Overview#

ModelFed is a protocol that enables federated modeling activities in collaborative environments involving multiple users (referred to as actors) and modeling platforms. It standardizes model creation, sharing, and updates among users from different servers and modeling tools, using a JSON-LD based API for server-to-server communication.

Building on this protocol, Modelverse constitutes the federated and distributed ecosystem of platforms interconnected through ModelFed. It allows multiple users to work together on the same model without centralization.

For example, ModelFed can support scenarios such as a collaborative modeling environment for the Digital Product Passport (DPP) domain, where different experts contribute to a shared model from different modeling platforms. Each user can focus their expertise on a specific aspect of the model, while the admin user can manage the overall process and ensure that all actors have the necessary permissions to access and modify the model elements.

Use case example

Similar to ActivityPub, in ModelFed each actor must have a user account on a platform server and expose two endpoints:

  • An outbox, used to send activities to other actors

  • An inbox, used to receive activities from others

Both endpoints should accept HTTP POST requests and are essential for enabling asynchronous, federated collaboration between users across different modeling platforms.