Darius KazemiSep 14, 2024

Excited to announce that I will be at #fediforum today speed demo-ing my latest project: an ActivityPub data observatory!

This observatory does not collect any user data or metadata. Instead I am looking at the *shape* (aka schema) of data being sent around the fediverse. This will let software devs ask questions like "How is a Mastodon 4.2.0 image post formatted differently from a Misskey 2024.7.0 image post?"

And we'll get real answers based on data rather than on poor documentation.

Show threadJenniferplusplusSep 14, 2024
@darius how do you collect it? Do you just follow a bunch of actors on different software?
Show threadDarius KazemiSep 14, 2024
@jenniferplusplus right now I am subscribing to a public relay. I will probably turn this thing INTO a relay so that if server admins want to donate their data they can consider this a relay that just... doesn't send their data anywhere and instead records its shape
Show threadJenniferplusplus
@darius that seems like a kind of limited sample. It limits you to public messages that even can be sent to a relay. You'll never know what non-public messages look like, or messages from software that doesn't support relays.
Sep 14, 2024 at 4:10pmWeb
Show threadDarius KazemiSep 14, 2024
@jenniferplusplus yes. I have to limit my sample if I'm not going to be a surveillance entity. It's a trade off I'm willing to accept