Diaspora Co-Founder Commits Suicide at 22, Social Network World Mourns
Ilya Zhitomirskiy, one of four cofounders of upstart open-source social network Diaspora, died Nov.12 at 22-years-old.
Zhitomirskiy committed suicide, a source close to the company confirmed.
The San Francisco Police Department reported that officers responded around 8:10 p.m. Saturday. The department received several phone calls about a possible suicide. The case was referred to the medical examiner's office.
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"In this case it appears to be a suicide," said SFPD Officer Alvie Esparza. "However, the medical examiner's office will make the final decision" after conducting testing.
In addition, today the social media world is grieving
“Saddened to hear of Diaspora co-founder @zhitomirskiyi's suicide at 22. Not sure our community appreciates the prevalence of depression,” tweeted @orian.
"Shocked and deeply sad for the world that my friend @zhitomirskiyi, co-founder of Diaspora, is dead... The world needed his voice," said one-time Mozilla user interface guru Aza Raskin.
Created as a decentralized alternative to Facebook’s recent controversial privacy issues, Diaspora was founded by Zhitomirskiy and three other New York University students. They announced the project on April 24, 2010, and raised $200,000 in startup funds through micro funding website Kickstarter.
The founders surpassed their $10,000 fundraising goal in 12 days, and they raised a total of $200,000 from 6,500 donors in 39 days, including Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
Considered by some social media analysts to be an alternative to Facebook's ‘silo effect,' Diaspora is said to give users more control over what personal data they share and with whom.
"Ilya was an incredible person," wrote one user on Y Combinator's forum. "His heart was truly driven by bringing about positive change in this world. Diaspora was only the beginning."
