Just over a year ago, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) approved formation of a new XMPP Working Group to work on revisions to the core XMPP specifications and related tasks. The first fruit of this initiative is a working group last call on draft-ietf-xmpp-3920bis, the core definition of XMPP. Officially this “WGLC” was two weeks long and therefore has already ended, but it will probably be extended for a week or two, so please review this (long!) specification and send your comments to the xmpp@ietf.org discussion list as soon as possible.
Once the working group last call is complete and all feedback has been incorporated, the responsible area director at the IETF will issue an IETF-wide last call for additional comments. After that the document will go before the Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG) for a vote. You’ll notice that the author of this document (c’est moi) is also an IESG member, so I’ll be recusing myself from the IESG vote, which should occur sometime over the summer.
In the next month or so, we’ll start the same process with draft-ietf-xmpp-3921bis, which defines how to use XMPP for messaging, contact lists, presence, and other core IM features.
Once 3920bis and 3921bis are complete, the XMPP WG will move on to end-to-end security and other fascinating topics, so join the xmpp@ietf.org discussion list for all the fun!
–Peter Saint-Andre
