The internet is as significant to the world as was the introduction of movable type in Europe. The internet’s ability to erase physical barriers and democratize information has been revolutionizing the way things have traditionally been done. Physical stores gave way to digital storefronts. People suddenly had the command of large workforces at just a click away. People are now better connected than ever before. But what in what direction will the internet be developing?

At its inception, the internet was simply a series of connected technological devices like servers, webcams and sensors. With this trend came the inevitable connection of people through the internet. Social networking is in fact the other half of the internet, because it connects people. The internet is now effectively complete with connected people and connected machines.

Machines have been connected, and people have been connected. What is missing is the integration between people and machines. When examined from this perspective, the current trends in data logging startups begins to make more sense. There is Twitter, Blippy, Foursquare, DailyBooth and many other websites that effectively serve as data loggers for what an individual is doing. All of these will culminate with lifelogging going mainstream.

The ultimate result of all of this development will culminate with the entire planet becoming one large, networked biomachine.

This April Facebook unveiled new default privacy settings which switched many personal details from private to public by default and removing many of the existing, granular controls in the privacy settings. All the while Facebook claimed the settings offered greater control. Articles questioning the modifications quickly spread from tech blogs to the mainstream media, resulting in a public relations train wreck for Facebook.

Meanwhile, open source social networking startups took the opportunity to capitalize on the controversy, the most prominent of which was Diaspora. After raising over $200,000 on Kickstarter, a distributed seed funding website, it has received the bulk of the press’s attention.

Despite all the positive press, many are skeptical of Diaspora’s ability to dent Facebook’s armor. Backupify just posted an article voicing similar ideas.

But many of the criticisms regarding Diaspora are flawed. First is the silly argument that a service or website isn’t dead until it’s completely offline. This is just a bit of semantics, and there is no doubt that MySpace and AOL are both effectively dead and of minimal influence. MySpace seemed unstoppable back in the day even with its disgusting user interface, glitter graphics and horrible themes until Facebook rolled in and demonstrated the importance of a quality user interface. AOL’s walled gardens appeared similarly impenetrable until they too fell. Times change, and even giants fall. Companies that deliver such few products are always fragile.

Second is the idea that users don’t care about privacy. Currently this is a possibility with a majority, but it could very well change in the future as people never know what they want until they see it. But privacy is only part of puzzle as user control of data is of equal importance. People also want to be in control of their documents. People want to own things. People like to know that something is completely theirs. Facebook does not meet any of these criteria.

Third is the idea that the service is a niche product that serves only geeks. This fact cannot be denied at the moment, but it is a hidden advantage. The first users of a product are typically the most passionate about it and thus have a tendency to champion the product. These people also tend to be more influential, and ironically it is these cool, geeky enthusiasts of Diaspora that will make it mainstream.

This is a pattern that has repeated itself many times. Products initially go through a niche phase, slowly gaining traction in the market before exploding into the mainstream as something hot, new and desirable once it gains sufficient positive recognition.

Facebook’s rise to dominance followed this exact pattern. Originally it was introduced to only college students, a small segment of the market. Being young adults, these people are seen as the “next generation” and thus representatives of all that is “cool”. The closed, @edu only walls of Facebook gave it the aura of a hip club that everyone wanted to be a part of. And people did. Once it had established sufficient cachet as the Mecca of Cool, the mainstream naturally wanted in. With its hip reputation and social networking effects, Facebook effectively transitioned from niche to mainstream by letting in more segments of the market before letting in everybody, resulting in the explosive growth today.

While Facebook seems invincible now, there are many problems with a centralized social networking model that make it vulnerable to competitors, such as less control over the website, loss of control over personal data and potential abuse of user data. None of these would be problems in a distributed system such as Diaspora. The superiority of Diaspora is obvious, and I predict that it will not languish as a niche product, but gain traction with the mainstream as it rolls out a hosted version that integrates with self hosted versions.

Facebook

Diaspora

After almost 3 years of blogging on Windows Live Spaces, none of the nagging problems with the service have been resolved. While other platforms such as Blogger and WordPress have continuously improved, Spaces has not received any significant updates since its inception. Due to the service’s decline, I have ported my Windows Live Space to this website.

Windows Live Spaces has not always been the outdated service it is today. When it was originally released back in 2004, it had a competitive feature set. As a cornerstone of Windows Live, Spaces, rather than the activity feed, served as a user’s profile. Several years of inattention later, Spaces is nonfunctional in comparison to other platforms.

Following the Windows Live Wave 4 reveal, even the most dedicated Windows Live users have expressed dissatisfaction with the lack of updates to Spaces. Spaces is plagued with comment and private messaging spam. Rather than integrating a spam filter in the latest round of Wave refreshes, the Windows Live team decided to cut corners and limit the maximum comment length instead, effectively discouraging commenting. They were clearly aware of the PM spam problem, and now users who are not networked with somebody cannot sent that individual a PM. How they failed to see that the obvious alternative tactic of friend request spamming would immediately be employed is amusing. Needless to say, the addition of sorely needed core features such as integrated tagging, readable URLs, anonymous commenting and tracking were not added.

Like many other Windows Live projects, Spaces started off strong until inattention to the product left it uncompetitive. Worst of all is the growing possibility that Windows Live Spaces could be discontinued in the near future. Wave 3 ended Spaces as the profile page of users and Wave 4 eliminated Spaces from the main navigation, suggesting a gradual marginalization of Spaces. In addition, all of the Windows Live teams have stopped blogging on Spaces, opting for WindowsTeamBlog.com instead. A recent post on the Windows Team Blog implied that they do not even see potential in blogging, suggesting that more frequent update style posts are becoming the norm.

I had hoped that Wave 4 would bring solid improvements to Spaces, but instead it has only confirmed my doubts about the service’s future. As a result, I recommend transferring Spaces blogs to WordPress.

If you are looking to export your Space, there is a third party Windows Live Spaces export tool which exports all blog posts and dates into a WordPress compatible XML file. My export and subsequent import into WordPress 3.0 went flawlessly. The only issue is that it does not export post times or comments, so these will need to be transferred manually.

Windows Live Spaces could have been another great Windows Live offering, but now it’s just another service that might be phased out.

Windows Live Wave 4 is finally public after months of anticipation. Once my initial positive reaction had passed, I quickly realized with a bit of browsing that there were few substantial improvements to speak of.

Windows Live SkyDrive

Windows Live SkyDrive has added incremental improvements to the interface such as different file views, but it still lacks crucial AJAX features like drag and drop that drastically improve usability. Functions such as file renaming and moving still rely on static pages. When combined with Windows Live Office, it suffers from a confusing navigation logic. When navigating to SkyDrive.Live.com, the breadcrumb navigation shows that SkyDrive is the root, but a click on any of the files it contains changes the file’s root to Office.Live.com. The focus on Photos as a pillar of Windows Live is arbitrary and creates the impression that only photos can be uploaded despite the improved video support. A more logical pillar would be Albums, but eliminating this pillar altogether would be best since it is contained within SkyDrive.

Windows Live Spaces

By the looks of it, Windows Live Spaces is nearing the end of the line. The blogs are plagued with spam and even a basic CAPTCHA remains absent. It lacks countless features that competing blogging platforms have. All the Windows Live Teams have jumped ship from Spaces to their own custom blogging platform.

Windows Live Office

This is the only bright spot in Wave 4, albeit another catch up service. The apps are great, although they are a bit laggy for some reason. Typing results in a noticeable hang before anything appears on the screen when compared to Google Docs, where text appears instantaneously.

Windows Live Profile

Windows Live Profile has added some great privacy improvements, so this was well executed. The new interface is intuitive and easy to use. One feature that was clearly missing was private messaging. Now users cannot private message others unless they are already networked. What’s the point of this if you can just use email? The purpose of private messaging is to make contact while forgoing actual friending. I got the distinct impression that this was a crude attempt to end private messaging spam, but what’s the point? Won’t spammers just begin friend request spamming now?

At best, Windows Live Wave 4 offers features that catch up with the
competition but do little to surpass, resulting in a mediocre product. I’ll be porting my blog to WordPress soon.