I remember when FaceBook was new. A lot of people I know rushed to grab an account, and soon just about everyone I could think of had their page. It was nice, I kept up with a ton of people from high school as I went through college. It was awesome for sharing pictures, promoting a cause, whatever.
It still is, but now it has become clear that the site has basically turned into a big content sponge. All that information, and the statistics that come from it are worth tons to FaceBook and their advertisers. And of course, people willingly give it all to them. Well, it appears there is an alternative (found on Slashdot today). Diaspora* aims to be a distributed social networking medium, where you get control of the information you put up. They hope to get it released at the end of the summer.
Of course, they’re not the first to come up with a decentralized, linked means of sharing information, but maybe this will be be attractive to the average person. You still have to be careful, of course, as obviously people will still be able to read what you make available. But the idea of a decentralized social networking medium is appealing. I will be checking it out, and I encourage everyone else who uses social networking to as well.