FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, June 11, 2009
ANNOUNCING A NEW LEVEL OF PRIVACY AND CONTROL IN SOCIAL NETWORKING: CONSUMERS ARE NOW ABLE TO BUILD THEIR OWN PRIVATE SOCIAL NETWORKING WEBSITES, COMPLETELY CONTROLLING THEIR PERSONAL INFORMATION AND THAT OF THEIR CLOSE FRIENDS
11D Networks Announces The Launch Of 3DSocket (www.3dsocket.com) Open Source Social Networking Product To Liberate Consumers And Businesses Worried About Control Over Sensitive Personal And Customer Information In The Social Networking Experience. Product Costs Just $99.00 For Unlimited Number Of Websites And Allows Complete Access To The Underlying Source Code To Allow Customizations.
While adoption of social networking sites such as Facebook is increasing, the general public is becoming increasingly worried about the privacy implications and control issues over information they are adding to these sites. For example, a Toronto judge ruled this year that information contained on a private Facebook page could be subpoenaed for evaluation in a court case because Facebook was a public forum. An omission in a revised Facebook Terms of Service suggested that Facebook would retain the right to do whatever it wanted with profile content – even after an account was deleted – led to a public firestorm before Facebook publicly clarified that this was not the case. And a litany of people around the world are being fired or losing prospective jobs for content they post on Facebook that is noticed by current or prospective employers, such as the Philadelphia Eagles stadium employee who posted dissatisfaction about the team on his status update and was fired several days later.
The solution for consumers is to have private social networking websites that they own and control that have the same functions as a Facebook site. This also gives them the benefits of being able to post whatever kind of content they want without being worried about censorship by Facebook site moderators. If they are someone who attracts a lot of followers, it also allows them to generate revenue from the advertising instead of letting someone else profit off of their activity and bringing people into their network.
While private label social networking software exists it is prohibitively expensive to achieve the core benefits that consumers want, namely: (a) a site free of brand logos and links; (b) private domain names (e.g. mydomain.com), (c) a site free of externally controlled advertising. The cost on competitive platforms runs in the hundreds of dollars per year per domain / website. These platforms are also hosted by the companies offering them, therefore they can be turned off if a customer misses a payment and the information is again governed by their Terms of Service. They do not offer products that allow the customer to host the sites themselves and be completely free from the provider. They do not allow customers and developers access to the underlying source code to customize and extend the package to suit their needs.
3DSocket is therefore the best solution for the consumer who wants to begin having complete control over their social networking experience. In this scenario the high-traffic social networking sites such as Facebook act as a main commons area for meeting people and exchanging pleasantries. The private social networking sites run by individuals and subset groups are like secret rooms located off of the main commons area for private discussions. Priced competitively at just $99.00 3DSocket allows customers to set-up as many of these private sites as they want, allowing them to experiment by forming sites for a group of friends, for family and for a cause, group or association, all with the comfort of knowing that they control the information disseminated on these sites. 3DSocket allows full access to the source code to modify and customize the package to suit needs. It also allows developers to build applications and add-ons to the package that they can sell themselves. These third-party developed applications will be sold on the www.3dsocket.com website allowing easy access for 3DSocket customers and revenue opportunities for developers.
11D Networks is an experienced team of Web 2.0 technology and privacy enthusiasts led by their founder and CEO, Greg Marlin. Greg has been deep in online content arena for several years, launching one of the first blog networks in 2005, launching the first full-time online TV network with regular video content created for the web at www.2.0television.com (previously www.web2.0television.com) in 2006 and launching the first social network / online TV channel in Kenya in 2007 at www.kenya2.0television.com.
3DSocket is intended to be a community-driven effort, leveraging the work put in by 11D Networks to develop the platform, regular feedback from consumers, and an active developer base building new applications and extensions that improve the platform and respond to customer needs. Revenue derived from license sales will be used primarily to enhance the platform and support the community.