Distributed social network
Encyclopedia
A distributed social network is an Internet social network service
that is decentralized and distributed across different providers. The emphasis of the distribution is on portability
, interoperability
and federation
capability. It contrasts with social network aggregation
services, which are used to manage accounts and activities across multiple discrete social networks.
Open standards such as OAuth
authorization
, OpenID
authentication
, OStatus
federation, XRD
metadata discovery, the Portable Contacts
protocol, the Wave Federation Protocol, OpenSocial
widget
API
s, microformats
like XFN
and hCard
, and Atom
web feeds—increasingly referred to together as the Open Stack—are often cited as enabling technologies for distributed social networking.
A few social networking service providers have used the term more broadly to describe provider-specific services that are distributable across different websites, typically through added widgets or plug-ins. Through the add-ons, the social network functionality is implemented on users' websites.
. The software of the projects is generally free and open source
.
Social network service
A social networking service is an online service, platform, or site that focuses on building and reflecting of social networks or social relations among people, who, for example, share interests and/or activities. A social network service consists of a representation of each user , his/her social...
that is decentralized and distributed across different providers. The emphasis of the distribution is on portability
Software portability
Portability in high-level computer programming is the usability of the same software in different environments. The prerequirement for portability is the generalized abstraction between the application logic and system interfaces...
, interoperability
Interoperability
Interoperability is a property referring to the ability of diverse systems and organizations to work together . The term is often used in a technical systems engineering sense, or alternatively in a broad sense, taking into account social, political, and organizational factors that impact system to...
and federation
Federation (information technology)
A Federation is multiple computing and/or network providers agreeing upon standards of operation in a collective fashion. The term may be used when describing the inter-operation of two distinct, formally disconnected, telecommunications networks that may have different internal structures...
capability. It contrasts with social network aggregation
Social network aggregation
Social network aggregation is the process of collecting content from multiple social network services, such as MySpace or Facebook. The task is often performed by a social network aggregator, which pulls together information into a single location, or helps a user consolidate multiple social...
services, which are used to manage accounts and activities across multiple discrete social networks.
Open standards such as OAuth
OAuth
OAuth is an open standard for authorization. It allows users to share their private resources stored on one site with another site without having to hand out their credentials, typically username and password.OAuth allows users to hand out tokens instead of credentials to their data hosted by a...
authorization
Authorization
Authorization is the function of specifying access rights to resources, which is related to information security and computer security in general and to access control in particular. More formally, "to authorize" is to define access policy...
, OpenID
OpenID
OpenID is an open standard that describes how users can be authenticated in a decentralized manner, eliminating the need for services to provide their own ad hoc systems and allowing users to consolidate their digital identities...
authentication
Authentication
Authentication is the act of confirming the truth of an attribute of a datum or entity...
, OStatus
OStatus
OStatus is an open standard for distributed status updates that references a suite of open protocols including Atom, Activity Streams, PubSubHubbub, Salmon, Webfinger, that allows different messaging hubs to route status updates between users in near real-time....
federation, XRD
XRDS
XRDS is an XML format for discovery of metadata about a resource – in particular discovery of services associated with the resource, a process known as service discovery...
metadata discovery, the Portable Contacts
Portable Contacts
Portable Contacts is an open protocol for developers to make it easier for developers to give their users a secure way to access the address books and friends lists they have built up all over the web...
protocol, the Wave Federation Protocol, OpenSocial
OpenSocial
OpenSocial is a set of common application programming interfaces for web-based social network applications, developed by Google along with MySpace and a number of other social networks.It was released November 1, 2007....
widget
Web widget
In computing a web widget is a software widget for the web. It's a small application that can be installed and executed within a web page by an end user. They are derived from the idea of code reuse. Other terms used to describe web widgets include: portlet, gadget, badge, module, webjit, capsule,...
API
Application programming interface
An application programming interface is a source code based specification intended to be used as an interface by software components to communicate with each other...
s, microformats
Microformats
A microformat is a web-based approach to semantic markup which seeks to re-use existing HTML/XHTML tags to convey metadata and other attributes in web pages and other contexts that support HTML, such as RSS...
like XFN
XHTML Friends Network
XHTML Friends Network is an HTML microformat developed by Global Multimedia Protocols Group that provides a simple way to represent human relationships using links. XFN enables web authors to indicate relationships to the people in their blogrolls by adding one or more keywords as the rel...
and hCard
HCard
hCard is a microformat for publishing the contact details of people, companies, organizations, and places, in HTML, Atom, RSS, or arbitrary XML...
, and Atom
Atom (standard)
The name Atom applies to a pair of related standards. The Atom Syndication Format is an XML language used for web feeds, while the Atom Publishing Protocol is a simple HTTP-based protocol for creating and updating web resources.Web feeds allow software programs to check for updates published on a...
web feeds—increasingly referred to together as the Open Stack—are often cited as enabling technologies for distributed social networking.
A few social networking service providers have used the term more broadly to describe provider-specific services that are distributable across different websites, typically through added widgets or plug-ins. Through the add-ons, the social network functionality is implemented on users' websites.
Comparison of projects
The protocols of these projects are generally open and freeFree protocol
A free protocol is a protocol whose full specification is freely available and for which there are no restrictions on its use. Users may design and use variations that suit their needs, and contribute enhancements for potential incorporation into the next official version of the protocol...
. The software of the projects is generally free and open source
Free and open source software
Free and open-source software or free/libre/open-source software is software that is liberally licensed to grant users the right to use, study, change, and improve its design through the availability of its source code...
.
| Project Name | Features | Software | Programming Language | License | Protocols | Privacy Support | Federation Federation (information technology) A Federation is multiple computing and/or network providers agreeing upon standards of operation in a collective fashion. The term may be used when describing the inter-operation of two distinct, formally disconnected, telecommunications networks that may have different internal structures... (with other applications or services) |
Instances | Version/Maturity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6d | Blog, media library, addressbook, themeable, private messaging | server | PHP | MIT MIT License The MIT License is a free software license originating at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology . It is a permissive license, meaning that it permits reuse within proprietary software provided all copies of the licensed software include a copy of the MIT License terms... |
HTTP Hypertext Transfer Protocol The Hypertext Transfer Protocol is a networking protocol for distributed, collaborative, hypermedia information systems. HTTP is the foundation of data communication for the World Wide Web.... + REST, microformat Microformat A microformat is a web-based approach to semantic markup which seeks to re-use existing HTML/XHTML tags to convey metadata and other attributes in web pages and other contexts that support HTML, such as RSS... s |
demo 5 total |
alpha | ||
| Ampify | Trust-based search, | Public Domain | HTTPS, Ampify Messaging Protocol | development | |||||
| Appleseed | Photos, Journals, Messaging, Groups, Privacy controls, Status Updates, Newsfeeds | server | PHP | GPL GNU General Public License The GNU General Public License is the most widely used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU Project.... |
QuickSocial | Appleseed Approximately 120 total | beta, in use | ||
| buddycloud | Location, messaging, photo/video sharing | server, client | JavaScript, Java | Apache Apache License The Apache License is a copyfree free software license authored by the Apache Software Foundation . The Apache License requires preservation of the copyright notice and disclaimer.... 2.0 |
XMPP Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol is an open-standard communications protocol for message-oriented middleware based on XML . The protocol was originally named Jabber, and was developed by the Jabber open-source community in 1999 for near-real-time, extensible instant messaging , presence... , OStatus OStatus OStatus is an open standard for distributed status updates that references a suite of open protocols including Atom, Activity Streams, PubSubHubbub, Salmon, Webfinger, that allows different messaging hubs to route status updates between users in near real-time.... , Channel Protocol, Atom Atom (standard) The name Atom applies to a pair of related standards. The Atom Syndication Format is an XML language used for web feeds, while the Atom Publishing Protocol is a simple HTTP-based protocol for creating and updating web resources.Web feeds allow software programs to check for updates published on a... , Activity Streams, Location Query |
||||
| Cunity | Friends, Photo Album, Filesharing, Messaging, Pinboard, Newsfeed, Memberlist, Forum, Connecting Cunities | server, client | PHP, Javascript, AJAX, JQuery | AGPL Affero General Public License The Affero General Public License, often abbreviated as Affero GPL and AGPL , refers to two distinct, though historically related, free software licenses:... 3.0 |
HTTP, P2P | Hosted on your own webspace | V1.0beta | ||
| Diaspora Diaspora (software) Diaspora is a free personal web server that implements a distributed social networking service. Installations of the software form nodes which make up the distributed Diaspora social network.... |
Microblogging, photo sharing, 'aspects' - friend management | server | Ruby | AGPL Affero General Public License The Affero General Public License, often abbreviated as Affero GPL and AGPL , refers to two distinct, though historically related, free software licenses:... 3.0 |
changing, Salmon Salmon (protocol) The Salmon Protocol is a message exchange protocol running over HTTP designed to decentralize commentary and annotations made against newsfeed articles such as blog posts. It allows a single discussion thread to be established between the article's origin and any feed reader or "aggregator" which... |
, through "aspects" | , application framework in alpha | Diaspora Alpha 56 'pods' listed on Diaspora Wiki |
alpha |
| Diaspora X2 | client using buddycloud for federation | XMPP, buddycloud channels, Activity Streams | Diaspora X2 | ||||||
| DiSo Project | WordPress WordPress WordPress is a free and open source blogging tool and publishing platform powered by PHP and MySQL. It is often customized into a content management system . It has many features including a plug-in architecture and a template system. WordPress is used by over 14.7% of Alexa Internet's "top 1... plugins |
microformats Microformats A microformat is a web-based approach to semantic markup which seeks to re-use existing HTML/XHTML tags to convey metadata and other attributes in web pages and other contexts that support HTML, such as RSS... (XFN XHTML Friends Network XHTML Friends Network is an HTML microformat developed by Global Multimedia Protocols Group that provides a simple way to represent human relationships using links. XFN enables web authors to indicate relationships to the people in their blogrolls by adding one or more keywords as the rel... , hCard HCard hCard is a microformat for publishing the contact details of people, companies, organizations, and places, in HTML, Atom, RSS, or arbitrary XML... , XOXO XOXO XOXO is an XML microformat for outlines built on top of XHTML. Developed by several authors as an attempt to reuse XHTML building blocks instead of inventing unnecessary new XML elements/attributes, XOXO is based on existing conventions for publishing outlines, lists, and blogrolls on the Web.The... ), OpenID OpenID OpenID is an open standard that describes how users can be authenticated in a decentralized manner, eliminating the need for services to provide their own ad hoc systems and allowing users to consolidate their digital identities... , OAuth OAuth OAuth is an open standard for authorization. It allows users to share their private resources stored on one site with another site without having to hand out their credentials, typically username and password.OAuth allows users to hand out tokens instead of credentials to their data hosted by a... , XMPP |
|||||||
| DSNP | DSNPd (server daemon Daemon (computer software) In Unix and other multitasking computer operating systems, a daemon is a computer program that runs as a background process, rather than being under the direct control of an interactive user... ), ChoiceSocial (web interface) |
Distributed Social Networking Protocol (DSNP) | Friends in Feed, ChoiceSocial.net, DistribSocial.net | ||||||
| Duuit! | Search, microblogging, email, photos, videos, blogs, webpages, XMPP Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol is an open-standard communications protocol for message-oriented middleware based on XML . The protocol was originally named Jabber, and was developed by the Jabber open-source community in 1999 for near-real-time, extensible instant messaging , presence... chat, video chat, collaborative drawing, document creation and editing, feed reader, profiles, files, games, groups, mood, privacy controls, customizable interface |
GPL GNU General Public License The GNU General Public License is the most widely used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU Project.... |
FOAF FOAF (software) FOAF is a machine-readable ontology describing persons, their activities and their relations to other people and objects. Anyone can use FOAF to describe him or herself... , XMPP Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol is an open-standard communications protocol for message-oriented middleware based on XML . The protocol was originally named Jabber, and was developed by the Jabber open-source community in 1999 for near-real-time, extensible instant messaging , presence... , OpenSocial OpenSocial OpenSocial is a set of common application programming interfaces for web-based social network applications, developed by Google along with MySpace and a number of other social networks.It was released November 1, 2007.... , OAuth OAuth OAuth is an open standard for authorization. It allows users to share their private resources stored on one site with another site without having to hand out their credentials, typically username and password.OAuth allows users to hand out tokens instead of credentials to their data hosted by a... push/pull, OStatus OStatus OStatus is an open standard for distributed status updates that references a suite of open protocols including Atom, Activity Streams, PubSubHubbub, Salmon, Webfinger, that allows different messaging hubs to route status updates between users in near real-time.... (next release), scrobbling, RSS RSS -Mathematics:* Root-sum-square, the square root of the sum of the squares of the elements of a data set* Residual sum of squares in statistics-Technology:* RSS , "Really Simple Syndication" or "Rich Site Summary", a family of web feed formats... /Atom Atom (standard) The name Atom applies to a pair of related standards. The Atom Syndication Format is an XML language used for web feeds, while the Atom Publishing Protocol is a simple HTTP-based protocol for creating and updating web resources.Web feeds allow software programs to check for updates published on a... , opendd, PubSubHubbub, email, IRC |
beta, in use | |||||
| Freenet Freenet Freenet is a decentralized, censorship-resistant distributed data store originally designed by Ian Clarke. According to Clarke, Freenet aims to provide freedom of speech through a peer-to-peer network with strong protection of anonymity; as part of supporting its users' freedom, Freenet is free and... |
Censorship resistant publishing, anonymity, pseudonymity, WebOfTrust, Forum, Blog, updating bookmarks, anonymous DVCS, third party plugins | p2p | Java | GPL | UDP, global darknet DHT on restricted routes (FOAF) or Opennet (anonymizing DHT). | hosted on every users computer | stable, but pre 1.0 | ||
| Friend2Friend | Strong encryption, XML for all data exchange, Data is digitally signed | LGPL GNU Lesser General Public License The GNU Lesser General Public License or LGPL is a free software license published by the Free Software Foundation . It was designed as a compromise between the strong-copyleft GNU General Public License or GPL and permissive licenses such as the BSD licenses and the MIT License... |
alpha | ||||||
| Friendica | Rich profiles, networking groups, community/group/celebrity pages, richtext status (not specifically length limited), photo albums, YouTube share, location, like/dislike, multiple profiles w/assignment to specific friends, single sign on to post directly to friend's profiles on co-operating systems. Communications encryption. Fans and one-way relationships. Local and global directory services. Ability to restrict connection endpoints. | server | PHP | MIT MIT License The MIT License is a free software license originating at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology . It is a permissive license, meaning that it permits reuse within proprietary software provided all copies of the licensed software include a copy of the MIT License terms... |
OStatus OStatus OStatus is an open standard for distributed status updates that references a suite of open protocols including Atom, Activity Streams, PubSubHubbub, Salmon, Webfinger, that allows different messaging hubs to route status updates between users in near real-time.... components, Diaspora, Facebook, OpenID OpenID OpenID is an open standard that describes how users can be authenticated in a decentralized manner, eliminating the need for services to provide their own ad hoc systems and allowing users to consolidate their digital identities... , DFRN, Zot |
9 servers accept registration | stable/production | ||
| GNU Social | Server (based on SatusNet) | AGPL Affero General Public License The Affero General Public License, often abbreviated as Affero GPL and AGPL , refers to two distinct, though historically related, free software licenses:... v3 |
OStatus OStatus OStatus is an open standard for distributed status updates that references a suite of open protocols including Atom, Activity Streams, PubSubHubbub, Salmon, Webfinger, that allows different messaging hubs to route status updates between users in near real-time.... |
daisycha.in | |||||
| Jappix | XMPP Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol is an open-standard communications protocol for message-oriented middleware based on XML . The protocol was originally named Jabber, and was developed by the Jabber open-source community in 1999 for near-real-time, extensible instant messaging , presence... client + Microblogging |
server, web client | AGPL Affero General Public License The Affero General Public License, often abbreviated as Affero GPL and AGPL , refers to two distinct, though historically related, free software licenses:... |
XMPP Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol is an open-standard communications protocol for message-oriented middleware based on XML . The protocol was originally named Jabber, and was developed by the Jabber open-source community in 1999 for near-real-time, extensible instant messaging , presence... |
demo | production | |||
| Knowee | OpenID OpenID OpenID is an open standard that describes how users can be authenticated in a decentralized manner, eliminating the need for services to provide their own ad hoc systems and allowing users to consolidate their digital identities... Signup, Activity Stream import and export, contact import from Web 2.0 services via XFN and FOAF FOAF (software) FOAF is a machine-readable ontology describing persons, their activities and their relations to other people and objects. Anyone can use FOAF to describe him or herself... , automatically updated address book from remote data sources, consolidated profile with RDF/FOAF export, personal SPARQL API |
W3C W3C Software Notice and License The W3C Software Notice and License is a permissive free software licence used by software released by the World Wide Web Consortium, like Amaya. The license is a permissive license, compatible with the GNU General Public License.-Software using the License:... |
OpenID OpenID OpenID is an open standard that describes how users can be authenticated in a decentralized manner, eliminating the need for services to provide their own ad hoc systems and allowing users to consolidate their digital identities... , FOAF FOAF (software) FOAF is a machine-readable ontology describing persons, their activities and their relations to other people and objects. Anyone can use FOAF to describe him or herself... |
alpha | |||||
| Kopal | OpenID OpenID OpenID is an open standard that describes how users can be authenticated in a decentralized manner, eliminating the need for services to provide their own ad hoc systems and allowing users to consolidate their digital identities... Core, multiple profiles |
Server | MIT MIT License The MIT License is a free software license originating at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology . It is a permissive license, meaning that it permits reuse within proprietary software provided all copies of the licensed software include a copy of the MIT License terms... |
OpenID OpenID OpenID is an open standard that describes how users can be authenticated in a decentralized manner, eliminating the need for services to provide their own ad hoc systems and allowing users to consolidate their digital identities... , Kopal Connect protocol, Kopal Feed microformat |
alpha | ||||
| Kune | real-time collaborative edition, XMPP chat, groups, lists, tasks, blogs, Apache Wave inbox (modern email), wave extensions (gadgets, robots), public webpages, profiles, galleries (photos, videos), maps, federation | server, integrates Apache Wave | Java-based GWT Google Web Toolkit Google Web Toolkit is an open source set of tools that allows web developers to create and maintain complex JavaScript front-end applications in Java. Other than a few native libraries, everything is Java source that can be built on any supported platform with the included GWT Ant build files... (generates AJAX) |
AGPLv3 Affero General Public License The Affero General Public License, often abbreviated as Affero GPL and AGPL , refers to two distinct, though historically related, free software licenses:... |
XMPP, Wave Federation Protocol | demo, 3 in total | beta | ||
| Lipsync.it | Synchronization tool inspired by Dropbox | Simplified BSD | rsync, lsyncd, OpenSSH | planned | development | ||||
| Lorea | Profiles, microblogging, streams, groups, plugins, group mailing lists, tasks, calendar, subgroups, tagclouds | Elgg Elgg (software) Elgg is open source social networking software that provides individuals and organizations with the components needed to create an online social environment. It offers blogging, microblogging, file sharing, networking, groups and a number of other features.... , plugins |
GPL GNU General Public License The GNU General Public License is the most widely used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU Project.... |
OpenID OpenID OpenID is an open standard that describes how users can be authenticated in a decentralized manner, eliminating the need for services to provide their own ad hoc systems and allowing users to consolidate their digital identities... , Activity Streams Activity Streams Activity Streams is an open format specification for activity stream protocols, which are used to syndicate activities taken in social web applications and services, similar to those in Facebook's Newsfeed, FriendFeed, the Movable Type Action Streams plugin, etc.Implementors of the activity... , PubSubHubbub, WebID. Working on: OStatus OStatus OStatus is an open standard for distributed status updates that references a suite of open protocols including Atom, Activity Streams, PubSubHubbub, Salmon, Webfinger, that allows different messaging hubs to route status updates between users in near real-time.... (60% production), XMPP Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol is an open-standard communications protocol for message-oriented middleware based on XML . The protocol was originally named Jabber, and was developed by the Jabber open-source community in 1999 for near-real-time, extensible instant messaging , presence... /psyc (50% development), rdf+sparql (10% development) |
project's group | production | |||
| Movim | XMPP Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol is an open-standard communications protocol for message-oriented middleware based on XML . The protocol was originally named Jabber, and was developed by the Jabber open-source community in 1999 for near-real-time, extensible instant messaging , presence... client + Microblogging |
server and webclient | PHP | AGPL Affero General Public License The Affero General Public License, often abbreviated as Affero GPL and AGPL , refers to two distinct, though historically related, free software licenses:... |
XMPP Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol is an open-standard communications protocol for message-oriented middleware based on XML . The protocol was originally named Jabber, and was developed by the Jabber open-source community in 1999 for near-real-time, extensible instant messaging , presence... |
development | |||
| Mr. Privacy | SMTP Simple Mail Transfer Protocol Simple Mail Transfer Protocol is an Internet standard for electronic mail transmission across Internet Protocol networks. SMTP was first defined by RFC 821 , and last updated by RFC 5321 which includes the extended SMTP additions, and is the protocol in widespread use today... , IMAP Internet Message Access Protocol Internet message access protocol is one of the two most prevalent Internet standard protocols for e-mail retrieval, the other being the Post Office Protocol... |
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| NoseRub | sample server | NoseRub protocol / WebID | demo | ||||||
| ObjectCloud | customization, flexible hosting, security, application platform | SimPL 2.0 | OpenID OpenID OpenID is an open standard that describes how users can be authenticated in a decentralized manner, eliminating the need for services to provide their own ad hoc systems and allowing users to consolidate their digital identities... , Particle |
2 | Alpha, active development | ||||
| OneSocialWeb | Microblogging | Openfire plugin, clients | Java | Apache Apache License The Apache License is a copyfree free software license authored by the Apache Software Foundation . The Apache License requires preservation of the copyright notice and disclaimer.... 2 |
XMPP Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol is an open-standard communications protocol for message-oriented middleware based on XML . The protocol was originally named Jabber, and was developed by the Jabber open-source community in 1999 for near-real-time, extensible instant messaging , presence... , XMPP extensions |
Active developer community, features being added... | |||
| OpenLink Data Spaces (ODS) | Profile Management, Blogs, Wikis, Address Books, Calendars, Feed Aggregation, Discussion Forums (includes NNTP support), File Servers (WebDAV based Briefcase). | Dual (Comercial and GPL GNU General Public License The GNU General Public License is the most widely used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU Project.... for Open Source Edition) |
WebID, Webfinger Webfinger WebFinger is an Internet protocol that aims to identify people by their E-mail addresses. It is an extension of the Finger protocol used by the unix finger utility to identify users of a particular computer in a network... , OpenID OpenID OpenID is an open standard that describes how users can be authenticated in a decentralized manner, eliminating the need for services to provide their own ad hoc systems and allowing users to consolidate their digital identities... , OAuth OAuth OAuth is an open standard for authorization. It allows users to share their private resources stored on one site with another site without having to hand out their credentials, typically username and password.OAuth allows users to hand out tokens instead of credentials to their data hosted by a... , HTTP Hypertext Transfer Protocol The Hypertext Transfer Protocol is a networking protocol for distributed, collaborative, hypermedia information systems. HTTP is the foundation of data communication for the World Wide Web.... , SPARQL SPARQL SPARQL is an RDF query language; its name is an acronym that stands for SPARQL Protocol and RDF Query Language. It was made a standard by the RDF Data Access Working Group of the World Wide Web Consortium, and considered as one of the key technologies of semantic web... , Atom Atom (standard) The name Atom applies to a pair of related standards. The Atom Syndication Format is an XML language used for web feeds, while the Atom Publishing Protocol is a simple HTTP-based protocol for creating and updating web resources.Web feeds allow software programs to check for updates published on a... Publishing, PubSubHubbub, Semantic Pingback, OpenSocial OpenSocial OpenSocial is a set of common application programming interfaces for web-based social network applications, developed by Google along with MySpace and a number of other social networks.It was released November 1, 2007.... , Social Graph API, Portable Contacts Portable Contacts Portable Contacts is an open protocol for developers to make it easier for developers to give their users a secure way to access the address books and friends lists they have built up all over the web... , more. |
id.myopenlink.net among others | Active use | ||||
| OpenMicroBlogger OpenMicroBlogging OpenMicroBlogging is an open protocol that allows different microblogging services to inter-operate. It lets the user of one service subscribe to notices by a user of another service. This enables a federation of new communities, as potentially an organization of any size can host a service... |
User-toggleable "apps" to add/remove functionality. RSSCloud and partial OStatus OStatus OStatus is an open standard for distributed status updates that references a suite of open protocols including Atom, Activity Streams, PubSubHubbub, Salmon, Webfinger, that allows different messaging hubs to route status updates between users in near real-time.... (PubSubHubbub) federation as well as Open Microblogging 0.1. Local follow/unfollow. Facebook, Twitter, Flickr integration. (partial) Twitter API support. Fully Restful design, user interface consumes Rest API. |
MIT MIT License The MIT License is a free software license originating at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology . It is a permissive license, meaning that it permits reuse within proprietary software provided all copies of the licensed software include a copy of the MIT License terms... |
Open Microblogging OpenMicroBlogging OpenMicroBlogging is an open protocol that allows different microblogging services to inter-operate. It lets the user of one service subscribe to notices by a user of another service. This enables a federation of new communities, as potentially an organization of any size can host a service... 0.1, RSSCloud RSS Cloud RSS Cloud is an extension to the RSS protocol that enables realtime push notifications or distributed publish/subscribe communication for feeds. This is done using a element where more information is given on how a subscriber should request updates. RSS Cloud is not limited to RSS feeds but can... , (partial) OStatus OStatus OStatus is an open standard for distributed status updates that references a suite of open protocols including Atom, Activity Streams, PubSubHubbub, Salmon, Webfinger, that allows different messaging hubs to route status updates between users in near real-time.... (PubSubHubbub) |
alpha | |||||
| ownCloud | Cloudstorage and plugins for Photos, Media, RSS RSS -Mathematics:* Root-sum-square, the square root of the sum of the squares of the elements of a data set* Residual sum of squares in statistics-Technology:* RSS , "Really Simple Syndication" or "Rich Site Summary", a family of web feed formats... and more |
AGPL Affero General Public License The Affero General Public License, often abbreviated as Affero GPL and AGPL , refers to two distinct, though historically related, free software licenses:... |
WebDAV WebDAV Web-based Distributed Authoring and Versioning is a set of methods based on the Hypertext Transfer Protocol that facilitates collaboration between users in editing and managing documents and files stored on World Wide Web servers... , Open Collaboration Services Open Collaboration Services The Open Collaboration Services is an open and vendor independent modern REST based API for integration of web communities and web based services into desktop and mobile applications. It allows to exchange relevant data from a Social Network between the site and clients such as other websites and... |
ver. 1.0 | |||||
| Project Danube | 1) Sharing personal data with companies/organizations 2) Sharing personal data with "friends" 3) Use of personal data for "personal applications" |
TBD, likely Eclipse or Apache Apache License The Apache License is a copyfree free software license authored by the Apache Software Foundation . The Apache License requires preservation of the copyright notice and disclaimer.... |
OStatus OStatus OStatus is an open standard for distributed status updates that references a suite of open protocols including Atom, Activity Streams, PubSubHubbub, Salmon, Webfinger, that allows different messaging hubs to route status updates between users in near real-time.... , OAuth OAuth OAuth is an open standard for authorization. It allows users to share their private resources stored on one site with another site without having to hand out their credentials, typically username and password.OAuth allows users to hand out tokens instead of credentials to their data hosted by a... 2.0, Webfinger Webfinger WebFinger is an Internet protocol that aims to identify people by their E-mail addresses. It is an extension of the Finger protocol used by the unix finger utility to identify users of a particular computer in a network... , hCard HCard hCard is a microformat for publishing the contact details of people, companies, organizations, and places, in HTML, Atom, RSS, or arbitrary XML... , Portable Contacts Portable Contacts Portable Contacts is an open protocol for developers to make it easier for developers to give their users a secure way to access the address books and friends lists they have built up all over the web... , XRI, XDI XDI XDI is a generalized, extensible service for sharing, linking, and synchronizing structured data over the Internet and other data networks using XRI-addressable RDF graphs... , PubSubHubbub, Salmon Salmon Salmon is the common name for several species of fish in the family Salmonidae. Several other fish in the same family are called trout; the difference is often said to be that salmon migrate and trout are resident, but this distinction does not strictly hold true... |
development | |||||
| Project Nori | OStatus OStatus OStatus is an open standard for distributed status updates that references a suite of open protocols including Atom, Activity Streams, PubSubHubbub, Salmon, Webfinger, that allows different messaging hubs to route status updates between users in near real-time.... , OAuth OAuth OAuth is an open standard for authorization. It allows users to share their private resources stored on one site with another site without having to hand out their credentials, typically username and password.OAuth allows users to hand out tokens instead of credentials to their data hosted by a... , Portable Contacts Portable Contacts Portable Contacts is an open protocol for developers to make it easier for developers to give their users a secure way to access the address books and friends lists they have built up all over the web... , Webfinger Webfinger WebFinger is an Internet protocol that aims to identify people by their E-mail addresses. It is an extension of the Finger protocol used by the unix finger utility to identify users of a particular computer in a network... , and other open protocols |
early alpha | |||||||
| psyced | profiles, chat, microblogging | GPL GNU General Public License The GNU General Public License is the most widely used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU Project.... MIT MIT License The MIT License is a free software license originating at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology . It is a permissive license, meaning that it permits reuse within proprietary software provided all copies of the licensed software include a copy of the MIT License terms... |
PSYC, XMPP Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol is an open-standard communications protocol for message-oriented middleware based on XML . The protocol was originally named Jabber, and was developed by the Jabber open-source community in 1999 for near-real-time, extensible instant messaging , presence... , IRC, TELNET TELNET Telnet is a network protocol used on the Internet or local area networks to provide a bidirectional interactive text-oriented communications facility using a virtual terminal connection... , HTTP Hypertext Transfer Protocol The Hypertext Transfer Protocol is a networking protocol for distributed, collaborative, hypermedia information systems. HTTP is the foundation of data communication for the World Wide Web.... , Applet, SMTP Simple Mail Transfer Protocol Simple Mail Transfer Protocol is an Internet standard for electronic mail transmission across Internet Protocol networks. SMTP was first defined by RFC 821 , and last updated by RFC 5321 which includes the extended SMTP additions, and is the protocol in widespread use today... , WAP, RSS RSS -Mathematics:* Root-sum-square, the square root of the sum of the squares of the elements of a data set* Residual sum of squares in statistics-Technology:* RSS , "Really Simple Syndication" or "Rich Site Summary", a family of web feed formats... |
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| Retroshare | Private messaging | server | C++ | [GNU] | GPG, OpenSSL | Production | |||
| RSSN | private messaging, groups | RSSN | concept | ||||||
| Safebook | GPL GNU General Public License The GNU General Public License is the most widely used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU Project.... |
demo | beta | ||||||
| Salut à Toi | multi-frontends, microblogging, group microblogging, file sharing, games, XMPP client | XMPP client (multi-frontends), web server, SMTP/IMAP server | Python, C++ | GPL GNU General Public License The GNU General Public License is the most widely used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU Project.... AGPL Affero General Public License The Affero General Public License, often abbreviated as Affero GPL and AGPL , refers to two distinct, though historically related, free software licenses:... (web frontend) |
XMPP | demo (outdated) | alpha | ||
| SMOB | microblogging | FOAF FOAF (software) FOAF is a machine-readable ontology describing persons, their activities and their relations to other people and objects. Anyone can use FOAF to describe him or herself... |
production | ||||||
| Social-Igniter | friends, places, status, comments, modular apps (messages, blog, cart, media), themes, mobile themes, 3rd party integration (Facebook, Twiter, YouTube), editable widgets, | server | GPL GNU General Public License The GNU General Public License is the most widely used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU Project.... |
Webfinger Webfinger WebFinger is an Internet protocol that aims to identify people by their E-mail addresses. It is an extension of the Finger protocol used by the unix finger utility to identify users of a particular computer in a network... , PubSubHubbub, OpenID OpenID OpenID is an open standard that describes how users can be authenticated in a decentralized manner, eliminating the need for services to provide their own ad hoc systems and allowing users to consolidate their digital identities... , OAuth OAuth OAuth is an open standard for authorization. It allows users to share their private resources stored on one site with another site without having to hand out their credentials, typically username and password.OAuth allows users to hand out tokens instead of credentials to their data hosted by a... , Activity Streams |
3 | Alpha | |||
| SocialRiver | GPL GNU General Public License The GNU General Public License is the most widely used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU Project.... AGPL Affero General Public License The Affero General Public License, often abbreviated as Affero GPL and AGPL , refers to two distinct, though historically related, free software licenses:... |
OStatus OStatus OStatus is an open standard for distributed status updates that references a suite of open protocols including Atom, Activity Streams, PubSubHubbub, Salmon, Webfinger, that allows different messaging hubs to route status updates between users in near real-time.... , OpenID OpenID OpenID is an open standard that describes how users can be authenticated in a decentralized manner, eliminating the need for services to provide their own ad hoc systems and allowing users to consolidate their digital identities... , will add support for OAuth OAuth OAuth is an open standard for authorization. It allows users to share their private resources stored on one site with another site without having to hand out their credentials, typically username and password.OAuth allows users to hand out tokens instead of credentials to their data hosted by a... |
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| SocialZE | server, web client | OSMP (Open Social Message Protocol) | Alpha | ||||||
| Socknet Provider- FoolishMortal.org | profiles, messaging, enables internet content sharing | Socknet, OpenID OpenID OpenID is an open standard that describes how users can be authenticated in a decentralized manner, eliminating the need for services to provide their own ad hoc systems and allowing users to consolidate their digital identities... |
Beta | ||||||
| Sparkleshare | Collaboration and sharing tool inspired by Dropbox | Python | GNU GPLv3 | SSH | , encryption option | planned | development | ||
| StatusNet | microblogging | Server, Clients | PHP | AGPL Affero General Public License The Affero General Public License, often abbreviated as Affero GPL and AGPL , refers to two distinct, though historically related, free software licenses:... |
OStatus OStatus OStatus is an open standard for distributed status updates that references a suite of open protocols including Atom, Activity Streams, PubSubHubbub, Salmon, Webfinger, that allows different messaging hubs to route status updates between users in near real-time.... , OpenID OpenID OpenID is an open standard that describes how users can be authenticated in a decentralized manner, eliminating the need for services to provide their own ad hoc systems and allowing users to consolidate their digital identities... , FOAF FOAF (software) FOAF is a machine-readable ontology describing persons, their activities and their relations to other people and objects. Anyone can use FOAF to describe him or herself... , OpenMicroBlogging OpenMicroBlogging OpenMicroBlogging is an open protocol that allows different microblogging services to inter-operate. It lets the user of one service subscribe to notices by a user of another service. This enables a federation of new communities, as potentially an organization of any size can host a service... (deprecated) |
more than 100, including Identi.ca and Status.net | Production (1.0.1) | ||
| Thimbl | microblogging | Finger Finger A finger is a limb of the human body and a type of digit, an organ of manipulation and sensation found in the hands of humans and other primates.... , SSH SSH - In science and technology :* Saffir–Simpson Hurricane Scale* Sea surface height, the topography of the ocean surface* Secure Shell, a network protocol for remote administration of Unix computers* Social sciences and humanities, a broad field of research... |
development | ||||||
| Weestit | XMPP Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol is an open-standard communications protocol for message-oriented middleware based on XML . The protocol was originally named Jabber, and was developed by the Jabber open-source community in 1999 for near-real-time, extensible instant messaging , presence... , HTTP Hypertext Transfer Protocol The Hypertext Transfer Protocol is a networking protocol for distributed, collaborative, hypermedia information systems. HTTP is the foundation of data communication for the World Wide Web.... , OStatus OStatus OStatus is an open standard for distributed status updates that references a suite of open protocols including Atom, Activity Streams, PubSubHubbub, Salmon, Webfinger, that allows different messaging hubs to route status updates between users in near real-time.... , SMTP Simple Mail Transfer Protocol Simple Mail Transfer Protocol is an Internet standard for electronic mail transmission across Internet Protocol networks. SMTP was first defined by RFC 821 , and last updated by RFC 5321 which includes the extended SMTP additions, and is the protocol in widespread use today... , POP Post Office Protocol In computing, the Post Office Protocol is an application-layer Internet standard protocol used by local e-mail clients to retrieve e-mail from a remote server over a TCP/IP connection. POP and IMAP are the two most prevalent Internet standard protocols for e-mail retrieval. Virtually all modern... |
alpha planned Nov.20 2010 |
External links
- Wiki of Federated Social Web W3C Incubator Group
- Federated Social Web Conference 2011
- Comparison of protocol/software projects for distributed social networking
- Diploma Thesis from the University of Applied Sciences Dresden(HTW) about XMPP-based Federated Social Networks like buddycloud(CC-BY)
- Paper on FOAF in an Android environment by Tramp, S., Frischmuth, P., Arndt, N., Ermilov, T., and Auer, S. (2011). Weaving a distributed, semantic social network for mobile users. In Antoniou, G., editor, ESWC 2011, Part I, LNCS 6643, pages 200-214.
- Video by Henry Story demonstrating FOAF in an Android environment