For years we've been using an alternate protocol between our own sites because ActivityPub wasn't capable of providing the services we require for federated communications. This is how we've supported things like nomadic identity long before the concept was even viable in ActivityPub. Now that I've got a usable framework for nomadic identity over ActivityPub, I went back and had a closer look at what else I might need to add to ActivityPub in order to finally put the Nomad protocol out to pasture.
I've mentioned transport encryption in the past; but that's only a big deal if you don't trust HTTPS security or your government. For true nomadic identity, we would also be sending sync packets so that your alternate identities are kept up to date with everything you do on other instances which share that identity. We'll also be offering a partially shared identity as mentioned in previous posts. This won't be a true clone but will instead be a way to link your various fediverse profiles in a cohesive way - like we do with our Fediverse Identity Manager. These are all pretty easy - just a 'Simple Matter Of Programming®'.
But I overlooked a real biggie. Permissions, permissions, permissions. A concept completely lacking in ActivityPub; and which can't be discussed rationally with other fediverse developers because folks raised on Twitter don't even understand the concept.
