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Grant
Theme fund: NGI Zero Core
Start: 2023-10
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Software engineering

Fediverse Test Suite

Interoperability effort for W3C ActivityPub

The Fediverse is a global, standards-based, decentralized social network accessible to all and not subject to algorithmic manipulation or platform surveillance. While best known for Mastodon, an open-source alternative to X/Twitter, it already successfully connects dozens of independently developed software applications running on tens of thousands of independently operated servers and implementing feature sets that go far beyond traditional social networking.

To enable even more innovative developers to successfully connect their applications to the Fediverse, and their users to successfully interoperate with users using different software, it needs to become much simpler and cost-effective for developers to 1) know that they have implemented the relevant standards (notably ActivityPub) correctly, that their implementation is not regressing and that 2) their software indeed delivers the experience users expect from interoperability with other software developed independently by other developers.

This project brings together a group of fediverse developers to set up an automated test framework and initial test cases in an open-source project that will systematically test standards conformance, ensure meeting user expectations for interoperability of Fediverse apps, and enable a new wave of innovation based on more trustworthy infrastructure.

Run by Fediverse Developer Network (a group of Fediverse developers)

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This project was funded through the NGI0 Core Fund, a fund established by NLnet with financial support from the European Commission's Next Generation Internet programme, under the aegis of DG Communications Networks, Content and Technology under grant agreement No 101092990.