An open source alternative to Facebook - called Diaspora - has gone live.
The "privacy-aware" social network was founded earlier this year during a period when Facebook came under fire for its privacy settings.
The community-funded project is currently only open to a small number of invited people.
Analysts have questioned whether the network can ever challenge more established sites such as Facebook, which now boasts nearly 600m members.
Diaspora says it hopes to begin adding more people in the coming weeks.
Read full report :: BBC News 24 Nov 2010 :
