Distributed Social Networking

Distributed Social Networking

The Idea

Our group is working with the Diaspora Foundation to build a policy framework upon which the Diaspora distributed social network can operate. Diaspora allows anyone with a server to host a pod on the network, which other users can join, store their data with, and use to connect to other Diaspora pods. Currently, there are no community rules -- let alone legal agreements -- regulating how Pod Hosters, Pod Users, and the Diaspora Foundation behave.

Our idea is to create a bundle of community guidelines & legal resources for the decentralized Diaspora network.

Pod Hosters will have more clarity about what they're allowed to do and prohibited from doing, as well as more awareness of potential liabilities of being a host. Pod Users will have a fuller sense of what they can expect from their Host and other Pods. And the Diaspora Foundation will have a better way of establishing what Diaspora stands for, as well as clearer recourse if bad behavior does occur on the network.

In the bundle, we expect to have (1) Community Guidelines to be signed by all Pod Hosters, (2) a Model Privacy Policy that Pod Hosts can use and which the JoinDiaspora Pod will use, and (3) a legal FAQ for Pod Hosts & Users about using Diaspora. We may also include a form response letter for responding to DMCA requests.

Community Guidelines

We are drafting Community Guidelines that all Pod Hosters would have to agree to in order to remain in good standing in the Diaspora network. This is a document of basic principles about how the Pod Hoster should treat their Users, other Hosters, and other Pod's Users. If the Hoster is later found to have violated one of these community guidelines, he could be subject to enforcement actions. These Guidelines will be presented to all potential PodHosters on the GitHub site, where the Diaspora software is available for download, on the point of downloading hosting software from the Diaspora Foundation