[iDC] Ello--Alternative to Facebook

[Steve Rhodes]

Ello has taken $435,000 in VC funding so far

http://betabeat.com/2014/09/ello-founder-says-vc-funding-is-no-big-secret-thats-silly/

But the biggest problem is it seems pretty much a ghost town so far

Lots of people joining, but not many posting or commenting so far.

It is prettier than facebook, but while facebook has plenty of faults it
also has features people use (and their friends using them):

 There are a lot of progressives as uncritically excited by ello as
techcrunch is by whatever the newest startup is.

 I've seen too many new things come and go to not be skeptical.

 A facebook alternative would be good, but even if ello or something else
does well it progressives will still have to use Facebook if they want to
actually reach people.

I'm actually more hopeful about the relaunch of http://upcoming.org by Andy
Baio (who pointed out Elmo's VC funding) as open platform in addition to
Facebook events.

He raised over $100,000 on kickstarter

http://mashable.com/2014/06/01/upcoming-org-founder-i-wont-sell-out-again/

Groups and individuals will still need to use Facebook events, but
hopefully they will also post to upcoming.org as well as their own website
(not everyone is on Facebook and even if you are it is easy to miss events
if they aren't in your network)

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Steve Rhodes - photojournalist

http://www.corbisimages.com/photographer/steve-rhodes

http://www.demotix.com/users/steve-rhodes/profile
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