I think the Diaspora group should consider "outsourcing." Hold a competition to pick 6 projects, which will get $20k each. At the end of the 2nd phase, they should pick the "winners" and integrate their code. The winners get another $20k.
This gets the initial pressure off of them, allows for a large amount of audience participation, and could attract a lot of programming talent to their project.
This gets the initial pressure off of them, allows for a large amount of audience participation, and could attract a lot of programming talent to their project.