At last year’s Blue Hat conference, I gave a short talk on What Diaspora* can learn from Microsoft. Â Now, I’d like to do the same kind of analysis with Google+.
Ten weeks into the G+ experiment, what are the key learnings for a privacy-friendly distributed social network. Here’s a few early thoughts.
- Diaspora’s on the right track. Google+’s “circle” concept and page layout look like they’re based on Diaspora’s work — and imitation is the sincerest form of flatter.
- Diaspora’s current functionally + longer posts + easy link sharing + video = enough to get people excited
- The estimated 40% of people online who prefer “screen names” or pseudonyms are a really good target audience right now.  Geek Feminism’s excellent list of Who Is Harmed By a “Real Names” policy could be the basis of a great go-to-market plan for Diaspora
- Gender is a text field, but corporations run by cis guys still don’t see it that way
Your thoughts welcome, either about these ideas or new ones!
jon