ActivityPub and the End of Walled Gardens, with Evan Prodromou
ActivityPub and the End of Walled Gardens, with Evan Prodromou
There was a time where people couldn’t email each other unless they were using the same email client. That changed when developers came up with a protocol that made it so it didn’t matter if you we...
cross-posted from: https://flipboard.video/videos/watch/b04f64e0-79a5-491a-876f-85e4eca19ab6
There was a time where people couldn’t email each other unless they were using the same email client. That changed when developers came up with a protocol that made it so it didn’t matter if you were using AOL, CompuServe or Prodigy — it just worked.
The same analogy explains how things work in the Fediverse, an open-source system of interconnected, interoperable social networks. The Fediverse is powered by a protocol called ActivityPub, which provides an API for creating, updating and deleting content across several platforms.
What does ActivityPub unlock for product builders and tech entrepreneurs? How will social networks without walled gardens change our relationship to content and to each other? Why does any of this matter?
All that’s covered in this episode of Dot Social, a podcast about the world of decentralized social media, aka the Fediverse. Each episode, host (and Flipboard co-founder and CEO) Mike McCue talks to a leader in this movement; someone who sees the Fediverse’s tremendous potential and understands that this could be the internet’s next wave. Mike is a true believer in the open social web and what it will unlock for how we connect, communicate and innovate online.
In this episode, Mike talks to Evan Prodromou, one of the co-authors of ActivityPub. Evan is a long-time entrepreneur, technologist and advocate of open source software. He’s also the Director of Open Technology at the Open Earth Foundation.
Its like email
This this this. No scary, no new. Like email 🐒
The email metaphor is especially apt considering the recent push to add private email providers (Proton, Tutanota, Skiff -- all unquestionably of that shared characteristic) to so-called anti-spam block lists.
I'm really excited about the marketplaces. We desperately need a federated, trustworthy version of Kijiji/Craigslist/Facebook Marketplace, perhaps even EBay. These are important public services used by a lot of people and have been historically underdeveloped, underserved and overexploited by their centralised stewards.
God ya. This is going to be fucking huge shit!!
The email metaphor is especially apt considering the recent push to add private email providers (Proton, Tutanota, Skiff -- all unquestionably of that shared characteristic) to so-called anti-spam block lists.
Um... Compuserve, AOL, etc. were not email clients, nor did they come first. Email already interoperated just fine, these companies by and large added compatibility/internet email gateways as it became increasingly clear they would become irrelevant without it.
I really enjoyed this interview, but I think they should make more clear that they plan on the fediverse (in my words) being kind of like a small town. That there will be advertising on billboards, retail storefronts, etc. It's not going to be just volunteer ran instances, that huge companies are going to want to advertise and be part of it and is planned to be a part of it. Everyone should be prepared for that.
This will happen naturally if the fediverse grows. It's on us to keep the worker-run instances as viable alternatives so that the corporate players can't take their toys and leave the sandbox without their users having an alternative.
I agree with that, but how? I don't think we're prepared for how they're going to try take over or what that's going to look like. If you have insight into that, that would be awesome.
I'm glad I watched it, and I now see that they want it to be a huge city with neighborhoods, which is a great goal. I don't think the huge corps like meta, google, x, tinder, airnbnb, ebay, etc., are going to have the same goals.
That was a good interview
Quick put up walls!
And make Lemmygrad pay for them!