Title: Social Web Foundation Launched to Expand and Improve Open Social Web Movement
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As the open social web movement continues to gain traction, a new nonprofit organization is set to amplify its reach. The Social Web Foundation (SWF), co-founded by Evan Prodromou, the co-author and current editor of the ActivityPub protocol, is geared towards expanding the fediverse, refining the protocol, enhancing user experience, and educating the public on its potential.
The fediverse, also known as the open social web, is a network of interconnected social networking services powered by the ActivityPub protocol. With Meta recently adopting ActivityPub for its Threads app, a competitor to X (formerly known as Twitter), the fediverse has seen a surge in potential users, with over 200 million new users expected.
The fact that Threads has joined the space has made it really interesting for other companies, Prodromou explains. Threads is bringing a really big audience, as well as big names — like @POTUS is on the fediverse…So that makes this process a lot more interesting for other organizations.
The SWF has backing from Meta and other major implementers of the ActivityPub protocol, such as Flipboard, Ghost, and Mastodon. The Ford Foundation has also granted the organization substantial funding to kickstart the project.
One of the SWF’s primary goals is to make the fediverse more user-friendly. Mastodon’s decentralized nature, with multiple servers to choose from, can be confusing for less technical users. Additionally, the platform faces the cold start problem of finding interesting people to follow.
To address these issues, the SWF plans to offer an alternative onboarding experience as a standalone product, guiding users through the initial steps of joining the fediverse. The organization also aims to inform users about various federated apps available, including those they may already be using without realizing it.
While the project does not focus on the social networking startup Bluesky, which uses its own AT Protocol, users from different platforms can communicate through bridges that are currently being built.
In addition, the SWF seeks to better support services joining the fediverse, such as Ghost, which allows for long-form text. Although the protocol currently supports long-form text without character count limits, other considerations must be taken into account, according to Prodromou.
For further information and updates on the Social Web Foundation and its initiatives, please visit SWF website.
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