OStatus
OStatus is an open standard for federated microblogging, allowing users on one website to send and receive status updates with users on another website.[1] The standard describes how a suite of open protocols, including Atom, Activity Streams, WebSub, Salmon, and WebFinger,[2] can be used together, which enables different microblogging server implementations to route status updates between their users back-and-forth, in near real-time.
History[edit]
OStatus federation was first possible between StatusNet installations, such as Status.net and Identi.ca,[3] although Identi.ca later switched to pump.io.[4] As of June 2013, a number of other microblogging applications and content management systems had announced that they intended to implement the standard.[5] That same month, it was announced StatusNet would be merged into the GNU social project, along with Free Social.[16]
Following the first official release of GNU Social, a number of microblogging sites running StatusNet and Free Social began to transition to it. But frustrations with the technology underpinning GNU Social led a number of new server packages that aimed to be compatible with GNU Social using OStatus to shift focus to ActivityPub, including Mastodon (until October 2019),[6] Pleroma,[7] and postActiv.
Standards work[edit]
In January 2012, a W3C Community Group was opened to maintain and further develop the OStatus standard.[8] However, this was eclipsed by the work of the W3C Federated Social Web Working Group, launched in July 2014.[9] This working group focused on creating a newer standard, called ActivityPub, based on the protocols used in pump.io, which has been standardized as a successor to OStatus.[10][11]