9780670025602 (hardback)

0670025607 (hardback)

"The true story of a revolutionary-but-doomed Silicon Valley start-up, by a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter. Their idea was simple. Four NYU undergrads wanted to build a social network that would allow users to control their personal data, instead of surrendering it to big businesses like Facebook. They called it "Diaspora." In days, they raised $200,000, and reporters, venture capitalists, and the digital community's most legendary figures were soon monitoring their progress. Max dreamed of being a CEO. Ilya was the idealist. Dan coded like a pro, and Rafi tried to keep them all on track. But as the months passed and the money ran out, the Diaspora Four fell victim to errors, bad decisions, and their own hubris. In November of 2011, Ilya committed suicide. Diaspora has been tech news since day one, but the story reaches far beyond Silicon Valley to the now urgent issues about the future of the Internet. With the cooperation of the surviving partners, New York Times bestselling author Jim Dwyer tells a riveting story of four ambitious and naive young men who tried to re-bottle the genie of personal privacy-and paid the ultimate price"-- Provided by publisher.

"Four NYU undergrads wanted to build a social network that would allow users to control what they shared about themselves. They were hoping to raised 10k in 30 days and their project was called Diaspora. Their 2010 Kickstarter campaign ended the first day with three backers. They raised 20 times their goal and had support from around the world. But as the months wore on and the money wore out, they couldn't get there--coding failures, bad business decisions, over-reach and under-organization, and the inevitable conflicts of personality and goals. And when one of the four committed suicide in the fall of 2011, they found out how much they had all been on their own all along"-- Provided by publisher.

Internet industry > United States.

Online social networks > United States.

Privacy, Right of > United States.

New business enterprises > United States.

Business failures > United States.