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I'm very interested in this federated renaissance happening, but having trouble understanding how all the pieces fit together. Is there a good overview I can re
by losvedir 4y ago
I'm very interested in this federated renaissance happening, but having trouble understanding how all the pieces fit together. Is there a good overview I can read? I think ActivityPub is the (a?) protocol, and Mastodon is one particular implementation of it, just like the software linked here? Are there other relevant or competing protocols? How does Matrix fit in exactly? What about identity? Is OpenID a part of all this somehow?
- dsr_ 4y agoThe Fediverse is the loose network of servers that exchange data with the ActivityPub protocol. Mastodon is a server that implements a chunk of AP. Mastodon also specifies a client API that is not AP, but is fairly often implemented by other packages because it's convenient. AP is not entirely Twitter-style microblogging. It can be used to exchange (data or links) photos, video, audio, documents, invitations and meeting appointments. The default privacy assumption for all AP content is that it is basically public. Matrix is not built on AP. Matrix is a real-time communications protocol suitable for private messages and public chats. Its mission appears to be to bridge every other protocol, so there's at least one Matrix-ActivityPub bridge module, MXToot. OpenID is not part of these. Some Matrix servers can use OpenID for authentication. As far as I know, no ActivityPub servers currently use OpenID.