I somehow glanced over this, thanks for pointing it out. This definition suggests that "federated" is strictly equal to "decentralized", which is coincidentally not strictly in conflict with what I wrote (though a very unorthodox definition of federated, as it doesn't imply any federation).
Even so, IRC has no business in this list per the authors definition.
> Even so, IRC has no business in this list per the authors definition.
The "network" part is arguable, but IRC does not require any pre-ordained nodes, which matches the author's definition.
It's a small part of full decentralization, but an important one. Being able to point your Facebook Messenger client at a different server would be a big step.
That's not decentralized, that's just open source.
> Being able to point your Facebook Messenger client at a different server would be a big step.
Interestingly, you used to be able to do the inverse: point your XMPP client at Facebook Messenger. I'm pretty sure they never supported federation, but you could connect clients to multiple servers and have a relatively seamless experience from a single client.
"To clarify what I mean by decentralised: applications whose main purpose is fulfilled as part of a network, where that network is not reliant on any preordained nodes. Decentralised applications are also known as “federated”. There is also a more specific term “distributed”, also known as “peer to peer”. I won’t cover the distinction with the more specific terms because it’s not relevant here. I use the word application in a looser sense, to also cover protocols and specifications."