Hurray! They are reinventing the wheel! So that we all can be drivimg from now on. A miracle ...

#internet #socialMedia #hubzilla #nomadicIdentity

Tim Schlotfeldt ⚓?️‍? wrote the following post Mon, 14 Oct 2024 08:29:53 +0200

This thread is well worth reading. It's about the #W3C standard DID: "Decentralized identifiers (DIDs) are a new type of identifier that enables verifiable, decentralized digital identity.". The take away: We already had a solution for Decentralized identifiers but … #NIH.

My #Hubzilla had this (here it is called "Nomadic Identity") and it rescued my fediverse identity.

It starts with this posting:

glyn (@underlap@fosstodon.org)

What would it take to add decentralised identity (e.g. W3C DIDs) to the Fediverse? Who is already working on this?

Bluesky's AT Protocol is a great proof of concept, but probably isn't the endgame. Abstracting Fediverse identity using hostnames and WebFinger is another useful experiment, but again probably not the endgame.

#DecentralizedIdentity #ATProtocol #W3C #ActivityPub

The Folks from #Hubzilla are stepping in and explain, that this problem was already solved even before #ActivityPub existed:

Jupiter Rowland

@glyn Decentralised identity has been available for longer than Mastodon, let alone ActivityPub. Only that it is known as "nomadic identity" here.

It was first implemented by Friendica creator @mike@unfediverse.com Macgirvin ?️ in the Zot protocol in 2011 and in a Friendica fork named Red in 2012, later renamed into the Red Matrix, eventually reworked and renamed into Hubzilla in 2015.

Proof: This Hubzilla channel of mine actually simultaneously resides on two servers.

(Almost) everything that Mike has made afterwards, forks and forks of forks of Hubzilla, used to have or still have nomadic identity implemented.

#ActivityPub #Mastodon #Fediverse

the nomadic identity and the possibility to create clones in hubzilla is really nice! the main channel is down for maintenance but i still can socmed as much as i want.

i just have to remember to make a backup of my channel from time to time.

very nice ... :-)

#hubzilla #fediverse #NomadicIdentity

Oh, Zot! Nomadic Identity is Coming to ActivityPub: This could change the Fediverse forever

Years before there was Mastodon and even ActivityPub, there was Mike Macgirvin who created the Zot protocol, which Hubzilla runs on. One of Hubzilla’s most amazing features (apart from also integrating with Activity and the Fediverse, and having channel relays) is also the nomadic identity that Mike envisioned.

Nomadic Identity is a concept pioneered by Mike Macgirvin, a longtime builder in the Fediverse. If you’ve ever used Friendica, Hubzilla, or Streams, you’ve used software written by this guy.

Nomadic identity is true portability of your identity, along with posts, followers, etc to a new location.

I’ve actually used nomadic identity when I hosted my own Hubzilla instance, and I moved my hosting to a different provider where I could not host my Hubzilla easily in a Docker environment. I resumed my Hubzilla on the secondary channel, and changed that to my primary channel. It just worked.

Hubzilla, with its Zot protocol, also allows for multiple channels on the same account (think of them as separate feeds each with its own profile) which can be used for work, home, a hobby, etc.

I’ll be really happy to see Mike applying his mind to improving ActivityPub as I know he had some fundamental principles which he got right, and which ActivityPub still needs. How, where, and when I don’t know as I remember Mike says way back, that is was easier to create the Zot protocol anew, than to change Friendica’s existing protocol.

Identity Management is one of those pieces of plumbing that’s surprisingly shaky still on ActivityPub but also across all social networks and requires serious consideration. For example, you also cannot migrate your identity from Facebook to say Tumblr at all. I know that Sir Tim Berners-Lee was also working on the same problem, with his POD identity being central for each person, but he has been busy on it for many years and there is no sign at all of any early adoption on any existing social network.

So, if Mike can retrofit his concepts into ActivityPub, then he will likely help cement an important new building block for the Fediverse and all its users.

See https://wedistribute.org/2024/03/activitypub-nomadic-identity/
#Blog, #activitypub, #nomadicidentity, #socialnetworks, #technology

There are days in which the #fediverse is fun, and there are days that leave one ... with a strange feeling of being lost in overwhelming complexity and too many moving parts.
(Yes, I really tried to use #nomadicidentity in #hubzilla... 😔)

#hubzilla crowd, just out of curiosity: Where do I want to start reading to understand how #nomadicidentity works in 2023, and how to make use of it? #hubzilla