[$] Tent pitches a new social networking protocol

The free software community produces a constant stream of ideas about how to displace the proprietary network services that dominate so much online interaction. In mid-2012, Tent became the latest entrant in the conversation, heralding an "open, decentralized, and built for the future" social networking solution that "changes everything." Beyond the project's manifesto, however, there was scant detail, particularly on how Tent related to other distributed social networking efforts like OStatus, the protocol used by StatusNet and Identi.ca. September 21 brought the first look at something more concrete, courtesy of a reference Tent server and initial documentation of the system's protocols.