| pump.io | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Original author | Evan Prodromou et al. |
| Developer | E14N |
| Initial release | October 3, 2012; 13 years ago (2012-10-03)[1] |
| Final release | |
| Written in | JavaScript (Node.js) |
| Operating system | Cross-platform |
| Type | Web application framework |
| License | Apache License 2.0 |
| Website | pumpio |
| Repository | https://github.com/pump-io/pump.io |
pump.io is an implementation of asocial networking service built on a commoncommunication protocol that can be used in afederated social network.[2] Started byEvan Prodromou, it is a follow-up to his previousmicroblogging softwareStatusNet (later merged into GNU social) and itsOStatus protocol. It is designed to be more lightweight and usable for generalactivity streams instead of the predecessor's focus on microblogging timelines, with its goal being to achieve "most of what people want from a social network".[4]
Development of the software started in September 2011,[5] with an initial version being released on October 3, 2012.identi.ca, the largest StatusNet instance at the time (which was also ran by Prodromou), converted to pump.io in June 2013.[6]
While never becoming as popular as its predecessor, the ActivityPump protocol that was designed for it was later used as a template for the creation and standardization of theActivityPub standard, and development of pump.io has since been discontinued, with the latest version of the engine being released in 2020 and further development concluding by 2022.[7]
Pump.io is written inNode.js and usesActivity Streams as the format for commands and to transfer data via a simpleREST inbox API.[6] The software package also uses aNoSQL database such asMongoDB orRedis, and requiresGraphicsMagick for uploading media.
Pump.io can easily be run on hardware with less resources, such as aRaspberry Pi or any othersingle-board computer. It can be used either with the included Web UI, or other clients via itsAPI.
As a federated social network, pump.io is not tied to a single site. Users across servers can subscribe to and communicate with each other, and if one or more individual nodes go offline the rest of the network remains intact.
| Communication protocol | |
| Purpose | Federated social networking |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Evan Prodromou et al. |
| Based on | Activity Streams |
| Influenced | ActivityPub |
ActivityPump is the protocol used by pump.io to allow for federation of user content between different pump.io instances. Compared toOStatus, its microblogging-oriented predecessor, ActivityPump uses theActivity Streams format and its vocabulary to allow for more general interactions between users, as well as to make development of alternative ActivityPump-based social networks easier for software developers, who were forced to operate within the limits of OStatus and its core technologies.
TheW3C Social Web Working Group was launched in July 2014, originally to build on theOpenSocial standard.[8] The working group later changed focus towards building on ActivityPump, using it as a base to build theActivityPub standard.[9] It was officially published as a Recommendation on January 23, 2018.[10] The protocol has since gone on to become the main standard used in thefediverse, with future development on the standard to be organized by the Social Web Community Group, a successor to the working group.