Open Source microblogging

http://status.net/

by yannis • 16 years ago

33 19 16 years ago

status.net

est• 16 years ago

What we need is not only open source microblogging, but also distributed, decentralized microblogging network.

I suggest each personal domain's _microblogging.example.com has a TXT to show the current status.

wmf3• 16 years ago

That's what StatusNet is; it supports the OStatus protocol: http://ostatus.org/

Google is also creating a (incompatible) federated microblogging system using Atom+WebFinger+Salmon. http://www.google.com/buzz/dclinton/HeMv1AQTXS8/Envisioning-...

tbrownaw5• 16 years ago

The protocol spec links on the OStatus site seem to be dead.

carbon8• 16 years ago

What's the difference/relationship between OStatus and OpenMicroBlogging? Are they the same thing or something?

I tried looking into OMB for a side project about a year ago and had a very hard time finding any clear documentation, and just looking again now it doesn't seem any easier.

tbrownaw5• 16 years ago

Would something like this maybe work?

Decentralized microblogging protocol

------------------------------------

"Microblogging" is the generation and recipient-directed distribution of short (typically less than 140 characters) posts. There are four fundamental actions: making a post, requesting past posts, and subscribing and unsubscribing from future posts. A "post" is a piece of text produced by a user at a particular time.

Given an open connection to a microblog server, here is how each of the four actions works:

1. making a post

The user sends one line:

"post " <username> " " <secret> " " <text> CR LF

If the username or secret contains spaces, double-quotes, or backslashes, or is empty (for example, if the user connected over SSL with a client cert, there is no need for a secret), it must be enclosed in double-quotes and any double-quotes or backslashes preceeded with a backslash. The server responds with either

"ok" CR LF

"error " <message> CR LF

2. requesting past posts

The user sends one line:

"request " <requestee> " " <n> ["posts"|"seconds"] CR LF

The server responds with any number of lines of the form

"post " <timestamp> " " <text> CR LF

where <timestamp> is the time that particular post was made, as seconds since 1970-01-01 UTC, and <text> is the text of the post. There should be one line for each post made by the user <requestee> not more than <n> seconds old, or one line for each of the last <n> posts made by <requestee>. After sending all the posts it will send, the server should end with a line

"done" CR LF

3. subscribing to new posts

The user sends one line

"subscribe " <requester> " " <requestee> CR LF

to request that the server forward any posts made by <requestee> to the requester by connection to the microblog daemon on the host the connection was made from. The server responds with

"ok" CR LF

"error " <message> CR LF

4. unsubscribing from new posts

The user sends one line

"unsubscribe " <requester> " " <requestee> CR LF

to request that the server cease forwarding posts by <requestee> to <requester> at the connecting host. The server responds with

"ok" CR LF

"error " <message> CR LF

Subscribing (and unsubscribing) require a way for a microblog server to forward posts to another server. So we have a fifth action:

5. forwarding posts (server-to-server)

The origin server connects to the target server and sends one line

"forward " <requester> " " <poster> " " <timestamp> " " <text> CR LF

. The target server responds with

"ok" CR LF

"error " <message> CR LF

. In the case of an error response, the origin server may wish to pretend that the target user has unsubscribed. A server may try to forward posts to non-subscribed users, but shouldn't be surprised if it gets an error response.

...what would be good ports for this, 5544 for plain and 5545 for SSL?

simonw2• 16 years ago

Why invent a new protocol for this, rather than just using HTTP?

holizz• 16 years ago

Why is this better than OpenMicroBlogging, pubsubhubub, or whatever it is StatusNet uses? And why are you not using HTTP? And if you're making a new protocol, why have an unencrypted connection?

diN0bot• 16 years ago

an example would be great; i'm confused about what this is. the open source part indicates technology, but the site looks like some guy offering consulting to businesses.

mbrubeck• 16 years ago

http://identi.ca/ is a public microblogging site running the laconica/status.net software.

_delirium• 16 years ago

Is status.net a rebranding of laconica, or a fork of some sort?

edit: looks like a rebranding http://status.net/2009/08/28/laconica-is-now-statusnet/

Open Source microblogging

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