I have started a new project: ProFed.

[mapto@masto.bg]

@cdonat @funkylab Potentially other types of posts like
- events (this is also an ambitious project, probably worth delegating to mobilizon or similar),
- professional insights (regular posts?; without MS and AI risks of shitification are not as big) 3/4

[mapto@masto.bg]

@cdonat @funkylab An interesting question is who posts jobs: do professionals do it from their profiles or you allow organisations to create profiles? Org profiles could potentially be a paid feature. There are lots of quality professionals are already on fedi, so companies might have the reason to pay. 4/4

[zenbeater@beige.party]

@cdonat

Hi! Very much interested in this. We need an ActivityPub alternative to business social networks. Nolto was such a letdown.

I can only hope you know what you are getting into in terms is potential scale! I'm no (good) coder, but I'm happy to support in other ways.

It's commendable that you are taking this slowly and first figuring out the basics together with the community.

My only suggestion would be, for now, to think of alternative names for the network. ProFed is not bad actually, but is it something that will stick into people's heads? Maybe.

[cdonat@hostsharing.coop]

@mapto @funkylab

Thank you very much for your feedback. I'll answer them in each post to keep the context.

Those two are in the list already. I've extended Person with a CV, that is not the same, but adjacent to the h-resume microformat.

For jobs I plan to start with a scraper, that feeds a federated search engine, whose result is not immediate, but a feed. That way, I can avoid some of the complexities of federated search. But it is still not trivial.

[cdonat@hostsharing.coop]

@mapto @funkylab

I don't plan automatic matching, but two way federated search engines.

As described before the results will com as a feed, you can subscribe. That gives Nodes in the search network time to e.g. check results from other servers, or rate limit them, etc. So some of the complexity of federated search can be mitigated that way.

So the match still has to be made by humans.

[cdonat@hostsharing.coop]

@mapto @funkylab

The talk about events on my website seems to be confusing. I have to change that. Those events are internal. I use an event sourced architecture, where in a simple installation all producers, and consumer of the event run in the same process. But it can be split e.g. to different Kubernetes pods for bigger installations as well.

I don't have any particularly specific plans on professional insights. My current idea is to rely on groups for that. Do you have any better ideas?

[cdonat@hostsharing.coop]

@mapto @funkylab

In the beginning we can't rely on companies, or recruiters to post jobs on a fediverse system. Most of them don't even know of it at all. So we'll use job scrapers. You will be able to set up a scraper for jobs you might be interested in, and other do similar. Then you see your, and their results, and vice versa.

The architecture does allow for recruiters, or companies to feed in their own job descriptions directly, but we can't start with only that.

1/2

[cdonat@hostsharing.coop]

@mapto @funkylab

I don'^t think, it would be reasonable to make that a paid feature, because I'm working on an open protocol. But actually I did think in a similar direction:

1. Have them pay for company-accounts on my installation of the system. They are free to set up their own instance, and others can also set up one, and sell accounts.
2. Help providers of their software to integrate with our architecture. If they use ProFed code directly, they have to accept the AGPL.

2/2

[cdonat@hostsharing.coop]

@zenbeater

Thank you very much. Yet another instance of very constructive feedback. This is the #Fediverse at its best.

I did spend some thoughts on the name.

1. It should not clash with the big existing professional network(s).
2. The name should convey, what it is.
3. It should be reasonably catchy.

Of course I'm happy to read other, maybe better options.

[zenbeater@beige.party]

@cdonat

Also worth considering:

https://symbol.fediverse.info/en

Edit: For a name, I propose GuildFed for consideration.

[cdonat@hostsharing.coop]

@zenbeater

I don't really like this symbol as a symbol for the #Fediverse

It looks like isolated snowflakes. Probably not exactly, what the fediverse is supposed to be. It is about connection, and people bold enough to leave the centralized silos. Neither snowflakes, nor isolation, isn't it?

I don't have a logo for #ProFed yet, though. Ideas are welcome, of course.

[macfranc@poliversity.it]

@cdonat in the meantime, I wish you the best of luck! We desperately need a federated "professional network," especially since LinkedIn has become a stinking swamp...

I'm not a developer, but I've seen several projects emerge in the Fediverse and have noticed some recurring patterns that lead me to offer you some advice.
Knowing other federated software is essential, but it comes AFTER, because the most important thing is to start designing your own software with maximum freedom and leaving room for all those ideas that might be conditioned by too in-depth knowledge of existing Activitypub software.

Once you've developed the core of your ideas, it becomes crucial to engage with the community to understand how to build your software. In particular:

• how some wonderful ideas were implemented,
• why some ideas proved problematic for development (too much modularity, too many development frameworks, etc.)
• why some ideas proved problematic for compatibility with other software in the Fediverse
• how to maintain compatibility with Mastodon, without being trapped and deceived by what risks becoming a "de facto standard."

Mastodon, for example, isn't fully compatible with the "page" format and doesn't offer tools for managing Activitypub groups, but "pages" and Activitypub groups are one of the most interesting tools for managing a multi-dimensional fediverse.

In this regard, I recommend taking a look at some notable examples:

1. The strengths and weaknesses of Friendica, currently the most powerful software in the Fediverse for managing groups and events.
2. The compatibility issues between software that manage groups (Friendica, Lemmy, Piefed, Mbin, and, for over a year, NodeBB; and the difficulties encountered by Pixelfed and Bonfire).
3. The compatibility issues between software that manage events (Mobilizon, Gancio, Friendica, Eventbridge for WordPress, Bonfire).
4. The cases that (in my opinion) are laying the foundations for the future of the Fediverse over the past year: NodeBB, WAFRN, and Activitypub for WordPress.

[zenbeater@beige.party]

@cdonat

Fair enough! I also like the previous logo better, through I do agree with the rationale for the new one.

[cdonat@hostsharing.coop]

@macfranc

Thank you very much. I'm still incredibly impressed by the quality of feedback I get here.

Do you have any links on the failed projects? It would be great to be able to learn more from them.

Also links about details on incompatibilities would be very helpful. I'll have to worry about Mastodon compatibility as much as possible. Simply because it is the silver back gorilla in the #Fediverse

[macfranc@poliversity.it]

@cdonat For discussions, I think the most interesting resource is https://activitypub.space

For the issues that most annoy developers, you can search the discussions on Mastodon, among the issues on Friendica and Lemmy's GitHub.

As I said, I'm not a developer, but it's clear that the discussions regarding the W3C working group on Activitypub are very important, but you surely already know that...

As for failures, there should be a whole thread dedicated to this topic, especially since the concept of failure is very relative... 😁 😄 🤣

[cdonat@hostsharing.coop]

@macfranc

Thank you again. I'll have a look.