ActivityPub

Last updated
ActivityPub
Communication protocol
ActivityPub-logo.svg
Developer(s) World Wide Web Consortium
IntroductionJanuary 23, 2018 (2018-01-23)
Based on Activity Streams, JSON-LD
Website activitypub.rocks
Mechanics ActivityPub-tutorial-image.svg
Mechanics

ActivityPub is an open, decentralized social networking protocol based on Pump.io's ActivityPump protocol. [1] It provides a client/server API for creating, updating, and deleting content, as well as a federated server-to-server API for delivering notifications and content. [2]

Contents

Project status

ActivityPub is a standard for the Internet in the Social Web Networking Group of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The standard was co-authored by Evan Prodromou, [3] creator of StatusNet (now known as GNU social). At an earlier stage, the name of the protocol was "ActivityPump", but it was felt that ActivityPub better indicated the cross-publishing purpose of the protocol. It is the most widely supported standard (by some margin) in the Fediverse.[ citation needed ]

In January 2018, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) published the ActivityPub standard as a Recommendation. [2] Lead author Christine Lemmer-Webber notes that the team predominantly identified as queer, which led to features that help users and administrators protect against "undesired interaction." She also notes that the team authoring ActivityPub had no corporate participation. [4]

The W3C Social Community Group previously organized a yearly free conference called ActivityPub Conf about the future of ActivityPub. [5] [6]

Former Diaspora community manager Sean Tilley wrote an article that suggests ActivityPub protocols may eventually provide a way to federate Internet platforms. [7]

Triages are held regularly to review issues pertaining to the ActivityPub and ActivityStreams 2.0 specifications as part of the W3C Social Web Incubator Community Group. [8]

Software using ActivityPub

Software name MAU [9] Initial fediverse-compatible releaseType
Akkoma [10] 4,1642022 [11] Microblogging
BookWyrm [12] 4,8342021 [13] Book cataloguing
Castopod [14] 2020 [15] Podcasting
Epicyon [16] 2019 [17] Microblogging
Firefish (f. Calckey) [18] 10,9352022 [19] Microblogging
Friendica
(f. Friendika; orig. Mistpark) [20]
2,3352019 Blogging, image gallery, event planner, groups
Funkwhale [21] 6002018 [22] Music hosting
Gancio [23] 2020 [24] Events, calendar
GNU social
(f. StatusNet; orig. Laconica)
1372008 Microblogging
GoToSocial [25] 422021 [26] Microblogging
Guppe [27] 2021 [28] Groups
Honk [29] 2019 [30] Microblogging
Hubzilla
(f. RedMatrix; orig. Friendica-Red) [31]
9332015 [32] CMS, blogging, wiki, image gallery, file hosting
Iceshrimp [33] 2023Microblogging
Inventaire.io [34] 2021Book cataloguing
Kbin [35] [36] 33,112Pre-release Link aggregator, forum, microblogging
Lemmy [37] 69,7842019 Link aggregator, forum
Libervia (in beta as of 2022) [38] 2022 Instant messaging, microblogging, blogging, file sharing, event management
lotide [39] 2020 [40] Link aggregator
Mastodon [41] [ failed verification ]14,791,133 [42] 2016 Microblogging
Mbin [43] 4562023 Link aggregator, forum, microblogging
Micro.blog [44] [45] 4,9642017 Microblogging, blogging, photoblogging, podcasting
microblog.pub [46] 2022 [47] Microblogging
Misskey15,5412018 Microblogging
Mobilizon 2020Event and group management
Nextcloud Social [48] [49] 2018 [50] File hosting
Owncast [51] 2032022Live video streaming
PeerTube [41] 18,6462018Video sharing
Pixelfed [52] 18,7332018Image sharing
Pleroma [53] 18,0942019 [54] Microblogging
Plume [55] 2018 [56] Blogging
Postmarks [57] 2023 [58] Bookmarking
Sharkey [59] 7522023 Microblogging
Soapbox.pub [60] 2020 [61] Microblogging
Socialhome422016 [62] Microblogging, blogging
Streams [63] 2022 [64] Blogging, wiki, image sharing
Takahē [65] 52022 [66] Microblogging
Threads [67] 130 million (February 2024) [68] 2023
Wordpress (via plugin) [69] [70]  ?2023 Blogging
WriteFreely [71] 2018 [72] Blogging
Zap [73] Blogging, image gallery, file hosting

Expected or announced future implementations

See also

Related Research Articles

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Further reading