Fediverse

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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

The fediverse (a portmanteau of "federation" and "universe") is an ensemble of social networks which can communicate with each other, while remaining independent platforms. Users on different social networks and websites can send and receive updates from others across the network.

Nearly all fediverse platforms are free and open-source software.

History[edit]

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

The term fediverse was first used to describe the network formed by software using the OStatus protocol, such as GNU Social, Mastodon, and Friendica.[1]

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. By 2019, a majority of software that was previously using OStatus had switched to ActivityPub,[2] and the term "fediverse" came to refer to the ActivityPub-based federated network.[citation needed]

Certain social networks, including Threads[3] and Tumblr, have expressed interest in adopting fediverse-compatibility.[4] In March 2024, Threads released a beta in a selection of countries that lets people choose to federate their posts,[5] which was followed up with a wider Beta release to certain countries.[6]

Design[edit]

While a traditional social networking site will host all its content on servers owned by the parent company, the decentralized social media sites that make up the fediverse allow any individual or organization to host their own servers (referred to as an "instance").

Every instance is independent, and can set its own rules and expectations. Even so, much like how users of one email service such as Gmail can still send emails to users of another service such as Outlook, users may still view content and interact with users on any other instance in the fediverse. A user on one Mastodon instance, for example, may still view and interact with posts made by a user on a different Mastodon instance.[7]

Instances hosted by different social networking services may communicate with one another as well. A user on the microblogging platform Misskey, for example, may view and interact with posts made by users on Mastodon. Some fediverse networks even allow users to interact with multiple social networking formats from the same platform. For example, kbin and its fork mbin allow users to interact with discussion forums (like those hosted on Lemmy instances) as well as microblog posts (as can be found on Mastodon).[8][9]

Software[edit]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Tilley, Sean (September 24, 2017). "A quick guide to The Free Network". We Distribute. Archived from the original on November 8, 2020. Retrieved July 25, 2023.
  2. ^ "Remove OStatus-related code · Issue #10740 · mastodon/mastodon". GitHub. Archived from the original on July 25, 2023. Retrieved July 25, 2023.
  3. ^ "Introducing Threads: A New Way to Share with Text". July 5, 2023. Retrieved December 25, 2023. Our vision is that people using compatible apps will be able to follow and interact with people on Threads without having a Threads account, and vice versa, ushering in a new era of diverse and interconnected networks.
  4. ^ Bell, Karissa (July 5, 2023). "Meta's Threads app is here to challenge Twitter". Engadget. Yahoo. Archived from the original on July 6, 2023. Retrieved July 6, 2023.
  5. ^ Mark, Zuckerberg (March 21, 2024). "Threads". www.threads.net. Retrieved March 21, 2024.
  6. ^ Roth, Emma (March 21, 2024). "Threads' fediverse beta opens to share your posts on Mastodon, too". The Verge. Retrieved March 22, 2024.
  7. ^ Woloshyn, Roxannna (July 19, 2023). "What is the fediverse and why does Threads want to join?". CBC. Archived from the original on July 24, 2023. Retrieved July 24, 2023.
  8. ^ "Home | kbin.pub – Fediverse of content". /kbin. Archived from the original on July 25, 2023. Retrieved July 24, 2023.
  9. ^ "Mbin - a fork of kbin - community-focused". fedidb.org/software/mbin. Archived from the original on February 28, 2024. Retrieved February 28, 2024.
  10. ^ "FediDB".
  11. ^ Pfefferle, Matthias. "ActivityPub". WordPress.org. Archived from the original on July 2, 2022. Retrieved November 28, 2022.
  12. ^ "ActivityPub". Drupal.org. February 23, 2019. Archived from the original on March 6, 2022. Retrieved March 6, 2022.
  13. ^ "Kazarma". kazar.ma. Archived from the original on July 27, 2023. Retrieved July 27, 2023.
  14. ^ Pierce, David (December 19, 2023). "2023 in social media: the case for the fediverse". The Verge. Retrieved January 11, 2024.

Further reading[edit]

External links[edit]