Flickr weighs help for ActivityPub, the social protocol powering Twitter different Mastodon • TechCrunch

On the heels of Tumblr’s resolution to combine with ActivityPub — the social protocol powering the open-source Twitter different Mastodon and others — it seems that photo-sharing web site Flickr is now contemplating doing the identical. Flickr CEO Don MacAskill as we speak started to actively ballot customers about whether or not or not they’d prefer to see Flickr help the protocol, too. If it moved ahead with this plan, Flickr can be the newest bigger firm to decide to becoming a member of the “fediverse” — the interconnected group of impartial servers throughout the globe operating free, open-source software program that enables their customers to speak and join with each other.

The idea presents a problem to modern-day social networks managed by firms — or billionaires like Elon Musk.

ActivityPub is a key part to the fediverse, powering not solely Mastodon, whose reputation has grown within the wake of Musk’s Twitter acquisition, but additionally different different social platforms together with the Instagram-like Pixelfed, video streaming service PeerTube, and others. If Flickr have been so as to add help for ActivityPub, it could now not perform solely as a photo-sharing web site, however would turn into part of a bigger net of social networks the place customers may discover, comply with and interact with each other throughout platforms with out having to create separate accounts for every service they select to make use of.

MacAskill had already been weighing Flickr’s path with regard to the fediverse earlier than as we speak. Final week, following the Tumblr announcement, the Flickr CEO had tweeted that his firm had been internally discussing ActivityPub help, too.

“It is likely to be proper up our alley,” MacAskill stated on the time.

However in a later tweet, he cautioned that taking this path would imply having to deprioritize different tasks on Flickr’s roadmap — together with these clients stated they needed. That’s why it is smart that the exec would attempt to gauge shopper demand for the protocol’s adoption earlier than really making a dedication.

MacAskill as we speak noted that there “seems to be lots of curiosity” in seeing Flickr transfer ahead with ActivityPub, however he needed to first gauge the kind of curiosity extra particularly.

To this point, the outcomes of a poll he printed on Twitter appear to be promising. As of the time of writing, solely 8.9% of respondents have stated “no” to the thought of ActivityPub integration.

38.2% stated sure, however provided that it was free. In the meantime, two different teams indicated that ActivityPub help may turn into one thing that inspired them to pay for Flickr, as 37.4% stated sure, and stated they already pay for Flickr, whereas 15.4% stated sure, and stated they could pay for Flickr if the protocol was supported.

MacAskill ran the identical ballot on Mastodon, the place the curiosity in the direction of making the help part of a free product is to this point operating even greater, at 47%. 26% and 22% stated sure and so they even already pay for Flickr or would contemplate doing so if ActivityPub was added, respectively.

Although an older web site, Flickr as we speak claims it’s utilized by greater than 60 million individuals per thirty days, in keeping with its Jobs listings web page. That will deliver a big variety of new individuals to the fediverse, if the corporate chooses so as to add help for ActivityPub.

Flickr, after all, may use a function that inspired extra buyer engagement and adoption. As soon as a outstanding firm within the Net 2.0 period, Flickr finally misplaced out to different social photo-sharing platforms, like Fb and Instagram, in addition to to extra utilitarian photo-hosting providers, like Google Pictures and iCloud.

In April 2018, Flickr offered to SmugMug and shortly the corporate diminished the bounds free of charge utilization, started threatening to delete images from non-paying customers, and urged customers to assist it discover extra paying subscribers to maintain it afloat. Earlier this yr, Flickr additionally started paywalling the flexibility to add NSFW images to its web site.

In newer days, MacAskill has claimed Flickr is “wholesome and rising once more,” and famous it has established a non-profit to protect its pictures within the occasion that the corporate once more falls on onerous occasions. Flickr didn’t reply to a request for touch upon its ActivityPub plans.