Flipboard is simply a 2010 aggregator of news and social media content, which boasted 145 million active users per period in 2020. In February 2023, the platform announced work on integration with the Fediversum, and from now on its users can observe users of Mastodon, Threads and another federalized platforms.
Flipboard's presence at Fediversum began on February 28, 2023, with an announcement the creation of the Mastodon flipboard.social server, and the ability to connect the Flipboard account to the Mastodon account, which allows you to usage your account with the Flipboard application, as well as interacting between platforms, as adding an entry from the Fediversum to the Warehouse, i.e. a collection of content that is its key function. It was just the beginning. At the end of 2023, some profiles on the Flipboard began to federation, which allows you to observe them from the account level on Plerom, Mastodon and another platforms implementing ActivityPub. From now on, we can observe authoritative profiles in Fediversum including Pitchfork or Kotaku.
In addition to developing Flipboard integration with Fediversum, CEO of the company — Mike McCue — leads podcast Dot Socialin which he talks to invited guests about how open standards specified as ActivityPub change the Internet. In erstwhile episodes, Mike spoke with Rachel Lambert and Peter Cottle of Meta, among others, about plans for the presence of Threads in Fediversum, with Ian Forrester of the BBC investigation and improvement Department, as well as with the creator of Mastodon Eugene Rochko, co-author of the specification ActivityPub Evan Prodromou or with Ryan Barrett, the creator of bridges connecting various social networks. On Flipboard's blog, in the tab Fedversebearing a subtitle The Internet’s Next Wave, we can besides read lyrics about how to start utilizing the Fediversum, or how to find interesting content there. Flipboard does not just come for the user base independent Fediversum and Threads — McCue shows that she believes in the future of social media interoperability.
From now on, Flipboard users can observe users of another fed platforms — article on platform blog lists, among others, the account of the president of the United States on Threads or writer Taylor Lorenz present on mastodon.social, but there are many more Fediversum users. People whose Flipboard accounts are Federated (which is presently being tested on a limited group of users who can submit in a peculiar form) can comment and enjoy entries with the remainder of the Fediversum, participating in full, two-way communication. It is so expected that in the future all Flipboard users will be able to interact bilaterally with users of another platforms implementing ActivityPub,
The work of companies specified as Flipboard, Meta or average on the presence in the Fediversum, although they can origin controversy among users, including concerns about the usage of practice embrace, utmost and extreme, make federalised social media more accessible and can make us meet in 1 network with friends not curious in the decentralised Internet.
Text author: @mklijk
