XMPP Standards Foundation

XMPP Standards Foundation (XSF) is the foundation in charge of the standardization of the protocol extensions of XMPP, the open standard of instant messaging and presence of the IETF.

History

The XSF was originally called the Jabber Software Foundation (JSF). The Jabber Software Foundation was originally established to provide an independent, non-profit, legal entity to support the development community around Jabber technologies (and later XMPP). Originally its main focus was on developing JOSL, the Jabber Open Source License[1] (since deprecated), and an open standards process for documenting the protocols used in the Jabber/XMPP developer community. Its founders included Michael Bauer and Peter Saint-Andre.

Timeline[2]

• 1999–2001: Jeremie Miller announces Jabber, an open instant messaging technology. Open-source servers, clients, and libraries are developed. In 2001, the JSF is formally established to coordinate projects and protocol development.
• 2002–2004: JSF contributes Jabber protocols to the IETF, forming the XMPP Working Group. Core XMPP protocols are standardized in RFC 3920 and RFC 3921.
• 2005–2007: JSF participates in Google Summer of Code, and large-scale XMPP services like Google Talk are deployed. The JSF is renamed XMPP Standards Foundation (XSF) in 2007.
• 2006–present: XSF organizes regular XMPP Summits, continues Google Summer of Code participation, and oversees the development of XMPP Extension Protocols (XEPs). Notable achievements include updates to XMPP core RFCs (RFC 6120, RFC 6121, RFC 7395, RFC 7590, RFC 7622) and expansion into areas like IoT.

Process

Members of the XSF vote on acceptance of new members, a technical Council, and a Board of Directors. However, membership is not required to publish, view, or comment on the standards that it promulgates. The unit of work at the XSF is the XMPP Extension Protocol (XEP); XEP-0001[3] specifies the process for XEPs to be accepted by the community. Most of the work of the XSF takes place on the XMPP Extension Discussion List,[4] the [xmpp:jdev@muc.xmpp.org?join jdev] and the [xmpp:xsf@muc.xmpp.org?join xsf chat room].[5]

Organization

XEPs

One of the most important outputs of the XSF is a series[10] of "XEPs", or XMPP Extension Protocols, auxiliary protocols defining additional features. Some have chosen to pronounce "XEP" as if it were spelled "JEP", rather than "ZEP", in order to keep with a sense of tradition. Some XEPs of note include:

• Data Forms[11]
• Service Discovery[12]
• Multi-User Chat[13]
• Publish-Subscribe[14]

XMPP Summit

The XSF biannually holds a XMPP Summit where software and protocol developers from all around the world meet and share ideas and discuss topics around the XMPP protocol and the XEPs. In winter it takes place around the FOSDEM event in Brussels, Belgium and in summer it takes place around the RealtimeConf event in Portland, USA. These meetings are open to anyone and focus on discussing both technical and non-technical issues that the XSF members wish to discuss with no costs attached for the participants. However the XSF is open to donations. The first XMPP Summit took place on July 24 and 25, 2006, in Portland.[20]

External links