FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

What is OpenAutonomy?

OpenAutonomy is a platform for connecting web applications across the internet. It offers social networking, cloud storage, RSS aggregation, and messaging.

How can I use it?

As it contains multiple capabilities, it can be used in many ways, leveraging those specific capabilities or using them all together.
Social networking: Much like other social networks, there are friends (in what is called the "trusted list"), status feed updates, and comments.
Cloud storage: Much like other cloud storage providers, OpenAutonomy provides a way to store, organize, and share files on the internet.
RSS aggregation: OpenAutonomy can create syndicated feeds for news sites or other information sources and you can view them aggregated among other social activity in your social feed.

Who is it for?

Those who are interested in having more control over how they interact online.
Privacy-conscious users who still want to participate in social networking.
Software developers who want the freedom to extend the services they are using, on the internet.
Curious users who want to experiment with deploying and operating the internet services they use.

How does it compare to FaceBook?

The key difference is that FaceBook is built as a "walled garden" meaning that users can only interact within their system and only if they are users of that specific system.
OpenAutonomy is different in that it works more like E-Mail: it doesn't matter where you have your account, you can still interact across those boundaries as a first-class citizen.

How does it compare to DropBox?

The key difference is that DropBox combines both a "service" and a "technology" which means that any use-cases or applications you have which support DropBox do not support other cloud storage systems. In effect, this is a modern-day example of vendor lock-in.
OpenAutonomy is open source and designed to allow the service and the technology to remain distinct so that any uses you have for OpenAutonomy storage will work just as well with anyone else running OpenAutonomy software, even if it is developed independently.

Can I run it myself?

Yes! The OpenAutonomy reference server implementation is available for download and can be run on a standard Apache server with a PHP module. It has been tested on a great range of systems: large VPS systems, medium-size servers, low-end web hosts, and even a Raspberry Pi.
Beyond just running the server, yourself, you can still interact with other users on any other installation since OpenAutonomy is fully federated.

Can I write my own web applications?

Yes! The reference implementation is already broken up into individual applications and you can add your own in much the same way. Further, the federated nature of OpenAutonomy means that you don't even need access to the server where your identity is based in order to use the application you have created.

Can I write native (non-web) applications?

Yes! Use the "Generate PreTrust Application Token" in your identity to get a key which can be given to a native application for it to interact with your other OpenAutonomy applications as a first-class citizen.