Introducing the Federation Advocacy and Advancement Initiative

[secondtruth]

The Federation Advocacy and Advancement Initiative (FAAI) is a sub-initiative and working group of the Open WebTech Association (OWTA) aimed at promoting the integration of federation features into more applications and advancing existing federation features, protocols, and standards. This initiative seeks to encourage developers and project maintainers to consider and implement federation capabilities, fostering a more interconnected and decentralized web ecosystem.

Goals

1. Advocate for federation in all kinds of apps, where it would be useful.
2. Propose improvements to existing federation features and standards.
3. Foster collaboration between teams and communities of federated apps.
4. Provide resources for implementing and improving federation features.

Our Approach

FAAI is committed to:

• Protocol Neutrality: We don't prioritize or aim to replace any specific protocol. Instead, we promote interoperability between various protocols and standards.

• Seamless Integration: We support efforts to create seamless connections between different federated systems, so that they are able to interact with each other.

• Collaborative Development: We aim to foster collaboration between teams and communities developing different federated technologies, recognizing that diverse approaches can contribute to a richer, more robust federated ecosystem.

Achievements

Apache Answer Federation Proposal

As FAAI's first achievement, we submitted a proposal to add federation capabilities to the open-source Q&A platform Apache Answer. This proposal received much positive feedback from the community and the project team.

For the full discussion and community responses, please visit the proposal discussion.

AnswerOverflow Federation Proposal (Planned)

FAAI is planning to draft a proposal to implement federation support in AnswerOverflow, aiming to enable data sharing between multiple interconnected AO instances.

AnswerOverflow is a project that indexes Discord help channels into Google, offering the benefits of facilitating community growth, reducing repetitive questions, and enhancing the user experience for adopters of projects. It provides additional features like powerful analytics, improved help channels by enabling to mark questions as solved, and offering simple menus to control settings.

Future Plans

• Collaborate with other organizations and initiatives promoting decentralized web technologies.
• Create a directory of open-source projects that could benefit from federation features.
• Develop a comprehensive guide for implementing federation in different types of applications.

Collaborations and Partnerships

FAAI aims to collaborate with various groups and organizations working on decentralized and federated technologies. Some potential partners include:

• Commune – Developers of "Weird" and other projects focused on decentralized web technologies.
• Federated Diversity Foundation – A collective where Social Coding meets the Fediverse, helping empower Free Software Development and take the Fediverse to new heights.
• Fediverse Developer Network – A community for developers focused on building and enhancing projects within the Fediverse.
• Fediverse.Party – An informational hub about federated networks and applications.
• IndieWeb – A people-focused alternative to the corporate web, promoting ownership and control of one's online presence.
• Spritely Institute – Researching and developing decentralized technologies for a more free and creative internet.
• ActivityPub Community – The community behind the ActivityPub protocol, which is widely used for federation.
• Matrix.org Foundation – Overseeing the development of the Matrix protocol for decentralized communication.
• W3C Solid Community Group – Working on advancing web decentralization through the Solid project.

These collaborations can help FAAI leverage existing expertise, reach a wider audience, and contribute to the broader ecosystem of federated and decentralized technologies.

Resources

• Why Federation? – An article explaining the benefits and importance of federation in web technologies.
• Federated Webrings – An article envisioning the concept of webrings as collaborative and federated applications.
• Weird Netizens – An article discussing the reclamation of digital identity and promoting digital autonomy.
• The Agentic Fediverse – A proposal for a new kind of federation, envisioning a "second generation" iteration of the concept currently established with ActivityPub.

Get Involved

If you're interested in contributing to the Federation Advocacy and Advancement Initiative or have ideas for projects that could benefit from federation, please participate in this discussion or join the #federation channel on our Discord server.

You can help shape the future of decentralized web technologies!