You CAN run your own facebook

Aswath Rao

Agenda

Executive SummaryProblem StatementThe IdeaFeature ComparisonGeneral ArchitectureOvercoming Difficulties

Executive Summary

A personal social sharing application running on a home-based device

Feature parity with Facebook/Google+Addresses ownership and privacy concernsHigh-end scalable for enterprise applicationTechnical issuesMarketing difficulties

Problem Statement

People LOVESocial NetworkingSharing Information with friends “Free” servicePeople DISLIKE (even hate?)Loss of control over informationLoss of privacyBeing monetized

“You are the product”

Oversharing is Not Good

Mark Zuckerberg Topless Pic – Privacy Malfunction? (TMZ story)

Ex-ghostwriter of Mark Z abandons Facebook (Wash. Post)

Michael Dell’s daughter’s oversharing raises security concerns (Forbes)

Alternate Approaches

Diaspora* Distributed networking Losing traction Individual pods may still behave in the same fashion

Path Limited sharing You are still a product

Pair Share with the significant other What about others? Data is more personal and sensitive

App.net (proposed) Subscription-based, ownership of data Yoke of Metcalfe’s Law

The Idea

Provide a platform for customers to share information but

Customer maintains absolute control over their data

Access control tools comparable or better than Facebook/Google+

Maintain complete privacyCustomers’ data and persona are NOT

monetizedUses Web technologies

HTTP(S), Browser

Features

Parity with Facebook/Google+ Friending Selective sharing (Text and Media) Commenting IM/Voice/Video Communication

Enhanced Full sharing with non-members Contact specific Presence

Feature Comparison

Feature Comparison

Features Proposed Google+ Facebook

Friendship One-way following One-way following Two-way connecting

Message filtering Sorting in dashboard Circles for tracking Friend Lists

Selective sharing Groups Circles Groups

Sharing w/ non-members

Yes Only for the main posts; not for comments

Not Available

Public sharing Only via 3rd party Available Only via 3rd party

Re-sharing Not Available Re-sharing Not Available

Comments Comments Comments Comments

Graphics and Media Inline and attachments Inline Inline

Presence Contact specific Universal Universal

IM/Voice/Video Available, Persistent Available Available

Group video Not Available Hangout Skype-based

Data portability Stays with you Can be exported Can be exported

Architecture: All CPE-based

AssistServer

RG &Storage

Control Links

User A

User B

User C

User A’sFriend

User C’sFriend

User A’s Friend accessing a shared post

User C’s Friend accessing a shared post

User C being notified of B’s new post

Architecture: CPE-based Computing, Cloud based Storage

AssistServer

RG

Control Links

Storage

User A

User B

User C

User A’sFriend

User C’sFriend

User A’s Friend accessing a shared post

User C’s Friend accessing a shared post

User C being notified of B’s new post

Unified Communication

Availability Status “Presence” Contact-specific

IMVoice VideoBut no need for service providersNo compatibility or interworking issues

Tested Platforms

Amazon Web ServicesStand-alone computers

Windows Linux

ARM-based low-end computers Genesi Efika Plug computers Raspberry Pi Vizio Costar (Google TV)

Being tested

Social Enterprise

Current Buzz Salesforce Chatter Cisco Webex Social Microsoft/Yammer

EnThinnai is high-end scalable Cloud-enabled Elastic Grows linearly

Technical Issues

Visitor authentication OpenID/OAuth

Presence information to non-users Pull, not push

VoIP client for non-users Browser plugin Anticipated WebRTC, Websocket

Marketing Difficulties

ISP/Carrier Strategy Small scale startup Overcoming credibility gap

Not requiring big data center?

CPE strategy Concerned that device is not powerful enough Not convinced of market demand

Betting on Google TV Make it available on Google Play as an Android app Initial readout is Vizio Costar is powerful enough