Last winter, I wrote in this space about Diaspora*, a new free software-based, decentralized, privacy-aware social networking service developed by four computer science students at New York University.

At the time, Diaspora* was in the very early "alpha" stage of development and access to the service was by invitation only.

Right now, there are probably a couple of dozen "Pods" (servers) up and running on the Net and for all intents and purposes, Diaspora* is open for business!

What's different about Diaspora*?   

I've been meaning to write this post for a long time, but like many of you I've been wasting far too much time on Facebook. Facebook has been dutifully logging all of my posts, photos, personal messages etc. They mine my personal data and display ads for ham radio and electronic parts companies, Linux web hosting companies, Wordpress training and even the occasional ad for a social justice organization. Facebook's data mining software knows me as a somewhat geeky lefty. Not bad.

Over the last year plenty of things both good and bad have taken place using the power of both social networks and mobile devices. We've seen millions in the streets of Tunis, Cairo, Athens, Madrid and now even Tel Aviv demanding social and economic justice.

It took me a long time to write my first blog. It was here, and it was in response to the global economic collapse as it was occurring in real time, in late September 2008.

For economists, the blogosphere is a rapid response world, and speed can kill. I worried about getting caught undone in public -- either missing something obvious or just plain wrong. I've fought too hard and too long to gain credibility with my peers to want to undermine myself with one dunderhead calculation or formulation.