OStatus is an

open standard An open standard is a standard that is openly accessible and usable by anyone. It is also a prerequisite to use open license, non-discrimination and extensibility. Typically, anybody can participate in the development. There is no single definitio ...

for federated

microblogging Microblogging is a form of social network that permits only short posts. They "allow users to exchange small elements of content such as short sentences, individual images, or video links",. Retrieved June 5, 2014 which may be the major reason for ...

, allowing users on one website to send and receive status updates with users on another website. The standard describes how a suite of

open protocol Open or OPEN may refer to: Music * Open (band), Australian pop/rock band * The Open (band), English indie rock band * ''Open'' (Blues Image album), 1969 * ''Open'' (Gotthard album), 1999 * ''Open'' (Cowboy Junkies album), 2001 * ''Open'' (YF ...

s, including

Atom Every atom is composed of a nucleus and one or more electrons bound to the nucleus. The nucleus is made of one or more protons and a number of neutrons. Only the most common variety of hydrogen has no neutrons. Every solid, liquid, gas, a ...

, Activity Streams, WebSub,

Salmon Salmon () is the common name for several commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the family Salmonidae, which are native to tributaries of the North Atlantic (genus '' Salmo'') and North Pacific (genus '' Onco ...

, and

WebFinger WebFinger is a protocol specified by the Internet Engineering Task Force IETF that allows for discovery of information about people and things identified by a URI. Information about a person might be discovered via an acct: URI, for example, whic ...

, can be used together, which enables different microblogging server implementations to route

status update ''Status Update'' is a 2018 American direct-to-video teen comedy romance film, directed by Scott Speer, from a screenplay by Jason Filardi. It stars Ross Lynch and Olivia Holt. The film had a limited release on March 23, 2018, before being rel ...

s between their

user Ancient Egyptian roles * User (ancient Egyptian official), an ancient Egyptian nomarch (governor) of the Eighth Dynasty * Useramen, an ancient Egyptian vizier also called "User" Other uses * User (computing), a person (or software) using an ...

s back-and-forth, in near real-time.

History

OStatus federation was first possible between StatusNet installations, such as Status.net and Identi.ca, although Identi.ca later switched to pump.io. As of June 2013, a number of other

applications and

content management systems A content management system (CMS) is computer software used to manage the creation and modification of digital content (content management).''Managing Enterprise Content: A Unified Content Strategy''. Ann Rockley, Pamela Kostur, Steve Manning. New ...

had announced that they intended to implement the standard. That same month, it was announced StatusNet would be merged into the GNU social project, along with Free Social. 6 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 to a number of new server packages that aimed to be compatible with GNU Social using OStatus, including

Mastodon A mastodon ( 'breast' + 'tooth') is any proboscidean belonging to the extinct genus ''Mammut'' (family Mammutidae). Mastodons inhabited North and Central America during the late Miocene or late Pliocene up to their extinction at the end of the ...

(until October 2019), Pleroma, and postActiv.

Standards work

In January 2012, a W3C Community Group was opened to maintain and further develop the OStatus standard. However, this was eclipsed by the work of the W3C Federated Social Web Working Group, launched in July 2014. 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.

Projects using OStatus

Current

Projects in active development using OStatus for federation. *

Friendica Friendica (formerly Friendika, originally Mistpark) is a free and open-source software distributed social network. It forms one part of the Fediverse, an interconnected and decentralized network of independently operated servers. Features Friendi ...

* GNU social (formerly StatusNet)

References

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External links