Something seems to be coalescing across the web. Strands are coming from different areas and angles but meeting in the middle. I'm talking about the idea of a single timeline – and that doesn't mean just using one social network.
One timeline for each user. Lots of choice, but one timeline. And there has to be a basic agreement on what goes in that timeline. What are the elements of a message. A way to define more types, without going to a standards body, which always crush the individual in favor of the bigco's. Something minimal, orderly, easy to document, lots of example code.
Craig Hockenberry, from The Iconfactory, said something similar:
One thing I've noticed is that everyone is going to great lengths to make something that replaces the clients we've known for years. That's an excellent goal that eases a transition in the short-term, but ignores how a new open standard (ActivityPub) can be leveraged in new and different ways.
Federation exposes a lot of different data sources that you'd want to follow. Not all of these sources will be Mastodon instances: you may want to stay up-to-date with someone's Micro.blog, or maybe another person's Tumblr, or someone else's photo feed. There are many apps and servers for you to choose from.
It feels like the time is right for a truly universal timeline.
The current buzz is around ActivityPub (and its poster child, Mastodon) but it doesn't have to be based on this; any way for systems to talk to each other and get information from point A to points B, C, D... Write once, broadcast to many, whatever they are using. Conversely, you need to be able to get stuff from B, C & D all fed back to A – again, no matter what everyone is using. Like blog posts in a feed reader. I've always said that I like micro.blog because it acts as a social feed reader rather than just a siloed network.
I've taken a look at ActivityPub on a couple of occasions and found it far too confusing to even consider implementing it. As much as I like the IndieWeb ideals a lot of them are also beyond me.
Dave has been reiterating how RSS is a way of moving data around the web and that current uses are too narrow-focused. It's great for subscribing to blogs and podcasts but could be used for so much more with a bit of vision.
I was curious, therefore, to see Andy Sylvester mention he was working on something with the working title "MyStatusTool" – a Twitter like interface powered by RSS and using rssCloud to get everything updated. He may be starting with "a text box to enter a short post" but the potential applications are so much wider.
One to watch.
