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Talk Intermediate

Fediverse: The Federated Future of Social Media

Proposal status is Rejected
Badri Sunderarajan
Badri Sunderarajan
Session Description

Since the dawn of smartphones, social media has been largely fragmented: users of one social network cannot follow or interact with users of another. But as one platform after another falls into various controversies, we have been seeing mass migrations into federated social media or the "Fediverse", run by independent organisations and individuals.


In this talk, I will cover:

  • A brief history of the Fediverse and my experience using it over the past 13+ years, with a focus on the ActivityPub protocol
  • An overview of some of today's federated platforms, including Diaspora, Mastodon, Peertube, Akkoma, and Bookwyrm, and how they interact with each other
  • Differences from "mainstream" platforms, both technical and cultural
  • Upcoming challenges with major players like Meta, Wordpress, and Flipboard beginning to adopt ActivityPub
  • How your next social media platform could plug into this network

I will also mention how XMPP projects like Conversations and Prav aim to do to private messaging what ActivityPub is doing to public social media

Session Categories

FOSS

Speakers

Badri Sunderarajan
Badri Sunderarajan Freelance Developer

A self-taught programmer, Badri is interested in software that allows him to do what he wants, rather than forcing him to do what it wants. He tries to minimise screen time by using an ebook reader and planning code in a notebook. In 2017, Badri co-founded the science and culture magazine Snipette, whose website and backend are largely powered by self-hosted software. He is currently freelancing as a programmer, and is involved in software support for Spudnik Farms, Groop Games, and the Sawaliram project. A long-time user of XMPP, he is also volunteering for the upcoming cooperative-based chat service Prav. He lives on a farm in Salem District, Tamil Nadu, and when not programming can be found reading, writing, or listening to podcasts—often with a cat on his back!