Is Diaspora Jewish?

If you think Diaspora is Jewish, i.e., a term that describes the dispersion of the Jews over millenia from the promised land, then you would be correct.

But now the term refers to a new Internet platform, something that is not just Jewish. The Bits blog of the Times reports, "Diaspora, the Open Facebook Alternative, Releases Its Code":

On Thursday Diaspora, a social Web site that hopes to offer an alternative to Facebook, announced that its developers would be allowed to download the code used to build the new service and begin exploring and enhancing the Diaspora software.

Diaspora is the result of four New York University students who became frustrated by Facebook’s confusing privacy policy. As The Times’ Jim Dwyer noted in an article earlier this year, the entire project was a “call to arms” over Facebook’s less than transparent explanation of how its users’ data was being exposed to others and to advertisers.

And now be prepared for a slew of reports on Mark Zuckerberg in advance of the release of the new film about him and Facebook called, The Social Network. The New Yorker has a report "Letter from Palo Alto, The Face of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg opens up" by Jose Antonio Vargas, based on their research.

Zuckerberg is not going to let a film define his public persona. He's doing interviews.

Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook in his college dorm room six years ago. Five hundred million people have joined since, and eight hundred and seventy-nine of them are his friends. The site is a directory of the world’s people, and a place for private citizens to create public identities...more...