I can resume this fragmentation issue by a simple sentence that I'm
   saying more and more these days : "If you have a problem, do not write
   an API, write a protocol".

   The social federation protocol is already here : it's XMPP. And yes it
   can support everything a social network has to offer (feeds,
   subscriptions, profiles, contact list…). There is already millions of
   users on the XMPP network, and you can easily find several clients on
   all the plateforms for it.

   I'm working since 2008 on the Movim project ([1]https://movim.eu/), to
   build a full, good looking, "decentralized" (federated) and open source
   social network on XMPP. And believe me, yes it's possible.

   I like the link that the guy made in the presentation with Firefox. Why
   Firefox surpassed IE ? Because they just choose to implement the W3C
   standards and try to improve it (and they offer some nice features
   too).

   Diaspora, GNU Social, Friendica are not trying to do that, they create
   their own "proprietary" protocol to talk between each other and after
   that face the same issues than all the others network : "Hey, we are
   not compatibles ! Lets create an API and the other networks will be
   compatible with us".

   So keep calm and implement XMPP ;)

   Tim

   On dim., nov. 2, 2014 at 2:17 , tigrutigru@gmail.com wrote:

   I've been to FSCONS today session: "Blurry line between private service
   and public infrastructure"

   covering a problem with decentralised, federated services and platforms
   which can be used as an alternative to FB.

   There are many (Diaspora, Frendica, GNU social etc) , [2]but use
   incompatible protocols, making it hard for users to choose, and
   fragmenting the community, making it look weak and small. Another
   problem is that most of them don't have client API's and do have a
   sorry-looking interface.

   However, if those platforms would be compatible and talk to each other
   - in a session it was called "The Federation", this problem of
   fragmentation and poor user database is solved.

   So far is the most promising solution I heard which can help to get
   people of Facebook hook, or at least use it when absolutely necessary,
   not to post your entire life on it.

   Most "evil" services we use, just need a decent easy to use functional
   alternative.

   In the actual lecture the federation of decentralised social networks
   is described from the 28th minute
   [3]https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=R_uvYp3fog4

   On 1 Nov 2014, at 17:00, [4]cypherpunks-request@cpunks.org wrote:

     Re: [tor-talk] Facebook brute forcing hidden services

References

   1. https://movim.eu/
   2. http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-fedsocweb/2013May/0058.html
   3. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=R_uvYp3fog4
   4. mailto:cypherpunks-request@cpunks.org