The co-founder of an open-source social networking platform Diaspora has passed away. Ilya Zhitomirskiy was only 22 years old. The project which he founded with 3 friends of him from New York University was going to be a good challenge for Facebook, especially from the point of privacy. Diaspora is considered to be a networking platform where you have total control over your privacy, identity, and data.
As Ilya Zhitomirskiy said, he wanted social network users to migrate to websites that were more transparent about privacy policies.
The four young founders wanted to raise $10.000 donation to support their project, but instead they reached $200.000. I think the main intriguing thing in Diaspora project is an individual approach to privacy. Even Facebook’s co-founder Mark Zuckerberg donated money to their project saying: “I think it is cool people are trying to do it. I see a little of myself in them. It’s just their approach that the world could be better. We should try to do it.”
Ilya Zhitomirskiy was found dead at 8:10p.m. Saturday in San Francisco. The early presumption of the cause of his death is suicide, but it is not confirmed officially yet.
Why should he make a suicide when he described himself as “super passionate about building a world of hacker spaces, maker culture, sharing, cycling, and life satisfaction?” To whom did he leave his passions and dreams? I hope his friends will carry on the plans that they created together and won’t give up.
Our sincerest condolences to Ilya’s family, friends, and the entire Diaspora team.
It’s always sad to see someone pass away in this age, and it is even sadder when he is someone who dares to think he can change something in this world.
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