Diaspora - answer to Facebook privacy issues or case study for fundraisers?

Diaspora is a new social network which we can expect to launch on the 15th of September. The idea of this new platform is to provide users with secure functionalities of a social network without risks involved with unclear content sharing or access of private data options. The developers of the network are clear on all their challenges and do not seem to promise too much, but the very fact they are establishing the dialogue on challenges becomes a clear sign of their willingness to remain transparent from the start. There is a strong case for me saying that their idea has great opportunities to succeed - Facebook's approach to privacy issues has been problematic for a while now. It's popularity might not decrease due to this new development, however it does contribute to it's success. Diaspora team decided to sustain their idea through donations and used Kickstart for that particular cause. From original target of $10,000 to be collected by beginning of June, already in May they managed to receive support of $178,000!

I guess the reason for this fundraising success is pretty obvious: the idea responds to our major need to safely communicate on-line. 

It might also initiate a new trend to build on-line tools with more focus of safety of our data and on transparency. We will find out in few weeks time.