The Federated SNS (Fediverse) Historical Timeline

The Federated SNS (social network service/system) timeline is a simple list of its history. To put it another way, it is a record of how the Fediverse came to be. This is only one part of the larger Federated Social Web. For this list, we defined SNS as services meant for posting updates (microblogging, macro-blogging, blogging), uploading images, leaving comments, re-sharing, and liking; or simply, the Fediverse.

Protocols and services like XMPP and Matrix are part of the Federated Chat grouping. While there is an overlap with the XMPP protocol when it comes to SNS, these platforms/software were not (yet) included (e.g. Juick, Movim, Buddycloud, Jappix, and OneSocialWeb).

Focus

The focus of this list is on information with sources. If the original sources are no longer available, there should be an archive via archive.org or archive.ph.

For example. Information we remember about the Federated Social Web, but there are no longer sources available, will not be included. We may include information provided by well-known names, and key players in the fediverse, after we verify their online identity.

There are also no personal opinions on this list, and no endorsements. This list is a plain record of dates with a link to sources.

License

Creative Commons-Attribution-ShareAlike (CC-BY-SA) 4.0 International License

• Feel free to translate this work.
• Feel free to build upon this work.

As long as the conditions of CC-BY-SA 4.0 International License are met.

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First published in The Federated SNS Timeline (Fediverse History) on 2022-12-12 20:22 ACT (UTC+8).

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﷯Historical Timeline

2008

• 2008-07-02

  • Protocol: OpenMicroBlogging ^{1 2}

  • Software: Laconica was released by Evan Prodromou ^{3 4 5}

    • Protocol (first release): OpenMicroBlogging

  • Instance: Identi.ca ^{3 4 5}

    • Software: Laconica

• 2008 sometime

  • Instance: The TWiT Army Canteen

    • Software: Laconica

  • Software: OpenMicroBlogger was released ⁶

    • Protocol (first release): OpenMicroBlogging

  • Instance: OpenMicroBlogger.com

    • Software: OpenMicroBlogger

2009

• 2009-08-28
  • Laconica software was renamed to StatusNet ⁷

2010

• 2010-02-22

  • Instance: Mozilla was launched ⁸
    • Software: StatusNet

• 2010-03-04

  • OStatus protocol replaced the OpenMicroBlogging protocol ^{9 10 2}
  • StatusNet 0.9.0 switched to OStatus protocol ¹¹

• 2010-03-09

  • StatusNet Cloud Service was released in beta. The first managed instance service. ¹²

• 2010-03-14

  • “identiverse” first coined by Luke Slater ^{13 14}

• 2010-07-02

  • Protocol: DFRN (Distributed Friends and Relations Network) ^{15 16}

  • Software: Mistpark was released by Mike Macgirvin ^{15 16}

    • Protocol (first release): DFRN

• 2010-08-17

  • Mistpark added DFRN protocol federation ^{15 17}

• 2010-09-09

  • Mistpark added OpenMicroBlogging protocol federation ^{15 18}

• 2010-10-13

  • Mistpark added OStatus protocol federation ^{19 20}

• 2010-11-03

  • Mistpark was renamed to Friendika ²¹

• 2010-11-23

  • Protocol: Diaspora Federation

    • Network name: The Federation

  • Software: diaspora* was released by Dan Grippi, Ilya Zhitomirskiy, Raphael Sofaer, and Maxwell Salzberg ²²

    • Protocol (first release): Diaspora Federation

  • Instance: joindiaspora.com

    • Software: diaspora*

2011

• 2011-03-19

  • Friendika added Diaspora Federation protocol support ^{23 24 20}

• 2011-05-01

  • Mozilla instance was renamed to Social@Mozilla ⁸

• 2011-11-12

  • Friendika was renamed to Friendica ²⁵

2012

• 2012-05-25

  • “fediverse” was first coined by Mark Eckenwiler ^{26 27}

• 2012-07

  • Protocol: Zot ¹⁵

    • First decentralised and identity-aware (Nomadic identity) protocol ¹⁵

  • Software: red | Redmatrix was released by Mike Macgirvin ¹⁵

    • Protocol (first release): Zot, Diaspora Federation ²⁰

• 2012-08-27

  • diaspora* becomes a community-managed project ²⁸

• 2012-10-04

  • Protocol: ActivityPump ^{29 2}

  • Software: pump.io was released by Evan Prodromou ³⁰

    • Protocol (first release): ActivityPump

2013

• 2013-01-24

  • “fediverse” second (archived) usage by Marjolein Katsma ^{31 27}
    • no other archived copies found before 2013-01-24 other than 2012-05-25 (see above)

• 2013-06-08

  • StatusNet and Free Social were merged with GNU Social ^{32 20 2}
    • GNU Social is the surviving software name.

• 2013-07-12

  • Identi.ca switched from StatusNet to pump.io software. ^{4 2}

• 2013-11-20

  • Social@Mozilla instance was shutdown ⁸

2014

• 2014-09-06
  • W3C work on ActivityPub started ³³
    • Based on the ActivityPump protocol.

2015

• 2015 early
  • Redmatrix was renamed Hubzilla ¹⁵
    • Protocol (first release): Zot, Diaspora Federation

2016

• 2016-03-16

  • Software: Mastodon was released by Eugen Rochko ³⁴
    • Protocol (first release): OStatus ²⁰

• 2016-08-16

  • Diaspora Federation protocol becomes available as a Ruby library ^{28 35}

• 2016-10-26

  • Software: Pleroma was released by Lain ^{36 37}
    • Protocol (first release): OStatus

2017

• 2017-07-18

  • Hubzilla added ActivityPub protocol federation ^{38 39}

• 2017-07-27

  • Software: Socialhome was released by Jason Robinson ⁴⁰
    • Protocol (first release): Diaspora Federation ²⁰

• 2017-09-03

  • Mastodon added ActivityPub protocol federation ^{41 20}

2018

• 2018-01-23

  • ActivityPub became an official W3C Recommendation (web standard) ⁴²

• 2018-03-20

  • Software: PeerTube was released by Chocobozzz ⁴³
    • Protocol (first release): ActivityPub

• 2018-04-19

  • Software: Misskey was released by Syuilo ⁴⁴
    • Protocol (first release): ActivityPub

• 2018-08-17

  • Protocol: Zot6 ^{45 46}

  • Software: Zap was released by Mike Macgirvin ^{45 46}

    • Protocol (first release): Zot6

• 2018-08-23

  • Software: Osada was released by Mike Macgirvin ^{47 48}
    • Protocol (first release): Zot6, ActivityPub

• 2018-11-03

  • Software: PixelFed was released by Daniel Supernault ⁴⁹
    • Protocol (first release): ActivityPub

• 2018-11-10

  • Software: WriteFreely was released by Matt Baer ⁵⁰
    • Protocol (first release): ActivityPub

• 2018-11-18

  • Friendica added ActivityPub protocol federation ^{51 20}

2019

• 2019-02-20

  • Hubzilla upgraded Zot to Zot6 protocol ⁵²

• 2019-08-20

  • Software: Hometown was released by Darius Kazemi ⁵³
    • Protocol (first release): ActivityPub

• 2019-09-22

  • Osada was discontinued ⁵⁴

• 2019-09-22

  • Zap added ActivityPub protocol federation ⁵⁵

• 2019-10-04

  • Mastodon dropped OStatus protocol federation ⁵⁶

• 2019-10-06

  • Socialhome added ActivityPub protocol federation ⁵⁷

2020

• 2020-03-08

  • Pleroma dropped OStatus protocol federation ⁵⁸

• 2020-12-31

  • Software: BookWyrm was released by Mouse Reeve ⁵⁹
    • Protocol (first release): ActivityPub

2021

• 2021-05-11

  • Software: Rebased was released by Alex Gleason ⁶⁰
    • Protocol (first release): ActivityPub

• 2021-07-18

  • GNU Social added ActivityPub protocol federation ⁶¹

• 2021-11-07

  • Software: Guppe Groups was released Will Murphy ⁶²
    • Protocol (first release): ActivityPub

2022

• 2022-01-29

  • Software: Akkoma was released by floatingghost ⁶³
    • Protocol (first release): ActivityPub

• 2022-07-19

  • Software: Calckey was released by Kainoa Kanter ⁶⁴
    • Protocol (first release): ActivityPub

• 2022-08-05

  • Software: Foundkey was released by Norm ⁶⁵
    • Protocol (first release): ActivityPub

• 2022-11-13

  • Instance: Vivaldi Social was launched ⁶⁶
    • Software: Mastodon

• 2022-11-21

  • Software: AP Groups was released by Michael Puckett ⁶⁷
    • Protocol (first release): ActivityPub

• 2022-11-24

  • Software: Takahē was released Andrew Godwin ⁶⁸
    • Protocol (first release): ActivityPub

• 2022-12-03

  • Software: Streams was released by Mike Macgirvin ⁶⁹
    • Protocol (first release): Nomad Communications, ActivityPub ⁷⁰

On updates

This is a living project. I will update it depending on the new information and my available time. If you have information available, kindly provide the relevant links for verification. If I can verify (rel=me; keyoxide; GPG; and other ways to verify your identity) that you are the developer of a protocol, standard, platform/software, a link is no longer needed (though still preferable).

Corrections would have to be clarified. Like, how is the correction more accurate than the currently sourced information? Or, how can we reconcile the correction with the currently sourced information? Of course, if you are the developer, and I can verify your identity, your information holds more weight (e.g. you prefer your software's release date to be later than the current information).

Submit your information in the issues section.