially powerful business model.

I propose that each pod becomes a business unit, independent but aligned to the general Diaspora business community. A pod owner can then create a business model that plugs into the greater business alliance. Users will be encouraged to join pods depending on the business model followed or the general product offering. There are three basic models I can think of, all of which could be applied by the different pods. The first will be “free” but require a form of brand evangelism, the second will charge a user-fee and the third will expose users to advertising. Of course there can be hybrids, and I’m sure other business models will evolve too.

A centralised advertising engine will be needed, which will enable the Diaspora Community to sell ad space in bulk. In a similar way that Google Adwords generate profit for so many blog owners, this centralised advertising engine will sustain the ecosystem financially. The pod owners will get the greatest share of the ad revenue generated from ads exposed to its own users. The power still lies with individual users by giving them a choice of what advertising they will to be exposed to through their choice of pod. Even the amount of advertising can be chosen by the end user. Do you want more features? Sure, but maybe those features will only be possible to get in pods that expose you to more advertising.

Which ever way the individual pods sustain themselves, a portion of the profit needs to feed back into the community. I believe that a centralised advertising engine, run by the community, will allow for Diaspora to become a powerful, user driven platform. If we, the individuals - the consumers - can demand from corporations what behaviour we want, even choose the advertising we are exposed to, then we will have more power as individuals.

This way, instead of Diaspora standing on its own facing Goliath, there will be hundreds, if not thousands of Davids tackling it from different positions - different angles - possibly on all fronts. 

There will need to be certain regulations within the general Diaspora community, ensuring that any one pod owner does not become too big, monopolising the market. Maybe a max-out of member numbers needs to be set. Certainly some sort of democracy will be needed to self-regulate this new cosmos.

If a viable business model is not found, financing and competitive edge will remain a problem. There are a host of excellent Linux distros that have lost the opportunity to become a prominent part of people lives, but missed out because the custodians did not recognise the need for a strong, profit generating business model. It seems that so often absolute genius don’t recognise that if you give candy away people will eat the candy and walk away. There needs to be more of an incentive than just free candy to keep your customers. They need to feel a sense of investment in your product. Let the investment be something more dispersed but with a common purpose: The freedom of the Individual and the power of the collective.

Kind regards,

Martin Menge

eMarketing Consultant, Cape Town