Founder of Open-Source Facebook Foe Dies at 22

[link to www.foxnews.com]


Ilya Zhitomirskiy, one of the co-founders of Facebook-alternative Diaspora, died Saturday night at the age of 22.

A spokesman for the San Francisco medical examiner's office confirmed the death of Zhitomirskiy to FoxNews.com, originally reported Sunday by popular tech news blog TechCrunch. He was unable to confirm reports that the young man committed suicide.

Confirmation of the final cause of death could take weeks, he said.

Peter Schurman, a Diaspora spokesman, declined to comment on specific details but acknowledged Zhitomirskiy's death. "We're all very sad that Ilya has passed away," Schurman told FoxNews.com.

The New York University graduate was struggling to launch his social network Diaspora -- an open-source social network Zhitomirskiy started building with classmates Dan Grippi, Maxwell Salzberg and Raphael Sofaer early last year. Their goal was to provide an idealistic Facebook alternative with an emphasis on user control and privacy.

[link to www.foxnews.com]