Diaspora, a privacy rights-focused social network, first came to the public's attention two years ago after the company announced its plans to launch the service - but up until recently, had only been in private beta mode. However, this all looks set to change after Diaspora revealed that it would be joining the Y Combinator scheme this summer, with the release of the social network following shortly after.

With the likes of Dropbox and Scribd proving successful under the wing of the Y Combinator initiative, this should put Diaspora in good stead. An open-source project, Diaspora is designed to allow its users to own their own data (a non-Facebook, if you will), letting them customise how they wish to post text and photos, as well as amend certain details such as font in order to personalise their own profiles.

Whilst initially Diaspora hit a few bumps in getting its service out there, the future looks set to be bright - should the Bloomberg Businessweek feature prove true:

"In June the team will move to Mountain View for three months to join the program [Y Combinator]. Y Combinator helped launch the cloud storage startup Dropbox, the vacation rental site Airbnb, and the presentation-sharing hub Scribd and has a reputation for guiding startups to a clear product and eventually linking founders with investors. The team expects Diaspora to evolve during the summer program and will later open it to the public."

Ball's in your virtual court, Facebook.