Fediverse

• fediverse

Blend of federation +‎ universe. The earliest known mention of fediverse on Twitter was in 2012.[1] It has been in use since.[2] The earliest known use of fediverse in W3C was in 2013.[3]

• IPA^(key): /ˈfɛdɪvɜː(ɹ)s/

the Fediverse

1. (Internet) The distributed social network of federated services using open standard communication protocols, especially ActivityPub and historically OStatus. [from 2012]
   • 2020, Jessica Megarry, The Limitations of Social Media Feminism: No Space of Our Own, Springer Nature, →ISBN, page 303:

     While there is clearly a strong appetite amongst women to move away from the digital giants, Spinster is hardly free from their reach, or indeed from hostile men within the wider Fediverse network.

   • 2022, “Decentralized networks vs the trolls”, in Hoda Mahmoudi et al., editors, Fundamental Challenges to Global Peace and Security, Springer Nature, →ISBN, page 149:

     The migration of Gab marked a major test for the Fediverse. Because no one authority controlled the policies of the network, it would be impossible to bar Gab with a single sweeping action, the way centralized social networks such as Facebook or Twitter might.

   • 2022 November 14, Will Knight, “The Man Behind Mastodon Built It for This Moment”, in Wired‎, →ISSN:

     Instead of creating a single unified platform, the the^[sic] protocol that Mastodon uses, called ActivityPub, allows anyone to use open-source software to boot up a server that hosts a Twitter-style community with its own rules. Together those servers, and other, non-Mastodon ones, form a collective of interlinked communities dubbed the “Fediverse.”

• Fediverse, Federation and Free Network have historically been used interchangeably. However, in recent usage, Fediverse refers more specifically to the existing network of ActivityPub services such as Mastodon.
• Convention on capitalisation is unknown; both Fediverse and fediverse are commonly used.