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diff --git a/doc/history.md b/doc/history.md index 3b8de6928..5d6641da2 100644 --- a/doc/history.md +++ b/doc/history.md @@ -23,11 +23,11 @@ In early 2010, Mike left Facebook, concerned at the company's increasing hold an In late 2010, the name was changed to "Friendika". The name Friendika had some symbolic issues, since the suffix was common with "swastika" and "Amerika", both having negative connotations, however the dot-com domain was available. Friendica was in fact the first choice but the 'friendica.com' domain name was already registered. It became available a year later and the project was renamed to Friendica in late 2011. -The software also took on a new role - cross-service federation; which was first introduced in August and September 2010. Federation allowed the software to "behave as" a StatusNet site and friends and messages could communicate to the other service from their own platforms. It was also hoped to provide federation with Diaspora - a project with similar scope being developed in secret in New York and first released in November of that year. Over the course of the next year, the federation ability was extended to provide integrated communications from RSS feeds, to and from email, StatusNet, Facebook, Twitter, and the emerging Diaspora project. The software provided a single "view" of your entire social space no matter what provider you or your friends used. StatusNet and Diaspora were supported natively so that one account could access any of these services. Facebook and Twitter used "API federation" which required the person to have an account on those services with which to link. +Soon after version 1 was released in July 2010 - providing basic social communications, the software also took on a new role - cross-service federation; which was first introduced in August and September 2010. Federation allowed the software to "behave as" a StatusNet site and friends and messages could communicate to the other service from their own platforms. It was also hoped to provide federation with Diaspora - a project with similar scope being developed in secret in New York and first released in November of that year. Over the course of the next year, the federation ability was extended to provide integrated communications from RSS feeds, to and from email, StatusNet, Facebook, Twitter, and the emerging Diaspora project. The software provided a single "view" of your entire social space no matter what provider you or your friends used. StatusNet and Diaspora were supported natively so that one account could access any of these services. Facebook and Twitter used "API federation" which required the person to have an account on those services with which to link. -By July 2012, Twitter and Facebook had both changed their terms of service and essentially outlawed "API federation" in the way Friendica was using it. Diaspora announced they were changing their protocol and would not maintain compatibility nor provide any warning when compatibility would break (or documentation on the proposed changes). The creator of StatusNet was also leaving his project to create something new (pump.io). As the software's primary visible feature was "federation", this created a bit of a crisis. The federated social web was crumbling. Also of concern was that independent and decentralised social websites shut down frequently leaving all their members to have to start over again on another site. Mike realised he did not want to be held hostage to the decisions that other projects and companies and independent websites make. Friendica lacked autonomy and the ability to stand on its own. +By July 2012, Twitter and Facebook had both changed their terms of service and essentially outlawed "API federation" in the way Friendica was using it. Diaspora announced they were changing their protocol and would not maintain compatibility nor provide any warning when compatibility would break (or documentation on the proposed changes). The creator of StatusNet was also leaving his project to create something new (pump.io). As the software's primary visible feature was "federation", this created a bit of a crisis. The federated social web was crumbling. Also of concern was that independent and decentralised social websites shut down frequently leaving all their members to have to start over again on another site. Mike realised he did not want to be held hostage to the decisions that other projects and companies and independent websites make. Friendica could operate on its own without attaching to these other networks, but its vision and implementation of a federated social world depended on federation with others for its project identity - so this created an identity crisis. -Mike had been working on this project for some time and there were a number of things which needed re-writing, including the base communication protocol protocol which Friendica used (DFRN or the "Distributed Friends and Relations Network" protocol). These ideas were starting to emerge as a different method of communication he called "zot". Zot began as a way to create a common language for federated websites, but there was no interest in this ability and as mentioned, the federated web was crumbling. The first version was soon scrapped and zot was re-designed and re-ignited as a streamlined communication protocol which was location-independent; e.g. not tied to any website. This would allow people to carry on unaffected if their website operator shut down temporarily or permanently. They wouldn't have to make friends all over again, and permissions of everything on the system wouldn't have to be changed to allow bob@site1 to see something that was private to him, even though he was now bob@site2. This was a serious problem with decentralisation. People moved and their online identities were lost and had to be re-created from scratch and existing relationships destroyed and had to be created all over again. +Mike had been working on this project for some time and there were a number of things which needed re-writing, including the base communication protocol which Friendica used (DFRN or the "Distributed Friends and Relations Network" protocol). These ideas were starting to emerge as a different method of communication he called "zot". Zot began as a way to create a common language for federated websites, but there was no interest in this ability and as mentioned, the federated web was crumbling. The first version was soon scrapped and zot was re-designed and re-ignited as a streamlined communication protocol which was location-independent; e.g. not tied to any website. This would allow people to carry on unaffected if their website operator shut down temporarily or permanently. They wouldn't have to make friends all over again, and permissions of everything on the system wouldn't have to be changed to allow bob@site1 to see something that was private to him, even though he was now bob@site2. This was a serious problem with decentralisation. People moved and their online identities were lost and had to be re-created from scratch and existing relationships destroyed and had to be created all over again. ##RedMatrix |