Distributed social network

Internet social networking service that is decentralized and distributed across distinct providers

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A distributed social network or federated social network is an Internet social networking service that is decentralized and distributed across distinct service providers (similar to email, but for social networks), such as the Fediverse or the IndieWeb. It consists of multiple social websites, where users of each site communicate with users of any of the involved sites. From a societal perspective, one may compare this concept to that of social media being a public utility.

A social website participating in a distributed social network is interoperable with the other sites involved and is in federation with them. Communication among the social websites is technically conducted over social networking protocols. Software used for distributed social networking is generally portable so it is easily adopted on various website platforms. Distributed social networks contrast with social network aggregation services, which are used to manage accounts and activities across multiple discrete social networks.

A few social networking service providers have used the term more broadly to describe provider-specific services that are distributable across different websites, typically through added widgets or plug-ins. Through the add-ons, the social network functionality is implemented on users' websites.

Differences between distributed and federated networks

Comparison of software and protocols

Main article: Comparison of software and protocols for distributed social networking

Distributed social network projects generally develop software, protocols, or both. The software is generally free and open source, and the protocols are generally open and free.

Open standards such as OAuth authorization, OpenID authentication, OStatus federation, ActivityPub federation protocol, Nostr, XRD metadata discovery, the Portable Contacts protocol, the Wave Federation Protocol, the Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) (aka Jabber), OpenSocial widget APIs, microformats like XFN and hCard, and Atom web feeds—increasingly referred to together as the Open Stack—are often cited as enabling technologies for distributed social networking.

History

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a U.S. legal defense organization and advocacy group for civil liberties on the Internet, endorses the distributed social network model as one "that can plausibly return control and choice to the hands of the Internet user" and allow persons living under restrictive regimes to "conduct activism on social networking sites while also having a choice of services and providers that may be better equipped to protect their security and anonymity".

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the main international standards organization for the World Wide Web, launched a new Social Activity in July 2014 to develop standards for social web application interoperability.

In 2013, the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) released a candidate version of the Social Network Web enabler (SNeW) that was approved in 2016. Its specification is based mainly on OStatus and OpenSocial specifications and designed to meet GDPR recommendations. It is a tentative of the telco industry to establish a operated-led federation of social network services.

References

"Unlike Us | Beyond distributed and decentralized: what is a federated network?". networkcultures.org. Retrieved 2022-03-27.
Recordon, David (2008-10-09). ""Blowing Up" Social Networks by Going Open". p. 27. Retrieved 5 January 2009.
Richard Esguerra (March 21, 2012). "An Introduction to the Federated Social Network". Electronic Frontier Foundation Deeplinks Blog.
"W3C Launches Push for Social Web Application Interoperability". World Wide Web Consortium. 21 July 2014.
"OMA Social Network Web (SNeW) v1.0". Open Mobile Alliance. 13 August 2013.

External links

W3C Social Activity
- W3C Social Web Working Group
- W3C Social Interest Group
Federated Social Web Conference 2011
Video by Henry Story demonstrating FOAF in an Android environment
BuddyCloud
Mastodon

v t e Social networks and social media
Types	Personal Professional Sexual Value Clique Adolescent
Networks	Corporate social media Distributed social network (list) Enterprise social networking Enterprise social software Mobile social network Personal knowledge networking
Services	List of social networking services List of virtual communities with more than 1 million users
Concepts and theories	Ambient awareness Assortative mixing Attention inequality Interpersonal bridge Organizational network analysis Small-world experiment Social aspects of television Social capital Social data revolution Social exchange theory Social identity theory Social media and psychology Social media intelligence Social media mining Social media optimization Social network analysis Social web Structural endogamy Virtual collective consciousness
Models and processes	Account verification Aggregation Change detection Blockmodeling Collaboration graph Collaborative consumption Giant Global Graph Lateral communication Reputation system Social bot Social graph Social media analytics Social network analysis software Social networking potential Social television Structural cohesion
Economics	Affinity fraud Attention economy Collaborative finance Creator economy Influencer marketing Narrowcasting Sharing economy Social commerce Social sorting Viral marketing
Phenomena	Algorithmic radicalization Community recognition Complex contagion Computer addiction Consequential strangers Friend of a friend Friending and following Friendship paradox Influence-for-hire Internet addiction Information overload Overchoice Six degrees of separation Social media addiction Social media and suicide Social invisibility Social network game Suicide and the Internet Tribe Viral phenomenon
Related topics	Friendship recession Peer pressure Researchers User profile Online identity Persona Social profiling Viral messages Virtual community

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Misplaced Pages

Differences between distributed and federated networks

Comparison of software and protocols

History

See also

References

Further reading

External links