What I don't understand about Diaspora is why can't one guy just start hacking out his own "distributed Facebook" replacement today. No team needed (not at start.) No money needed. Use F/OS/OTS software, all the pieces are just laying there. Actually I wouldn't be surprised if there were already several people out there doing exactly this already, but without the PR splash made by Diaspora.
Ok, maybe I've just answered my own question. It's only about the PR splash!
The money requested ($10,000) was intended as a summer sipend. I doubt that a single programmer can write the code in 3 months, while paying the bills.
In other words, $10,000 means they can work on this all summer without needing a job to support them.
Ok, maybe I've just answered my own question. It's only about the PR splash!