The anti-Facebook

The Diaspora guys, four college kids turned chief engineers of the most-talked-about social networking start-up this year, get a lot of friend requests. They imagine that during the next decade, the Web will evolve from a sea of social networking islands into what many developers are calling the federated social Web one that lets you choose your networking provider, just as you now choose your e-mail provider, and yet still connect with friends who use other services.