Federation protocols

Hi there,

I'm #NewHere, to use a popular cliche on federated social networks. I am an 
active user of Diaspora, Friendica and StatusNet (soon to be converted to 
pump.io).

I am also a stern proponent of free and open federation protocols and 
networks.

For a while now I have seen Friendica as a great project, allowing the 
different federated social networks (Diaspora and OStatus-compatible) to be 
able to communicate and for a single, huge federated network.

I am however baffled by the different approaches and protocols being used in 
distributed social network projects. With the introduction of Red, pump.io, 
tent.io and other projects not exactly compatible with protocols already 
utilised, I feel we are not heading in the right direction.

What I feel we need is a single, extensible, well-defined protocol, or suite 
of protocols, that we can build a single, compatible, interoperable federated 
social network upon.

Right now we have OStatus, Diaspora's protocol, DFRN (used by Friendica) and 
the protocols that are used by Red, tent.io and pump.io, that I am not even 
sure are properly defined anywhere.

If we do not get together and devise a single, workable protocol for all such 
services to use, the Network Effect will always work against us, instead of 
working for us:
http://rys.io/en/88

So my questions are:
 - is this the right list to start this discussion? 
 - is there any work done in this regard?
 - if some, where are we on that road?

-- 
Pozdrawiam
Michał "rysiek" Woźniak

Fundacja Wolnego i Otwartego Oprogramowania