The Fediverse (a portmanteau of “federation” and “universe”) is an ensemble of interconnected servers that speak to each other using the ActivityPub protocol.

This protocol allows various kinds of webapplications to interact with each other. If you have an account on one server (or “instance” as we’d like to them) you can speak to everyone on any other server.

ActivityPub has many implementations for all kinds of purposes. For example:

• Mastodon, Pleroma or Misskey for social networking.
• Owncast for livestreaming.
• Pixelfed for photos.
• Nextcloud for files.
• Peertube for videos.
• Funkwhale for music.

The Fediverse at Jiyu Software

As a free software company being opposed to mainstream centralized social media it probably does not come as a surprise. So a lot is being done with the fediverse at Jiyu Software.

Jiyu Software runs 2 public fediverse instances, CDROM.tokyo and MiniDisc.tokyo. As you can probably tell both instances have retro Japanese theming based around deprecated media formats.

These instances are open to the public and anyone, including you, can register an account and join the fediverse.

These public services are funded through donations through LiberaPay and the Store (In development, coming soon).

CDROM.tokyo

This instances was started in 2020 when my favorite instance was shut down, so I decided to make my own. CDROM currently runs on Akkoma, a fork of the popular Pleroma software that integrates some additional features.

With over 750 registered users as of writing this it is currently the biggest fediverse service that I host and maintain.

MiniDisc.tokyo

MiniDisc is essentially a spinoff of CDROM.tokyo that has a similar vibe and the same type of community. The difference between MiniDisc and CDROM is simply that MiniDisc runs different software with a different interface. MiniDisc is currently running FoundKey, a western fork of the Japanese Misskey software.

This instance currently has over 550 registered users.

Fedi.jiyu.dev

Fedi.jiyu.dev is the official Fediverse instance of Jiyu Software. This is not a public instance and is used only for professional purposes. Here announces and updates surrounding Jiyu Software will be posted.

If you have a fediverse account, make sure to follow @ricardo@fedi.jiyu.dev!

CDROM’s Owncast server

There’s also an Owncast instance over at owncast.cdrom.tokyo. This is a place for my personal livestream. Here I will go sometimes go live and play video games, do some programming or show some server maintance.

I like livestreaming and interacting with the fediverse community through this channel. So make sure to follow this channel to receive an update when I go live.