During a follow-up interview to Wednesday's privacy controls announcement, Wired asked Facebook's CEO Mark Zuckerberg what he thought of Diaspora, the anti-Facebook project that four NYU students will spend the summer building. Zuckerberg's response: "I donated. I think it is a cool idea."

His support for an idea that directly opposes the openness of Facebook is somewhat surprising, especially since Zuckerberg is intent on "making the world more open."

How much Zuckerberg donated to Diaspora's Kickstarter fund is unknown, but he revealed that he's motivated to help these college kids because he sees "a little of myself in them."

Zuckerberg also claims to welcome a different approach to sharing, and looks forward to seeing whether these NYU students can come up with a new solution for handling the trickier challenges Facebook has faced in dealing with privacy around content shared with friends of friends.

We find the gesture to be quite benevolent, although it could be a more calculated maneuver to help paint the CEO in a more positive light.