social computing/federated

About

Distributed social computing is social computing which is does not depend on a single server or operator; it can continue to operate even if some of the servers on which it is hosted are taken off the internet for any reason.

Synonyms for "distributed" in this context include "decentralized" and "peer-to-peer". "Social computing" may also be referred to as "social networking".

In Testing

These both provide a server running the software (partly as a demonstration, partly for testing, and partly as a fallback for those who don't want to install the software themselves) and also provide the software. So far, all known distributed social network services and software are provided for free, as it would be very difficult to impose a fee without driving users away.

Appleseed (site): this purports to be distributed, but after installing it and playing around with it for a few minutes, I can't see how to connect it to other nodes. This may be a feature to be added later. Other features did not seem to be working correctly. --Woozle 21:31, 18 August 2011 (EDT)

Diaspora (site): this software appears to be somewhat more difficult to install, so I have not yet installed it. One criticism is that it was written by inexperienced student programmers who have not built in adequate security; another is that it seems to have burned through its startup funding (obtained through startup.com) and lost momentum, so it may be on its way out -- although interest in distributed social networking has revived considerably in the wake of the Google+ "Real Names" fiasco. --Woozle 21:31, 18 August 2011 (EDT)

Under Development

FeedFerret is still in the concept stage.