Technology that Reflects Our Values
We are developing a social network that reflects universal human values, namely the respect of privacy. Although social networks exist for different purposes, we are primarily interested in those that enable and enhance communication with friends and loved ones. A social network shouldn't exist to make people rich or to help sell products. It is for people, first and foremost.
A Committed Team that Can Deliver
We are experienced software developers, technologists, and designers, who have spent years working with technologies to protect privacy. The core contributors have led and/or contributed to other successful large-scale projects. For details, see our team on GitHub.
We believe now is the time to introduce to the world a truly privacy-respecting social network. We are not doing this to get rich. We are doing this because we believe it is needed.
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How We are Different
The key characteristics of Pondenome that make us different from any existing social network are the following:
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End-to-end encryption. This means that the information you share will only be accessible to those you choose to share them with. We, as operators of Pondenome, don't want to see your data, and we won't be able to see it in decrypted form, even if we did want to!
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Open Source. It is not enough to claim end-to-end encryption. This claim must be backed up with open-source software. This not only provides transparency and trust for users, it allows computer security experts to try to find security flaws so that they can be patched as soon as possible.
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Focus on Communication. We believe the current model of communication on social networks is fundamentally flawed. A basic requirement of communication is a reasonable assurance that the recipient receives the information. The complicated algorithms of Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks don't provide this. Our algorithm is simple: We display all the content you share with your friends in chronological order. To help manage the information, your friends can filter and sort posts, but they remain in total control.
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No to Censorship. We don't believe it is the place of an communication platform to censor what is appropriate for others to say or share online. We won't censor user content, and we'll never block users unless there are clear violations of law. And where laws don't allow freedom of expression, we will help people use technology to work around such oppression.
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Verified Accounts. Secure, verified accounts will be the norm on Pondenome, rather than the exception. We want users to feel confident that they are communicating with the people with whom they think they're communicating. The verification process will also be done using novel privacy-preserving technology. For those who wish to use Pondenome anonymously, this will remain possible, but other users will be clearly warned that these accounts have not been verified.
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A Fair Business Model. We believe targeted advertising is a flawed business model because it will always expose private information to the advertisers. Our business model is simple and fair. Premium users do not receive any advertisements. Basic users (i.e. free accounts) will see a limited number of advertisements, but they will not be targeted beyond a country/language level (to ensure ads are in the correct language).
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A Company Built on Strong Ethics
With Pondenome, we're not only aiming to build a more ethical technology platform. We are building a strong company based on universal values and clear ethics. For example, we strive to be good stewards of the environment--our servers will be powered with 100% certified renewable energy. But it doesn't stop there. We aim to be good community members and a positive influence on society. All employees are required to do community work as part of their monthly activities. They are given broad discretion on the type of community work that they do, but it must always support the overall ethics of Pondenome. Examples of the type of work that qualifies are: speaking at a local school or giving time and expertise to community organizations, such as homeless shelters or after-school programs. The entire company is focused on a shared vision to make the world a better, happier, healthier place. Our community work also helps to inform and improve our technology work, so the two activities are deeply intertwined.
What We Need & What You Get
We are seeking a total of $30,000 in funding to reach a Beta launch of the service. A large portion of the development is being done by volunteers from the open-source community, but to make the project into a live service, we require some hardware, facilities, and services. With a successful crowdfunding campaign, we will be able to purchase servers to operate the service and rent office space for our core team. The support of Indiegogo contributors will also allow us to stay away from VC investors who might try to push us away from the project's original goals (not that they would succeed).
We've created a wide variety of perks to reward our Indiegogo backers. All of the perks include a premium subscription to Pondenome, ranging in duration from 1 year to lifetime. You can even buy a pack of premium subscriptions for your friends and family!
All backers will receive early access to the platform through our private Beta launch. You will also get early access to reserve your username (e.g. @jimmy), which will be globally unique across the social network. Invitations to the private Beta will be sent out in batches based on the day you back Pondenome. So if you have a popular name like @cristiano, @elon, @rihanna, or @shakira, you better back TODAY so no one else takes your handle! ;-)
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The Impact
Without support from Indiegogo contributors, we would likely have to seek investments from VCs or other investors. We want to avoid this to ensure that the project stays free from external influences on our direction, business model, and values. With your support, we will be able to achieve the following:
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Pondenome will bring to the global market a social network where privacy at the core of the design. Not only will that, we will demonstrate this by releasing our software as open source. The world does not yet have an end-to-end encrypted social network in the open source domain, and we intend to change this.
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Keep out-of-pocket costs for the founders to a bare minimum. Developers involved in the project have decades of experience in software development, but none of us are independently wealthy. We dedicate our time and energy to this project because we believe in it, and so far every cost has been paid for by the founders.
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A project built on trust. To demonstrate our commitment to contributors and build your trust, the entire project will be publicly visible and open source, including our project design boards. Even when we make mistakes along the way, we won't hide these or whitewash them over. We depend on our contributors' confidence and trust.
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Risks & Challenges
Building a social network from the ground up is not without its risks and challenges. Some of the risks we face are technological, whereas others are related to the business and society. The technical risks we have been working to mitigate for months (and even years, counting our earlier projects) through prototyping and careful design, and we believe we have assembled a strong team that can overcome any unforeseen challenges that might come up.
The business and societal risks are less certain. Our business model, although successfully used by companies such as Spotify, Dropbox, Vimeo, and Rovio (Angry Birds), is less tested in the social media world. We have good reason to believe that it will work for our social network, based on our market research. Lastly, one potential risk is that some other social network will copy what we are doing from a technology perspective. We believe, however, that this copycat approach is not succeed mostly because we plan to continually innovate and improve Pondenome in ways that no other company can foresee.
Other Ways You Can Help
If you're not able to contribute to the campaign, you can still help out by sharing the news about us with your friends and family. If you currently use other social media, feel free to use the share tools offered by Indiegogo.
We're also happy to hear ideas and feedback even if you're not a backer. Please just try to be constructive! :-)
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