Maybe the old software engineering maxim "build one and throw it away" is the best way to look at what Diaspora's done so far.
Yes, it would be great to have a well-thought-out protocol and secure software. But then again there's also huge value in having an implementation that people can play with. We hear all the time about how important it is to get your best guess at an minimum viable product into users' hands, and that's pretty much what Diaspora has done.
The article made the point about federation algo, and I think that's the most important: proper federation/decentralization IS the product. As of yet it is an unsolved problem in their camp (and many others). This isn't to take anything away from them, because its a Big Problem, but if they can't solve that, a slightly polished CRUD social networking app is just fluff.
The product is the protocol, not the app. That's the only potentially innovative thing they are doing. Sorry guys, aspects are a product made for privacy concerned software devs - normies don't care.
great comment, I had only one quibble or expansion on what you said:
> Sorry guys, aspects are a product made for privacy concerned software devs - normies don't care.
I'd argue that normals care about this too. Teens might want to keep their friend/school/personal stuff private from their family/friends-of-family/adults-they-know stuff. And adults often want to keep their "adult adult" stuff hidden or distinct from their family and/or coworkers. The whole "my mom wants to friend me on Facebook, ew!" or "my boss wants to friend me on Facebook, noooo!" factor.
Agreed 100%, but this feature alone isn't worth leaving facebook due to network effect. That may change, but if you have to boil it down to a black and white, it still leans far to the side of "not worth it to switch." Also, should this change, I find it highly unlikely facebook would find itself unable to pivot. Regardless of what you think of fb (I personally hate it) you really can't deny they have a world class engineering team that has a finger on the social pulse more than any other company right now.
I have tried building apps around these kinds of features, they don't really work (you end up building a new interface to email awfully quickly).
Yes, it would be great to have a well-thought-out protocol and secure software. But then again there's also huge value in having an implementation that people can play with. We hear all the time about how important it is to get your best guess at an minimum viable product into users' hands, and that's pretty much what Diaspora has done.