Fediverse

The Fediverse (a portmanteau of "federation" and "universe") is an ensemble of federated (i.e. interconnected) servers that are used for web publishing (i.e. social networking, microblogging, blogging, or websites) and file hosting, but which, while independently hosted, can communicate with each other. On different servers (instances), users can create so-called identities. These identities are able to communicate over the boundaries of the instances because the software running on the servers supports one or more communication protocols which follow an open standard.[1] As an identity on the fediverse, users are able to post text and other media, or to follow posts by other identities.[2] In some cases, users can even show or share data (video, audio, text, and other files) publicly or to a selected group of identities and allow other identities to edit other users' data (such as a calendar or an address book).

Fediverse logo proposal

History

In 2008, the social network identi.ca was founded by Evan Prodromou. 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 only few other instances, run by persons for their own use. This changed in 2011–12 when identi.ca switched to another software called pump.io. Several new GNU social instances were created. At the same time as GNU social, other projects like Friendica, Hubzilla,[3] Mastodon, and Pleroma[4] integrated the OStatus protocol, thus extending the fediverse. In the meantime, other communication protocols evolved which were integrated to different degrees into the platforms.

In January 2018, the W3C presented the ActivityPub protocol, aiming to improve the interoperability between the platforms. As of August 2018, this protocol was supported by thirteen platforms (see table below), and was the dominant protocol used in the fediverse.

Communication protocols used in the fediverse
Some federated social media platforms and how they interconnect

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

Fediverse software platforms

The software spanning the fediverse are all FOSS. Some of them vaguely resemble Twitter in style (for example, Mastodon, Misskey,[7] GNU social, and Pleroma,[4] 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 platforms span the fediverse by using the listed communication protocols:

Platform Name Type ActivityPub Diaspora
Network		 OStatus Zot
Zot/6
Aardwolf Social network Yes No No No
Anfora Image hosting In progress[8] No No No
diaspora* software Social network, Microblogging No[9][10] Yes No No
distbin Pastebin Yes No No No
Friendica
(f. Friendika; orig. Mistpark)		 Social network, Microblogging Yes Yes Yes No
Funkwhale[11] Audio, sound hosting Yes No No No
GNU MediaGoblin file, image, audio, video hosting Proposed[12] No No No
GNU social
(f. StatusNet; orig. Laconica)		 Microblogging Proposed[13][14] No Yes No
Honk Social network Yes No No No
Hubzilla
(f. RedMatrix; orig. Friendica-Red)		 CMS, Social network, Microblogging, Wiki, Blogging, Image gallery, File hosting Yes Yes Yes[3] Yes
Kibou Social network, Microblogging Yes No No No
Lemmy Link Aggregator, Social Network Yes No No No
Littr.me Link Aggregator, Social Network In progress No No No
lotide[15] Link Aggregator, Social Network Yes No No No
Mastodon Microblogging Yes[16] No Dropped[17] No
microblog.pub Microblogging Yes No No No
Misskey[7] Social network, Microblogging Yes No No No
Nextcloud Social File hosting Yes[18] No No No
OStatus[19] Social network, Microblogging Yes No Yes No
OLKi[20] File/dataset hosting Yes No No No
PeerPx Image hosting Yes No No No
PeerTube Video hosting Yes No No No
Pixelfed[21] Image hosting Yes[22] No No No
Pleroma Microblogging Yes No Dropped[23] No
Plume[24] Blogging Yes No No No
Prismo Link-sharing Yes No No No
Pubcast (f. Metapods) Netcasting Yes No No No
pump.io Microblogging Proposed[25] No Dropped[26] No
Read.as Feed reader Yes[27] No No No
Socialhome Website, Social network, Microblogging Yes Yes No Proposed[28]
Write.as / WriteFreely Blogging Yes No No No
Zap Social network, Macroblogging, Image gallery, File hosting Yes No No Zot/6

User statistics

A number of developers publish live statistics about the fediverse on monitoring sites[29] like fediverse.network and the-federation.info. 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

References
  1. "Fed FAQ". Mastodon User Guide. Archived from the original on 2017-04-09.
  2. "What on Earth is the fediverse and why does it matter?". New Atlas.
  3. "gnusoc · master / addons". Hubzilla. Framagit. Retrieved 2018-07-17.
  4. "Pleroma". Retrieved 2018-07-17.
  5. Macgirvin, Michael ‘Mike’. "Zot/6". Retrieved 2018-09-14.
  6. "Zot Protocol". Hubzilla. Archived from the original on 2018-08-18. Retrieved 2018-08-18.
  7. "Misskey". Retrieved 2019-05-02.
  8. "Implement mastodon API endpoints #23". Anfora. Git hub. Retrieved 2018-12-10.
  9. diaspora*. "Support ActivityPub #7422". Retrieved 2018-08-18.
  10. diaspora*. "Let's talk about ActivityPub". Retrieved 2018-08-18.
  11. funkwhale. "Funkwhale". Retrieved 2019-05-02.
  12. GNU MediaGoblin. "Move federation code to ActivityPub spec #5503". Archived from the original on 2017-04-11. Retrieved 2018-08-18.
  13. GNU social. "Support ActivityPub #256". Retrieved 2018-08-18.
  14. GNU social. "Plugin". Retrieved 2018-08-18.
  15. "lotide". Retrieved 2020-10-29.
  16. Mastodon. "ActivityPub support #1557". Retrieved 2018-08-18.
  17. Mastodon. "Release v3.0.0". Retrieved 2019-10-08.
  18. Nextcloud. "Nextcloud introduces social features, joins the fediverse". Retrieved 2018-12-10.
  19. ostatus. "OStatus". Retrieved 2020-10-29.
  20. "olki". Retrieved 2020-10-23.
  21. Pixelfed. "Pixelfed". Retrieved 2019-05-02.
  22. Pixelfed. "Pixelfed federates now". Retrieved 2018-12-31.
  23. Pleroma. "ostatus removal". Retrieved 2019-12-29.
  24. joinplu.me. "Plume". Retrieved 2019-05-02.
  25. pump.io. "ActivityPub support #1241". Retrieved 2018-08-18.
  26. pump.io. "OStatus #8". Retrieved 2018-08-18.
  27. Read.as. "Long-form ActivityPub-enabled reader". Retrieved 2018-08-29.
  28. Robinson, Jason (May 19, 2018). "Implementing Zot".
  29. https://git.feneas.org/feneas/fediverse/-/wikis/instance-monitoring-sites

Further reading
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