Dan OC

Open Source Networking & Democratic Administration

Facebook’s privacy settings have been under fire for quite some time now and people are getting increasingly concerned over the control of the data they are adding to the site. Social Networking is an amazing thing and it is not going to die any time soon. In fact I believe it will become an integral part of modern life, but some things are just too private to trust Facebook with. To trust anyone with.

It is critical that users have control over what data is shared, who the data is shared with, how the data is shared and where the data is stored. Open source networking would provide a framework for social circles, much like WordPress for blogs.

Democratic administration moves away from the old style of computing, where, like a dictatorship, the sysop makes the rules. There are no user levels, each member of the network is equal, thus share the same responsibilities.

For changes to be made, a percentage of the network’s population would have to agree to it, like a voting system. Such events would include users invited into/thrown out of the network, where data is to be stored and how the data is presented internally and externally.

Think of it as a standard website. You choose a host, you choose who gets to see what content and you choose how this content is displayed. It is exactly the same principle, only there are multiple users.

Instead of consisting of a small number of large networks, the system would be based around a vast number of smaller circles. These circles offer a much better privacy system, allowing the networks to be used to their full potential, without concerns over who can see what. One example would be families having a private space to share their photo albums, birthday wish lists, and contact information.

The way in which these smaller circles communicate would be in the form of feeds and permissions. One circle can give another permission to access to certain types of data, a specific photo album for example. This way larger networks would be formed by combining feeds from multiple small circles, only the owners of the data would pertain the rights to edit, add or remove the content, unlike Facebook, where “deleted” content is not actually deleted.

The problem lies in one company holding all of the data. There are too many legal loopholes, it is easily censored, it can cause political tension and users will never have absolute control of their content.