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Ask HN: Is the inevitable future of social networking software distributed?

6 points by wwwtyro ↗ HN
I see little advantage of a centralized repository of social information (a la facebook) over a distributed model. A step in the distributed direction took place with federated models popping up (a la Diaspora), but now that everyone carries computers with them and we have DHT and encryption technologies widely available, I kinda expected to see a big push in the completely distributed direction.

Will centralized/federated social networking applications inevitably be replaced by distributed ones? Is Facebook doomed?

3 comments

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salboaie
The Web itself is a distributed system but the personal home pages are not really a social network. We can imagine as possible a system where pages/small apps that you host with different cloud (hosting) providers obey the same rules to form together a distributed social network. This way,you have total control on your pages and apps and not a corporation. Is Facebook doomed today or tomorrow? Everything dies in the end but that simple and powerful implementation (idea) capable to replace Facebook can be years away...
BigNuts
facebook isnt doomed for the reason you say or wish. in the same way freindster and myspace became old news it will fade out when something new comes along. the average person dosent care about security or even understand it