OpenPoke, Diaspora, Elgg, Status.net, Rstatus. There is an overflow of "open, distributed, networks". Why a new one? How will this one solve the adoption-rate-too-low-to-make-a-difference-problem?
Because openpoke is the only one that focuses on pokes. Which is clearly the biggest reason that drove Facebook adoption. I think by peeling off one small part of the whole social networking scene, and doing it really well could be a hit.
Its the MVP of distributed social networks.