Fediverse

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

BERJAYA
Excerpt of common protocols and platforms in the Fediverse (2023)

The fediverse is an ensemble of federated social networking services, such as Mastodon, Pixelfed, PeerTube, and Lemmy, independently-operated instances of which allow users to communicate with each other, typically using the ActivityPub protocol[1].

A key distinguishing feature of the fediverse is decentralization. There is no central authority that controls or determines what is acceptable, as each instance is independent.[2]

History[edit]

BERJAYA
The various platforms of the fediverse, as well as other federated networks, visualised as a tree

In 2008, Evan Prodromou founded the social network identi.ca. He published the software GNU social under a free license (GNU Affero General Public License, AGPL). It defined the OStatus protocol. Besides the server, identi.ca, there were few other instances, run by people for their own use. In 2011 or 2012 identi.ca switched to another software called pump.io.[3] Several new GNU social instances were created. At the same time as GNU social, other projects like Friendica, Hubzilla,[4] Mastodon, and Pleroma integrated the OStatus protocol, thus extending the fediverse[citation needed] (though Mastodon and Pleroma have since dropped OStatus[5][6] in favor of ActivityPub). In the meantime, other communication protocols evolved which were integrated to different degrees into the software packages.[vague]

In January 2018, the W3C presented the ActivityPub protocol, aiming to improve the interoperability between different software packages run on a wide network of servers. As of August 2018, this protocol was supported by thirteen software packages, and since then it's been the dominant protocol used in the fediverse. Now it's used by many more software and platforms (see table below).

Communication protocols used in the fediverse[edit]

These communication protocols, which implement open standards, are used in the fediverse:

Fediverse software packages[edit]

Software packages used in the fediverse are free and open-source software. Some of them vaguely resemble Twitter in style (for example, Mastodon, Misskey, GNU social, and Pleroma, which are similar in their microblogging function), while others include more communication and transaction options that are instead comparable to Google+ or Facebook (such as is the case with Friendica and Hubzilla).

The following software packages span the fediverse by using the listed communication protocols:

Software packages used in the fediverse
Software name Type ActivityPub Diaspora
network 		OStatus
Aardwolf-Social[7] Social network Yes No Yes
Akkoma[8] Microblogging Yes No No
BookWyrm[9] Book cataloguing Yes No Yes
Castopod Podcasting Yes[10] No No
diaspora* (software) Social network, microblogging No[11][12] Yes No
Drupal Blogging, CMS, image gallery, file hosting, microblogging, social network, website Yes[13] Yes[14] In progress[15]
Epicyon[16] Social network, microblogging Yes No No
Firefish (f. Calckey)[17] Social network, microblogging Yes No No
Friendica
(f. Friendika; orig. Mistpark) 		Social network, macroblogging, blogging, image gallery, event planner, groups Yes Yes Yes
Funkwhale[18] Audio, sound hosting Yes No No
Gancio[19] Event aggregator Yes No No
GNU social
(f. StatusNet; orig. Laconica) 		Macroblogging Yes[20] No Yes
GoToSocial[21] Social network, microblogging Yes No No
Guppe Groups Yes[22] No No
Honk[23] Social network Yes No No
Hubzilla
(f. RedMatrix; orig. Friendica-Red) 		CMS, social network, macroblogging, wiki, blogging, image gallery, file hosting Yes Yes Yes[4]
Inventaire Book cataloguing, reviewing and exchanging Yes[24] No No
Kbin Link aggregator, social network, forum, microblogging Yes No No
Lemmy[25] Link aggregator, social network, forum Yes No No
Libervia Instant messaging, microblogging, blogging, file sharing, event management Yes[26] No No
lotide[27] Link aggregator, social network Yes No No
takahē[28] Social network, microblogging Yes No No
Mastodon Microblogging Yes[29] No Dropped[5]
Micro.blog[30] Microblogging bloging photobloging podcasting Yes[31] No No
microblog.pub Microblogging Yes No No
Misskey[32] Social network, microblogging Yes No No
Mobilizon Event and group management Yes No No
Nextcloud Social File hosting Yes[33] No No
OStatus[34] Social network, microblogging Yes No Yes
OLKi[35] File/dataset hosting Yes No No
Owncast[36] Live video streaming Yes No No
PeerTube Video hosting Yes No No
Pixelfed[37] Image hosting Yes[38] No No
Pleroma[39] Microblogging Yes No Dropped[6]
Plume[40] Blogging Yes No No
Read.as Feed reader Yes[41] No No
Rebased (Soapbox-BE)[42] Microblogging Yes No No
Socialhome Website, social network, microblogging, blog Yes Yes No
Streams[43] Social network, macroblogging, wiki, blogging, image gallery Yes No No
Threads Social network, microblogging In progress[44] No No
Tumblr Social network, microblogging, blog In progress[45] No No
WordPress Blogging Yes[46] Yes[47] Yes[48]
Write.as / WriteFreely Blogging Yes No No
Zap[49] Social network, macroblogging, image gallery, file hosting Yes No No

User statistics[edit]

A number of developers publish live statistics about the fediverse on monitoring sites[50] like the-federation.info.[51] The statistics on these sites are an indication of usage levels, not a complete record, as they can only aggregate data from instances that use the NodeInfo protocol to publish usage statistics. There is no guarantee that all instances are known to these sites, and some instances may disable NodeInfo, or use software that hasn't implemented it. Some of these sites include data from any federated software that publishes it using NodeInfo, not just fediverse software.

See also[edit]

BERJAYA
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Fediverse.

References[edit]

  1. ^ Barber, Gregory. "Meta's Threads Could Make—or Break—the Fediverse". Wired. Wired. Retrieved July 24, 2023.
  2. ^ Okeke, Nnamdi (March 22, 2023). "Fediverse: What It Is And How It Works". TargetTrend. Archived from the original on April 4, 2023. Retrieved April 4, 2023.
  3. ^ "StatusNet, Identi.ca, and transitioning to pump.io [LWN.net]". lwn.net. Retrieved July 20, 2023.
  4. ^ a b "gnusoc · master / addons". Hubzilla. Framagit. Archived from the original on July 17, 2018. Retrieved July 17, 2018.
  5. ^ a b Mastodon. "Release v3.0.0". GitHub. Archived from the original on February 5, 2021. Retrieved October 8, 2019.
  6. ^ a b Pleroma. "ostatus removal". Archived from the original on December 30, 2019. Retrieved December 29, 2019.
  7. ^ Aardwolf-Social. "Aardwolf-Social". Aardwolf-Social (GitHub). Archived from the original on October 23, 2022. Retrieved October 23, 2022.
  8. ^ "akkoma.social". Archived from the original on April 5, 2023. Retrieved April 7, 2023.
  9. ^ bookwyrm. "Bookwyrm". Archived from the original on May 26, 2021. Retrieved May 26, 2021.
  10. ^ "Castopod features". Archived from the original on May 6, 2022. Retrieved November 7, 2022.
  11. ^ diaspora*. "Support ActivityPub #7422". GitHub. Archived from the original on June 22, 2018. Retrieved August 18, 2018.
  12. ^ diaspora* (May 13, 2017). "Let's talk about ActivityPub". Archived from the original on May 22, 2018. Retrieved August 18, 2018.
  13. ^ Kristof, De Jaeger (swentel) (February 23, 2019). "ActivityPub". Drupal.org. Archived from the original on March 6, 2022. Retrieved March 6, 2022.
  14. ^ Jason, Chambers (rurri) (March 2, 2012). "Diaspora Pod". Drupal.org. Archived from the original on March 6, 2022. Retrieved March 6, 2022.
  15. ^ Stefan, Auditor (sanduhrs) (April 19, 2011). "OStatus". Drupal.org. Archived from the original on March 6, 2022. Retrieved March 6, 2022.
  16. ^ "Epicyon ActivityPub server". epicyon.net.
  17. ^ "Firefish". Archived from the original on November 8, 2022. Retrieved July 22, 2023.
  18. ^ funkwhale. "Funkwhale". Archived from the original on May 2, 2019. Retrieved May 2, 2019.
  19. ^ "Home". Gancio.
  20. ^ GNU social. "Milestone: ActivityPub - GNU Social v3". Archived from the original on July 17, 2022. Retrieved July 18, 2022.
  21. ^ "GoToSocial". GitHub. Archived from the original on January 1, 2023. Retrieved December 27, 2022.
  22. ^ immers-space. "Decentralized social groups for ActivityPub". GitHub. Archived from the original on November 22, 2022. Retrieved November 22, 2022.
  23. ^ "humungus - honk". humungus.tedunangst.com.
  24. ^ "Inventaire toot". mamot.fr. December 7, 2021. Archived from the original on August 28, 2022. Retrieved October 17, 2022.
  25. ^ "join-lemmy.org". Archived from the original on December 22, 2022. Retrieved July 12, 2021.
  26. ^ "Libervia progress note 2022-W45". salut-a-toi.org. November 2022. Archived from the original on December 25, 2022. Retrieved January 9, 2023.
  27. ^ "lotide". Archived from the original on October 31, 2020. Retrieved October 29, 2020.
  28. ^ "takahē". Archived from the original on December 27, 2022. Retrieved December 27, 2022.
  29. ^ Mastodon. "ActivityPub support #1557". GitHub. Archived from the original on May 28, 2018. Retrieved August 18, 2018.
  30. ^ "Micro.blog". micro.blog. Archived from the original on December 18, 2022. Retrieved December 19, 2022.
  31. ^ micro.blog. "Mastodon and ActivityPub". micro.blog. Archived from the original on December 22, 2022. Retrieved December 19, 2022.
  32. ^ "Misskey". Archived from the original on May 2, 2019. Retrieved May 2, 2019.
  33. ^ Nextcloud. "Nextcloud introduces social features, joins the fediverse". Archived from the original on December 10, 2018. Retrieved December 10, 2018.
  34. ^ ostatus. "OStatus". Retrieved October 29, 2020.[permanent dead link]
  35. ^ "olki". Archived from the original on December 31, 2020. Retrieved October 23, 2020.
  36. ^ "Owncast v0.0.11". March 5, 2022. Archived from the original on March 5, 2022. Retrieved March 5, 2022.
  37. ^ Pixelfed. "Pixelfed". Archived from the original on May 8, 2019. Retrieved May 2, 2019.
  38. ^ Pixelfed (December 25, 2018). "Pixelfed federates now". Archived from the original on December 31, 2018. Retrieved December 31, 2018.
  39. ^ "Pleroma — a lightweight fediverse server". Pleroma. Archived from the original on January 20, 2023. Retrieved January 22, 2023.
  40. ^ joinplu.me. "Plume". Archived from the original on May 10, 2019. Retrieved May 2, 2019.
  41. ^ Read.as. "Long-form ActivityPub-enabled reader". GitHub. Archived from the original on January 30, 2019. Retrieved August 29, 2018.
  42. ^ "rebased repo". Git hub. Archived from the original on April 18, 2023. Retrieved April 7, 2023.
  43. ^ "streams". codeberg.org. Archived from the original on July 9, 2023. Retrieved November 2, 2022.
  44. ^ Bell, Karissa. "Meta's Threads app is here to challenge Twitter". Engadget. Yahoo. Archived from the original on July 6, 2023. Retrieved July 6, 2023.
  45. ^ Perez, Sarah (November 21, 2022). "Tumblr to add support for ActivityPub, the social protocol powering Mastodon and other apps". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on December 5, 2022. Retrieved November 21, 2022.
  46. ^ Pfefferle, Matthias. "ActivityPub – WordPress plugin | WordPress.org". Archived from the original on July 2, 2022. Retrieved November 28, 2022.
  47. ^ wordpress.org. "Plugins categorized as diaspora | WordPress.org". Archived from the original on November 28, 2022. Retrieved November 28, 2022.
  48. ^ Pfefferle, Matthias. "OStatus – WordPress plugin | WordPress.org". Archived from the original on November 28, 2022. Retrieved November 28, 2022.
  49. ^ "zap". Codeberg.org.
  50. ^ "Instance monitoring sites · Wiki · Feneas / Fediverse Party". git.feneas.org. Archived from the original on November 29, 2021. Retrieved September 18, 2020.
  51. ^ "The Federation - a statistics hub". the-federation.info. Archived from the original on April 6, 2017. Retrieved November 2, 2022.

Further reading[edit]

External links[edit]

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