Diaspora is one non-profit organisation, owned by users and one decentralized social network which is based on free Diaspora software. Diaspora consists of a group of independent privately owned nodes called pods and forming the overall network. From 2014 in March, there are now more than 1 million accounts in Diaspora. 
The social network does not belong to any person or entity, preventing it from being the subject of corporate redemption or advertising. In September 2011, developers said, “the distributed design that follows Diaspora ensures that no big company will ever control Diaspora, never sell your social life to advertisers, and will not have to comply with arbitrary rules. ”
Social software development management is managed by the Diaspora Foundation, which is a member of the Free Software Support Network (FSNN). FSNN is run by Eben Moglen and the Sofware Freedom Law Center. FSNN operates as the organization that manages the branding and financial and legal assets of Diaspora.
Social network users retain the ownership of their data and are not required to grant ownership rights. This is achieved as each user has his or her own (pod) server that can connect to the largest Diaspora network but is not controlled by a master administrator. There is also a choice of a user to be able to connect to one of the open nodes Diaspora has it. The software is designed to allow users to download all their photos and text at any time.
Other features of Diaspora: User posts can be either 'public' or 'limited'. In case they are marked as 'limited', they can only be read by the group or groups of people defined by the user. Users can send personal messages to each other called chats. Each new user account contains some default fields such as friends, family, work and acquaintances. The user can add fields as he wishes. It also allows the use of a nickname as opposed to Facebook. The posts can also be transmitted to connected accounts on facebook, tumblr and twitter.
Diaspora was founded in 2010 by 4 students of New York City University, Ilya Zhitomirskiy, Dan Grippi, Max Salzberg and Raphael Sofaer. The first node was presented by 2010 developers as the alpha trial version. 2012, the founders announced that they would let the public take over the project's governance. Since then Diaspora has been developed and managed by members of its community. The focus of the community development team is the creation of stable software releases and further development such as better data communication between nodes and attracting more volunteers to write code for the project.
Article by Theodore, Gens at Wikibooks.org
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