Week 8 MKT 595

Creating New Social Networks
Diaspora: "Four Nerds and a Cry to Arms Against Facebook"

Who will rise up against the addiction that is Facebook and Farmville? Diaspora. I recently read an article in the NYTimes about a group of students creating a private social network.

The central theme of Diaspora is:
"to distribute the software free, and to make the code openly available so that other programmers can build on it. As they describe it, the Diaspora* software will let users set up their own personal servers, called seeds, create their own hubs and fully control the information they share. "

Why the name Diaspora? Diaspora refers to a tribe or community with common identity that are displaced refugees. It is an interesting, unique name that is very appropriate. The image of a mature dandelion loosing its seeds is also appropriate. Looks like the domain name is up for sale (diaspora.com and .org).

The difference between Diaspora and Facebook is a decentralized model where users and not a "central deity" control information. It is a bit like Ning but open source and free. (Yes Ning will be charging $3/month shortly).

Younger People are More Aware of Privacy
"Once you give away information it is no longer yours...but sharing is a human value...sharing and privacy are not mutually exclusive" -Diaspora

Wow, They Raised a lot of Money!
Looks like they Have a Market. Diaspora raised the money online on a website called Kickstarter. To date they have raised $108,304, well over the $10,000 they initially requested.


Keeping Up With Your Customers Via Internet Channels

Given the plethora of channels available it seems a challenge to be everywhere all the time unless you have help.

RatePoint
RatePoint is a company started by the founders of Geotrust, which was purchased by Verisign. The target market for RatePoint is small businesses. Given the economic environment, there are many entrepreneurs that will go for this type of company. When you sign up for RatePoint you get a free subscription for a month or two. During that time expect to receive phone call(s) from a salesperson with a guided tutorial on how to use RatePoint. Since RatePoint collects phone numbers, a call from them is not unsolicited. The salesperson will also ask if you will sign up for paid subscription.

The advantages of RatePoint are:

1. lower price
   
2. newsletters
3. keeping your customers separate from your other accounts on Twitter, Facebook and email.
4. marketing campaigns via email, Twitter and Facebook
   
5. surveys
6. business and product reviews
   

Ratepoint is advertising like crazy. If you sign up for the free subscription like I did be prepared to see adverts wherever you are on the Internet.