Fediverse

Fed Up!, chronological diagram of federated social web projects, by Lídia Pereira, Artemis Gryllaki and Bohye Woo, Jan 2020. [1] [2]

A resource on Fediverse, federated networks, mesh networks, distributed web, alternative internet, alternative social media, decentralisation.

Software projects

• Beaker, experimental browser with a p2p protocol, *2016.
• Conversations, open source XMPP/Jabber client for Android, *2014.
• Dat, p2p protocol, a project for distributed data synchronization, *2013.
• Diaspora, self-hosted social networking service, *2010.
• dokieli, clientside editor for decentralised article publishing, annotations and social interactions, *2015.
• Friendica, distributed social network, *2010.
• GNU social, FLOSS microblogging server, formerly StatusNet, *2010.
• Funkwhale, decentralised audio platform, *2019.
• Hubzilla, communication platform, formerly RedMatrix, *2015. Review.
• IPFS, protocol and p2p network for storing and sharing data in a distributed file system, *2015.
• Mastodon, self-hosted social networking service, *2016.
• Misskey, decentralized microblogging service, *2014.
• PeerTube, federated video platform powered by ActivityPub and WebTorrent, *2018.
• PixelFed, image sharing platform, *2018.
• Pump.io, general purpose activity streams engine that can be used as a federated social networking protocol, *2013.
• Scuttlebutt, decentralised secure gossip platform, *2018.
• Socialhome, federated personal profile with social networking functionality, *2016.
• WriteFreely, open source platform for building a writing space on the web.
• YaCy, distributed search engine, *2016.

Protocols: ActivityPub, OStatus, Matrix, XMPP, Diaspora, Pump.io, Zot, Hypercore.

More projects and context: Wikipedia, Fediverse.party.

Resources, art projects

• Alternative Internet, a collection of networks, tools and devices aiming at decentralisation.
• Dat Zine Library, by Zach Manderville.
• Distributed Web of Care, an art project by Taeyoon Choi.
• Founder Interviews, video interviews with developers of decentralization projects, by Irina Bolychevsky, 2013ff.
• Homebrewserver.club, a monthly gathering in Rotterdam for self-hosted services.
• Lurk provides a few community services composed of mailing lists, chat and access to the Fediverse.
• P2P Forever, humble hub of peer to peer web resources, by Laurel Schwulst. (archived)
• The Federation, gathers statistics about nodes in the fediverse.
• Fediverse Network, gathers statistics of oStatus/ActivityPub fediverse.

Events

2014

• The Alternative Internet(s) – State of the Art and the Possible Future, workshop, London School of Economics, London, 15-16 Sep 2014.

2015

• Redecentralize Conference - Taking Back the Net, unconference, London, 17-18 Oct 2015. Organised by Irina Bolychevsky, a.o. Report.
• Radical Networks conference, Integrated Digital Media at Magnet NYU, Brooklyn, NY, 24-25 Oct 2015. Organised by Sarah Grant, Erica Kermani, and Amelia Marzec, in partnership with Eyebeam.

2016

• Decentralized Web Summit, Internet Archive, San Francisco, 7-9 Jun 2016.
• Radical Networks conference, Chem Creative, Brooklyn, NY, 4-6 Nov 2016. Organised by Sarah Grant, Erica Kermani, and Amelia Marzec, in partnership with Eyebeam. Second edition. Exhibition photographs.

2017

• Our Networks, conference, Claude T. Bissell building, Toronto, 14 Jan 2017. First edition.
• Relearn 2017, Poortgebouw, Rotterdam, 29 Aug-2 Sep 2017. Documentation (2019). More.
• Radical Networks conference, Chem Creative, Brooklyn, NY, 19-22 Oct 2017. Organised by Sarah Grant and Erica Kermani. Third edition.
• Peer-to-Peer Web / Los Angeles, series of talks, Los Angeles Contemporary Archive, Los Angeles, and New York (viewing party), 10 Dec 2017.

2018

• Peer-to-Peer Web / Berlin, series of talks, Trust, Berlin, 10 Feb 2018.
• Peer-to-Peer Web / Los Angeles (Edition Two), series of talks, Folder Studio, Chinatown, Los Angeles, 28 Apr 2018.
• Peer-to-Peer Web / Berlin, series of talks, Trust, Berlin, 5 May 2018.
• Peer-to-Peer Web / NY, series of talks, School for Poetic Computation, New York, 26 May 2018. Presented by New Computer Working Group. [3] [4]
• Our Networks: State of Our Networks: Beyond DIY: Do It With Others, Mozilla Community Space, Toronto, 13-18 Jul 2018. Second edition.
• Decentralized Web Summit 2018: Global Visions / Working Code, annual conference, Internet Archive, San Francisco, 31 Jul-2 Aug 2018. Second edition.
• Local Area Network, workshop, InterAccess, Toronto, 24-26 Aug 2018.
• Radical Networks conference, Spektrum, Berlin, 19-21 Oct 2018. Organised by Sarah Grant and Erica Kermani. Fourth edition.
• Redecentralize Party, Newspeak House, London, 29 Oct 2018. Organised by Irina Bolychevsky.

2019

• Networks with an Attitude, worksession, Antwerp, 7-13 Apr 2019. Developed by Constant in collaboration with ooooo, Varia and amongst others Samenschool, City harbour, Wireless Antwerp.
• Relearn 2019, Varia, Rotterdam, 7-9 Jun 2019; Hacktiris, Brussels, 21-22 Jun 2019; La Générale, Paris, 6-8 Sep 2019. More.
• DWeb Camp, Pescadaro, CA, 18-21 Jul 2019. Interview. Report. [5]
• Our Networks: RE: Infrastructures of, Toronto Media Arts Centre, Toronto, 20-22 Sep 2019. Third edition.
• Radical Networks conference, Prime Produce, New York, 18-20 Oct 2019. Fifth edition. Video.

2020

• Deplatformization and the Ethics of Exclusion, symposium session, part of transmediale festival, Volksbühne - Großes Haus, Berlin, 1 Feb 2020. Video.
• Dat Conference 2020, online, 30-31 Jul 2020. Virtual peer to peer event about local-first tech and meetup space for those interested in the decentralized web.
• Our Networks: Growing Our Networks in Uncertain Times<-->Places, online, based out of Toronto, 8-13 Sep 2020. Fourth edition.
• De-platform-ization, Ethics and Alternative Social Media, Display, Prague, & online, 25-26 Sep 2020. Symposium and workshop. Video.

Publications

• Feminist Server Summit, "A Feminist Server Manifesto 0.01", 2014.
• Robert W. Gehl, "Building a Better Twitter: A Study of the Twitter Alternatives GNU social, Quitter, rstat.us, and Twister Free to read", Fibreculture Journal 26: "Entanglements: Activism and Technology", 2015.
• Robert W. Gehl, "The Case for Alternative Social Media", Social Media + Society 1:2, Sep 2015.
• hbsc & friends, "Have You Considered the Alternative?", HomebrewServer.Club, 9 Mar 2017.
• Danyl Strype, "A Brief History of the GNU Social Fediverse and ‘The Federation’", Disintermedia, 1 Apr 2017, with updates.
• Darius Kazemi, "Run your own social: How to run a small social network site for your friends", 8 Jul 2019.
• Pervasive Labour Union 13: "Fed Up!", ed. Lídia Pereira, Rotterdam, Sep 2019, [30] pp, PDF.
• Networks of Ones Own 1: "Etherbox", eds. Michael Murtaugh, An Mertens, Roel Roscam Abbing, and Femke Snelting, Brussels: Constant, Sep 2019.
• Networks of Ones Own 2: "Three Takes on Taking Care", Rotterdam: Varia, Oct 2019, PDF.
• Telecommunications Reclaimed: A Hands-On Guide to Networking Communities, eds. Mélanie Dulong de Rosnay and Félix Tréguer, Internet Society, Dec 2019, 255 pp, PDF. [6]
• Aymeric Mansoux, Roel Roscam Abbing, "Seven Theses on the Fediverse and the Becoming of FLOSS", in The Eternal Network: The Ends and Becomings of Network Culture, eds. Kristoffer Gansing and Inga Luchs, Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures, and Berlin: transmediale e.V., Feb 2020, pp 124-140, HTML.
  • "Sieben Thesen zum Fediverse und zur Weiterentwicklung von FLOSS", in The Eternal Network. Vom Enden und Werden der Netzkultur, eds. Kristoffer Gansing and Inga Luchs, Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures, and Berlin: transmediale e.V., 2020, pp 136-154. (German)
• Mai Ishikawa Sutton, John Conor Ryan, et al., "DWeb Principles" (draft), Mar 2020ff.
• Evgeny Ponomarev, "Decentralized Web Developer Report 2020", Fluence Labs, 8 Jun 2020. [7]
• Eileen Wagner, Karissa McKelvey, Kelsie Nabben, Decentralization Off The Shelf: 7 Maxims, 2020, 32 pp. Research report. [8]

See also

Internet activism