An open protocol called ActivityPub has the potential to change the way we think about social platforms. Mastodon, Threads, Flipboard, Mozilla, and others think it’s the future.
At some point over the last year, you’ve probably come across the term “fediverse” a few times. Maybe you’ve read about it here at The Verge or seen some internet oldhead talking on their blog about how this is the internet they were hoping for back in 1993. Maybe someone sent you that “Protocols, Not Platforms” article so you’d think they were smart.
PeerTube is building a YouTube-style app for the fediverse. Friendica is kind of like Facebook. BookWyrm has some Goodreads-like features, and people are digging Misskey. There are lots of them! I haven’t heard of any of those things. You should try BookWyrm in particular. It’s great. But okay, let’s see: what about Flipboard, which is in the midst of pivoting its entire platform to ActivityPub? That one’s cool. Medium is also getting on board, and Mozilla’s building some stuff.