4 ms·

We already have Twitter as a utility, its called ActivityPub and dozens of products and thousands of independent instances are now using it. If Twitters higher

by zanny 8y ago

We already have Twitter as a utility, its called ActivityPub and dozens of products and thousands of independent instances are now using it. If Twitters higher ups were serious about "being a utility' they would federate on what is on track to become the browser social protocol from the W3C.

theNJR 8y ago
It was interesting to see a small force of people pushing ActivityPub in the Twitter comments last night.
gotocake 8y ago
A public utility that very few people have even heard of outside of tech circles. I feel that more or less takes the “public” out of the “utility” and doesn’t give Twitter a pass.
- Kye 8y ago
  This was true of every protocol. It's still true of every protocol. How many people use HTTP every day without ever hearing about it? Most people couldn't even tell you what a web browser is. They use it all the same. The ActivityPub standard is barely a year old.
  - gotocake 8y ago
    I didn’t say it’s doomed, or dead, I said that the reality of it being a little known and used protocol is at odds with the claim that it represents a public utility. I think that’s especially true when comparing it to a claim that Twitter, with many hundreds of millions active users, should be a public utility.
- lokedhs 8y ago
  Few people compared to Twitter, sure, but not as much as you muggy think. When I ask around in my circles, which is a typical mic of tech and non-tech people, very few have ever used Twitter. The ones who did are all tech people. Sure, a lot of people have heard of it, but that seems to be mainly through reporting on other media. I believe that Twitter is mostly a way for media people to get word out. As for Mastodon, there is definitely a lot of tech people there, but there is a very large group of users who are not. A lot of them comes from other social media platforms to get away from the negative climate there.
skybrian 8y ago
ActivityPub seems like an interesting protocol waiting for a killer app. Mastodon is a reasonable start, but too much like Twitter.
- cabalamat 8y ago
  > ActivityPub seems like an interesting protocol waiting for a killer app You may well be right. If someone builds a new and innovative social network, it will start with 0 users and probably won't be able to compete with existing networks, due to network effects. But if someone builds a new and innovative social network using ActivityPub, it can piggyback on all ActivityPub's existing users, so network effects help it (and help existing ActivityPub systems). ActivityPub means that innovation in the social networking space can now succeed, and is thus a game changer.
- zanny 8y ago
  The ultimate secret sauce of ActivityPub is that its killer app is every app that uses it. Its about having the same fundamental building blocks - because really, youtube, instagram, snap, tiktok, facebook, twitter, etc are all doing the same thing, you post content, aggregate it, share it, and comment on it - and having those portable across all the implementers so you can subscribe to someone whos on peertube via Mastodon and get their uploaded videos there, in the UI you like the most.

by zanny 8y ago

theNJR 8y ago

It was interesting to see a small force of people pushing ActivityPub in the Twitter comments last night.

gotocake 8y ago

A public utility that very few people have even heard of outside of tech circles. I feel that more or less takes the “public” out of the “utility” and doesn’t give Twitter a pass.

Kye 8y ago
This was true of every protocol. It's still true of every protocol. How many people use HTTP every day without ever hearing about it? Most people couldn't even tell you what a web browser is. They use it all the same. The ActivityPub standard is barely a year old.
- gotocake 8y ago
  I didn’t say it’s doomed, or dead, I said that the reality of it being a little known and used protocol is at odds with the claim that it represents a public utility. I think that’s especially true when comparing it to a claim that Twitter, with many hundreds of millions active users, should be a public utility.
lokedhs 8y ago
Few people compared to Twitter, sure, but not as much as you muggy think. When I ask around in my circles, which is a typical mic of tech and non-tech people, very few have ever used Twitter. The ones who did are all tech people. Sure, a lot of people have heard of it, but that seems to be mainly through reporting on other media. I believe that Twitter is mostly a way for media people to get word out. As for Mastodon, there is definitely a lot of tech people there, but there is a very large group of users who are not. A lot of them comes from other social media platforms to get away from the negative climate there.

skybrian 8y ago

ActivityPub seems like an interesting protocol waiting for a killer app. Mastodon is a reasonable start, but too much like Twitter.

cabalamat 8y ago
> ActivityPub seems like an interesting protocol waiting for a killer app You may well be right. If someone builds a new and innovative social network, it will start with 0 users and probably won't be able to compete with existing networks, due to network effects. But if someone builds a new and innovative social network using ActivityPub, it can piggyback on all ActivityPub's existing users, so network effects help it (and help existing ActivityPub systems). ActivityPub means that innovation in the social networking space can now succeed, and is thus a game changer.
zanny 8y ago
The ultimate secret sauce of ActivityPub is that its killer app is every app that uses it. Its about having the same fundamental building blocks - because really, youtube, instagram, snap, tiktok, facebook, twitter, etc are all doing the same thing, you post content, aggregate it, share it, and comment on it - and having those portable across all the implementers so you can subscribe to someone whos on peertube via Mastodon and get their uploaded videos there, in the UI you like the most.