Open Letter

Healthcare messaging must be secure, interoperable, and compliant, yet too often relies on closed consumer platforms. In the Netherlands, the forthcoming NTA 7532 specification aims to provide a national framework for secure, auditable communication between healthcare professionals. This open letter explains how the XMPP standard offers a proven foundation for NTA 7532, supporting vendor-independent and interoperable messaging. By engaging with initiatives like NTA 7532, the XSF promotes open, privacy-respecting communication technologies and invites collaboration with Dutch healthcare stakeholders and the global XMPP community.[Read More]

It has been a little over a year since Meta announced their proposal for third-parties to achieve messaging interoperability with WhatsApp, with Facebook Messenger following half a year later. Not for everyone, and only because these services were designated as Gate Keepers under the recent Digital Markets Act (DMA) in the EU. So only in the EU, and then with many strings attached. In that time, a lot has been written. Element/Matrix have put in efforts to work with Meta to get some interoperability going. Unfortunately, the reference offers don’t provide what we would call true interoperability, and given that virtually nobody has taken up Meta on this offer, their proposal just falls short across the board. [Read More]