preview: "Here's an overview of major events, new projects, issues and achievements in Fediverse 2019. You'll also find out about one important change on this website!"
Here's what happened to our small corner of the Internet in the past year.
### Fediverse in numbers
In 2019 the reachable Fediverse grew from 3.986 instances to 5.027 - that's roughly 🎉 <spanclass="u-emphasize">1.000</span> new servers online.
The number of registered accounts increased from 2.500.000 users to roughly 4.300.000 - about 🎉 <spanclass="u-emphasize">1.800.000</span> newcomers explored Fediverse networks!
*Please, note: these numbers are an approximation based on statistics voluntarily provided by server administrators. Highly volatile (servers go offline / online every day), the numbers reflect only part of Fediverse at a given period of time (today!).*
• [ForgeFed](https://forgefed.peers.community): an upcoming federation protocol, built as an extension to ActivityPub, for interoperability between version control services
✔ `February:` Google [writes code](https://github.com/google/data-transfer-project/tree/master/extensions/data-transfer/portability-data-transfer-mastodon) for [Mastodon](/en/mastodon)
✔ `April:` [WriteFreely](https://writefreely.org) [searches](https://writing.exchange/@write_as/101965472625104146) for new developers on a contract basis, becoming a Fediverse project that creates FOSS jobs
✔ `May:` Fediverse has a 🐣 Birthday, technically - [11 years](https://social.diekershoff.de/display/f3ad7b1c-145c-e10f-1e74-b7b177306491) and counting. Happy Birthday, Fedi!
✔ `July:` Hubzilla community announces a [call for participation](https://www.w3.org/community/zot) to standardize the Zot protocol used in [Hubzilla](/en/hubzilla) and [Zap](https://zotlabs.com/zap) software
✔ `August:` [ActivityPub](https://activitypub.rocks) conference in Prague - 💡 watch the [videos](https://conf.tube/videos/watch/c81c92cd-b023-4a32-966c-bb2233e35483)
✔ `October:` [Framasoft](https://framasoft.org) releases the first beta version of [Mobilizon](https://joinmobilizon.org/en)
✔ `November:` [GNU Social](https://gnu.io/social) tests federation over ActivityPub
✔ `November:` Pixelfed [gets](https://mastodon.social/@pixelfed/103150844633581004) a grant from [NLnet](https://media.ccc.de/v/36c3-10795-ngi_zero_a_treasure_trove_of_it_innovation)
✔ `November:` Indian users massively [leave Twitter for Mastodon](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-50343054)
✔ `November:` Well-known activist [Aral Balkan](https://mastodon.ar.al/@aral/103160984750213569) speaks at the European Parliament about the future of Internet regulation and the role of Fediverse platforms - 💡 watch the [video](https://video.lqdn.fr/videos/watch/70f2128c-8c06-4cc4-8a5a-bf77e765c8fd)
✔ `December:` mass Spanish speakers [migration](https://mastodon.social/@Gargron/103392704334848972) from Twitter to Mastodon (popular hashtag: #YoMigroAMastodon)
### Things to happen in 2020
• *Fediverse Conference* in Barcelona - 💡 follow the official [account](https://libertalia.world/@fediconf) for updates
• *Spoiler* from the future: millions of people discovering Fediverse networks and migrating from centralized silos. Be prepared!
### Issues to be resolved in 2020
One of the main goals of federating software is decentralizing the web. That requires many Fediverse servers each having a small number of users, hosting data in physically decentralized manner. That's the ideal, a perfect image.
But in real world most people register on large Fediverse servers with thousands of users: they're popular, more stable and reliable, their friends are there. And server administrators tend to choose large, well-known hosting solutions: they're cheaper, more stable and reliable. This leads to a situation where 80% of total users are all crowded on 10 large ("flagship") instances, and 40% of all servers are hosted mainly by 5 companies.
You can see Mastodon statistics on [servers](http://sp3r4z.fr/mastodon/general) and [providers](http://sp3r4z.fr/mastodon/providers). The situation hasn't changed much since 2018 Leah's [research](https://chaos.social/@leah/99837391793032137) on server distribution. Will something change in 2020?
The **fediverse.party** website changed its home! Our code can now be found on [GitLab](https://git.feneas.org/feneas/fediverse) hosted by 👍 [Feneas](https://feneas.org), a non-for-profit association registered in Finland and run by humans who care about federated web projects.
We invite all authors who would like to submit an article to **fediverse.party**. Are you developing a Fediverse project? Tell everyone about it! Do you write about complicated things in a simple, user-friendly language? This website's main audience are newcomers to Fediverse who may have no technical background, they will appreciate your explanatory skills. Are you a researcher of Fediverse software ready to comment on its strengths and weaknesses? Please, share your expertize! Here're the [guidelines](https://git.feneas.org/feneas/fediverse/blob/main/GUIDELINES.md) for submitting an article.
**P/s** Fediverse is 99% run by volunteers who spend their own money to keep the network going. If you enjoy being on Fediverse, please, consider sponsoring your own local server or donating to Fediverse project you most often use.
