Distributed Technologies?
What Are Distributed Technologies?
Distributed technologies (aka the fediverse) allow an application to be run by different individuals, yet still communicate with each other seamlessly.
Imagine Twitter. If Twitter goes down today, no one can access or use it. If Twitter bans you from the platform, there’s nothing you can do. That’s because the system belongs to them, and it is centralized by design.
Now imagine a different kind of platform. This platform lets people post messages just like Twitter. But anyone can install this software on their own computer and share it with friends or family. Even better, all of these independently hosted “Twitters” can talk to each other.
So if someone posts a tweet on my Twitter server, it can be visible on Ahmet’s server too.
The system behind this technology is called ActivityPub.
Reasons why distributed technologies are better: No central authority, no censorship, and most importantly, they are based on free and open-source software.
Examples of Distributed Technologies
- NextCloud: Alternative to Google Drive and iCloud
- Write Freely: For publishing blog posts
- Mastodon: Alternative to Twitter (X)
- Diaspora: Alternative to Facebook
- PeerTube: Alternative to YouTube