Fediverse

The fediverse (commonly shortened to fedi)[1][2][3] is a collection of social networking services that can communicate with each other (formally known as federation) using a common protocol. Users of different websites can send and receive status updates, multimedia files and other data across the network. The term fediverse is a portmanteau of "federation" and "universe".[4]

5 nodes in pentagon shape with all diagonals, multicoloured similarly to a rainbow.
A widely used symbol for the fediverse

The majority of fediverse platforms are free and open-source software, and create connections between servers using the ActivityPub protocol. Some software still supports older federation protocols as well, such as OStatus, the Diaspora protocol and Zot. Diaspora* is the only actively developed software project classified under the original definition of fediverse that doesn't support ActivityPub.[5][6]

  1. ^ Kiderlin, Sophie (November 11, 2022). "Musk's Twitter takeover sent thousands flocking to Mastodon. Here's what I discovered using the app". cnbc.com. Retrieved June 18, 2024.
  2. ^ Bayliss, Mark (June 29, 2023). "Op-ed: Why the great #TwitterMigration didn't quite pan out". arstechnica.com. Retrieved June 18, 2024.
  3. ^ Confino, Paolo (July 6, 2023). "Meta's Threads wants you in the 'fediverse.' Here's what that is". fortune.com. Retrieved June 18, 2024.
  4. ^ "Definition of fediverse". PCMAG. Retrieved April 3, 2024.
  5. ^ 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.
  6. ^ https://medium.com/@denschub/activitypub-final-thoughts-one-year-later-194fe591e900