A real Social Network.

I am getting annoyed with a certain social networking system. It seems far more of a business than a social network system. It is not evolving socially, but in specific directions that seem intended to herd the society and spy on it. Other social networks also seem to tend to this outcome.

It occurred to me that there might be a way to actually have a social network in the hands of the society of it’s users. I am not sure if the method is possible, but here is the idea.

There are many entities on the web that ask us to donate our computer’s idle time to running background programs to help them solve various problems. Most of the time your computer is actually doing nothing. During this time a background program can be helping to do amazing things. The many millions of computers running can devote a small amount of their idle time to solving problems that a super computer alone cannot solve in a reasonable time. What if some slices of idle time could be devoted to hosting and running a social networking system?

I am somewhat computer literate. In the past I was tempted to program as a vocation. I did program from machine language to C and various Basic languages. I went to the electronics hardware side instead. So I know a little of what I propose, but I am not sure it is possible as I envision it.

I desire a social network that is owned and hosted by the society that uses it. A distributed social network that runs in the background of millions of idle CPUs. The code written by those heroes that take such delite in the pure pleasure of creation, the Open Source Community. Maybe this network already exists? The pace of innovation and creation in the cyber world can escape me entirely in so many facets. Please inform me if I have missed this. And if it does exist, those who know of it, please loudly sing it’s praise. Money talks like thunder and so often drowns out what is free.

Is it possible? The data would reside on millions of computers all over the world. Of course it would be too tempting for people to dig around in that data and maybe edit it, hack it. The system would need encryption and redundancy. The data on any particular pc would need to be a black hole to that user, but be able to decrypt out onto the active network. It would need to be copied all over the network so as to be available at all times. Of course your piece of it would be available to edit and update as you wish.

The real bonus of such a system is that it would evolve with the users desires, not the owners. The features would arrive as fast as the vast open Open Source world would produce them. The features would be completely up to the users to choose. The features would not be driven by profit or an individuals desires,  ideals and ideas. It would be truly free. It would not have to rent space on servers. It would not require profit to exist and grow. It would not evolve to the demands of profit. The information could of course be mined for profit, but it would be harder to do. The information would not be held in a big pot that the owner can sell, it would have to be gleaned live from the users active sites. The gold mine of data would be encrypted and distributed.

The features would not be forced upon the users. The features aspects would not be muddied and hard to turn off. They would be offered, not installed by default. They would be clear. Their repercussions clear.

It might also be more secure from censure and muffling by the powers that be. The system would not be provided from one or a few servers or IP providers. It would be as widespread and free as it’s users.

Could it be? Is it there now?