Why build on StatusNet?

Recently there has been a rush to build FAIF social web applications that are federated and provide autonomy to the user. There are good reasons why anyone looking to implement a federated social networking software should build on StatusNet rather than start from scratch.


 * 1) StatusNet implements the OStatus federation protocol which can be used for more than just status updates, anything that can be made an atom entry
 * 2) It already implements everything that a typical social networking software should. Users, Groups, tags, people tags etc.
 * 3) It is built to be scalable with caching and other smartness in speed determining places
 * 4) You could accomplish a lot just by changing the structure and view of the Notice object to be more than just a microblog message
 * 5) Other things you get for free:
 * 6) An awesome plugin system
 * 7) An API framework, if you want to use it
 * 8) XMPP & chat interfaces (can be used to feed big consumers like search engines & with hacks, for federation)
 * 9) Feeds (Atom, RSS 1.0, 2.0) FAOF
 * 10) An already huge userbase you can instantly connect your servers with

More notes.
 * 1) Evan's take on this :)
 * 2) @ianmcorvidae will be implementing a last.fm clone (but federated) on StatusNet using the plugin infrastructure, this is a GSoC 2010 project. That should be your proof of concept. ;)
 * 3) a rant on implementing anything on StatusNet (needs reviewing, but gives a good idea about how awesome StatusNet is)