Open source social networking alternatives have no shortage of passion and enthusiasm. There is an overwhelming interest in building open alternatives to the walled gardens we currently inhabit, and a strong belief in the necessity and superiority of freedom and decentralization over corporate, centralized control.
And yet a viable alternative has not emerged. While the world holds their breath for a challenger, most of the world still socializes on a closed off section of the internet which sees it's users as products, not as digital citizens worthy of a basic respect. The advantages held by centralized social networking sites are overwhelming. Facebook and Google have billions in funding, expertise unrivaled and massive momentum. The free alternatives, by contrast, have little to no funding, and a monumentally more difficult task.
It's possible that Google or Facebook may open up their API completely, design it for decentralization, and signal their willingness to become the largest hubs in a federated social internet. This will mean little without a drop-in open source package which can be used to set up a node of one or more people that can connect freely with other social nodes. Without that, we will have powerful corporation entities colluding with each other in an oligopoly, nowhere near the democratization we require. More importantly, waiting on their benevolence would be naive.
What is needed is not passion or the will to change the world, but the means.