Kune (software)
| Company type | Free software project |
|---|---|
| Industry | Social networking service, Collaborative software |
| Founded | 2007 |
| Founder | Comunes Collective |
| Defunct | 2017 |
Area served | Worldwide |
| Products | Distributed social network, real-time collaborative editing, web publishing |
| Owner | Comunes Collective |
| Website | kune |
Kune was a free and open source distributed social network designed with a strong emphasis on collaboration rather than mere communication. It specialized in real-time collaborative editing, decentralized networking, and web publishing, catering primarily to teams instead of individual users. The platform allowed organizations and participants to establish online environments for joint projects, coordinate schedules, conduct virtual meetings, disseminate content, and engage with communities sharing similar interests. Kune placed particular importance on serving the Free culture movement and various social movements. Created by the Comunes Collective, the initiative has been dormant since 2017, with no recent updates or ongoing development.
Technical details
The client side of Kune was built using Java with the GWT, incorporating Apache Wave (previously Google Wave) and mainly relying on open standards such as XMPP and the Wave Federation Protocol. The GWT Java source code compiles into obfuscated and optimized JavaScript to deliver a single page application. Wave extensions—including gadgets and bots—operate within Kune similarly to how apps function on platforms like Facebook, and can be developed using Java combined with GWT, JavaScript, or Python.
Development took place from 2007 through 2017. The source code was managed via GIT repositories hosted on Gitorious, with both a development environment and a primary node overseen by the Comunes Collective.
Kune is fully free software created exclusively with open-source tools. It is distributed under the terms of the AGPL, while its artistic elements fall under a Creative Commons BY-SA license.
Philosophy
The creation of Kune responded to a significant challenge faced by groups—such as friends, activists, NGOs, or startups—that depend on multiple centralized commercial services (for example, Google Docs, Facebook, or Dropbox) for collaborative work. These platforms typically monetize user data, encapsulating the notion that "If you’re not paying for it, you are the product."
Alternatively, some groups rely on technical specialists to establish mailing lists or collaboration tools like etherpad, which introduces bottlenecks and dependency issues due to required technical expertise.
Kune’s objective was to unify these collaboration functions into an accessible platform that removes reliance on technical intermediaries. It offers a decentralized free/libre web service model where users can choose their preferred server while maintaining seamless interoperability across the network.
In contrast to most distributed social networks that emphasize communication and content sharing, Kune prioritizes collaboration and content generation. Its ambition extends beyond replacing platforms such as Facebook; it aims to supplant other proprietary services by supporting the growth of the Free Culture and enabling forms of Commons-based peer production.
History
| Version | Code name | Release date | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 0.0.1 | -- | colspan="2" Template:Version | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 0.0.9 | 15M | colspan="2" Template:Version | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 0.1.0 | 99% | colspan="2" Template:Version | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 0.2.0 | Ostrom | colspan="2" Template:Version | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1.0.0 | "Free-riders" | colspan="2" Template:Version | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Kune emerged from the community associated with Ourproject.org, which sought to equip Free Culture initiatives with communication and collaboration tools comparable to software forges like SourceForge. Although Ourproject achieved some success, its tools demanded technical knowledge that limited wider adoption. This limitation inspired Kune’s creation—named after the Esperanto word for "together"—to provide more user-friendly free collaborative solutions.
Initial Kune prototypes were built using Ruby on Rails and Pyjamas (later renamed Pyjs), but following the public availability of Java and the Google Web Toolkit (GWT), development shifted toward these technologies starting in 2007. By 2009, as preparations for a major release were underway, Google announced Google Wave, which utilized similar technologies (Java + GWT, Guice, XMPP) and promised an open federated protocol featuring real-time document editing and extensibility through gadgets. Consequently, Kune’s community paused active development to incorporate Wave after its launch, focusing in the meantime on gadget creation.
During this phase, the Comunes Association was established as a nonprofit umbrella organization supporting free software tools that promote the Commons and assist social movements; it encompasses projects such as Ourproject, Kune, Move Commons, among others.
In November 2010, with the release of free Apache Wave under the auspices of the Apache Foundation, its code was integrated into Kune’s codebase thanks to support from the IEPALA Foundation. Kune entered Beta status and transitioned to production use by April 2012.
Since then, Kune has been recognized as an "activism 2.0" platform and a flexible tool for NGOs as well as general collaborative purposes; however, some critics cautioned about complexity risks often associated with ambitious second-generation systems. The project was honored as "open website of the week" by the Open University of Catalonia and featured among notable projects within the #Occupy Tech community.
Plans for future development included integration with Lorea—a federated social network built on Elgg (software)—to enhance connectivity across decentralized social networking platforms.
Feature list
- Incorporates all capabilities of Apache Wave, including collaborative federated real-time editing, plus additional features
- Communication tools
- Chat and chatrooms compatible with Gmail and Jabber through XMPP (supporting multiple XEP extensions), integrated with Emite
- Federated social networking functionality
- Real-time teamwork across various formats:
- Documents (comparable to Google Docs)
- Wikis
- Lists (similar to Google Groups, but designed to minimize email traffic by using waves)
- Group Task management
- Group Calendar (akin to Google Calendar, with ical export functionality)
- Group Blogging
- Web publishing (targeting direct online content publication, similar to WordPress, featuring dashboard and public views) (currently under development)
- Bartering system (intended to decentralize bartering like eBay)
- Enhanced email capabilities
- Waves are intended as a replacement for the majority of email functions
- Centralized inbox consolidates all conversations and documents across kunes
- Planned email notifications, including the ability to reply via email
- Multimedia and Gadgets
- Embedded image and video galleries within any document
- Features such as maps, mindmaps, Twitter feeds, polls, voting, event management, and more
- Expandable through Apache Wave gadgets, which are straightforward to develop (similar to Facebook apps)
- Federation features
- Distributed social networking managed from a single inbox across all kunes, facilitating collaboration regardless of the registration server used
- Compatible with any Kune server or Wave-based platform
- Chat interoperable with any XMPP server
- Usability enhancements
- Emphasis on intuitive user experience design
- Animated tutorials available for each tool
- Drag&Drop functionality for sharing content, adding users, modifying roles, deleting items, etc.
- Keyboard shortcut support
- Commitment to free culture principles
- Built using free software and licensed under the AGPL
- License selection assistant simplifies choosing licenses for groups; default license is Creative Commons BY-SA
- Developer-oriented features
- Debian/Ubuntu packages facilitate straightforward installation
- Wave Gadgets can be programmed using Java+GWT, JavaScript, or Python
Supporters and adopters
Kune has garnered active backing from numerous organizations:
- Comunes Association, the community driving Kune’s development; they provide a free Kune server for projects: https://kune.cc
- IEPALA Foundation, offering both financial support and technical assistance; hosts a Kune server dedicated to non-governmental organizations: "Social Gloobal"
- Grasia Software Agent Research Group at the Complutense University of Madrid, supplying technical resources
- Interns from the Master’s program in Free Software at the King Juan Carlos University contributed development efforts
- Trainees from the American University of Science and Technology in Lebanon assisted with system administration tasks
- The Paulo Freire Institute in Brazil participated in early design phases and prototype creation
- The Kune workgroup at Medialab Prado engaged in beta testing
See also
- Apache Wave
- Comunes Collective
- Distributed social network
- Comparison of software and protocols for distributed social networking
- Ourproject.org
- Wave Federation Protocol
External links
- Project hosting platforms
- Websites under Creative Commons licenses
- Open-source project management tools
- Social information systems
- Collaborative software
- Real-time collaborative editors
- Software released in 2012
- Open-source Java applications
- Internet services launched in 2007
- Software licensed under GNU Affero General Public License
- Free software programmed in Java (programming language)