Tag: social web

Twitter ends all free public API, switches to paid access

Twitter to end free access to its API in Elon Musk’s latest monetization push

“Putting a cap on free API usage could also stop firms working around detecting the spread of misinformation on Twitter.”

That right there is the money shot. Misinformation is much more freely distributed today on the platform than at any time last year without the full trust and safety team and council working to suppress them. Then again the definition of what constitutes misinformation seems to have changed within the company.

The other point is why would any self respecting developer jump right back in after being suddenly shut out without prior or even any official communication on the sudden change of policy?

Anybody who still trusts the company to do anything right must be kidding themselves.

If anything, third party developers might be even more inclined now, if not highly encouraged, to develop for other platforms that offer free or open source API *cough*Mastodon*cough*.

Mastodon isn’t the only open platform in play that takes advantage of the ActivityPub protocol. There are plenty others such as Friendica, Pleroma, CalcKey, etc., that connect through this protocol, which means the playground for software developers and designers is wide open. Even WordPress, Tumblr, and Flickr have ActivityPub on the roadmap for this year.

There’s far more interest now on the federated networks or the open social web than ever before and networks that stay closed are going to miss out.

One Fediverse App to Rule Them All?

A few days ago I said, “should one build an all encompassing Activity Pub app? I don’t think so because it would end up as a big confusing hot mess. Apps optimized for individual services are still the way to go  in my opinion.”

This was in reference to the different platforms like Friendica, micro.blog, and Pixelfed. I don’t think one app should be able to cover all of the platforms because it would be a terrible app – jack of all trades master of none, thing.

However, having used Akkoma, Takahe, and Misskey, it seems that while there are platforms that serve different purposes and functions, a lot of the fediverse platforms can be considered different versions of the same thing.

Like Twitter, Pownce, Jaiku, and BrightKite (OMG, anyone remember BrightKite?), they all were meant to have the same core function but grew differently with different features because the founders each had different priorities and what they considered important. Twitter was probably the most basic of them all.

For all the platforms that share a large overlap like Mastodon, Pleroma, Akkoma, MissKey, CalcKey, etc., it might make sense for a single app like Ivory, Mammoth, or Ice Cubes, to accommodate them all or for the platforms to implement more shared API and increase interoperability. This should allow people who are on the overlapping platforms to use the same app and increase the market for the app.

Not sure about the technical requirements to have all the similar platforms be much more interoperable but it looks like it’s entirely possible.

Social Media Diversity Gets Reinvigorated

I think I’m pretty happy that one of the major things that came out of 2022 was the implosion of Twitter which opened up a whole range of other destinations for the social web that may have always been there but saw little attention.

The social space is exciting again with people flocking to places like Mastodon, Post, and Tumblr and the federated space is getting far more attention than ever. 

In a lot of ways it seemed to have brought back some of the web development energy of the 2000s as people began to rethink what’s possible.

Much of the development back then was fueled by VC money which ultimately halted many innovations in pursuit of growth and dominance so it remains to be seen how this new energy is going to be funded. I have doubts that crowdfunding will be able to generate the necessary resources without being supported by other forms. 

What that would be I guess is something that we’ll eventually find out in the coming years if the stance against capitulating to VC demands becomes more widely adopted.