XEP-0010: Whiteboarding SIG

Abstract
A proposal to form a SIG to develop a protocol for whiteboarding over Jabber.
Author
Niklas Gustavsson
Copyright
© 2001 – 2002 XMPP Standards Foundation. SEE LEGAL NOTICES.
Status

Obsolete

WARNING: This document has been obsoleted by the XMPP Standards Foundation. Implementation of the protocol described herein is not recommended. Developers desiring similar functionality are advised to implement the protocol that supersedes this one (if any).
Type
SIG Formation
Version
1.1 (2002-05-08)
Document Lifecycle
  1. Obsolete

1. Introduction

Jabber is often thought of simply as a system for instant messaging, albeit an open one. However, Jabber technology can be used, and is being used, in applications quite different from simple IM. One of these applications is whiteboarding. In collaborative work, the ability to draw (for example, to design sketches, UML schemas, house architectures, and organizational plans) is essential, as exemplified by the success of real-world whiteboarding applications such as Microsoft NetMeeting. Whiteboarding can also be used for entertainment purposes such as games and quizzes. Because of the value of whiteboarding as an important real-time collaboration tool, other IM services are beginning to offer these capabilities. For these and other reasons, I believe that a good protocol for whiteboarding in Jabber would be of great value.

There exists today a protocol draft for sending streaming XPM over Jabber. XPM is a bitmap format, which makes it well-suited for certain applications (e.g., smaller drawings and sketches). However, significant changes in an XPM image will require sending large amounts of XML data (even with the compression described in the protocol draft). Also, for example, XPM does not scale without loss of resolution, nor does it support metadata. In addition, the current draft specifies the data format only, not the way the data will be sent or handled by Jabber servers and clients.

Therefore, the Whiteboard SIG should develop a standard way of handling whiteboards in Jabber and a format for data transfer. This might be based on vector graphics, bitmap data, or a combination of these two. In addition, the protocol should work in the context of both regular messaging and conferencing. The protocol for whiteboarding during conferencing might depend on the new protocol proposal to come from the Conferencing SIG.

2. Deliverables

The Whiteboarding SIG should produce the following deliverables (these deliverables will be presented to the Jabber Council):

2.1 Requirements

A set of requirements that the proposed protocol should fulfill.

2.2 Analysis of existing work

There are today at least four different attempts [1] [2] [3] to create a whiteboarding protocol in Jabber. The Whiteboarding SIG should evaluate them all and see which features of each are worth keeping.

2.3 Graphics data format

One or more data formats for the graphics data, presented both as a description and as a DTD or XML schema.

2.4 Jabber protocol

The actual protocol for how the graphics data is sent over Jabber. This will also include an analysis of any associated functionality that must be performed by Jabber servers and clients.


Appendices

Appendix A: Document Information

Series
XEP
Number
0010
Publisher
XMPP Standards Foundation
Status
Obsolete
Type
SIG Formation
Version
1.1
Last Updated
2002-05-08
Approving Body
XSF Board of Directors
Dependencies
None
Supersedes
None
Superseded By
None
Short Name
N/A
Source Control
HTML

This document in other formats: XML  PDF

Appendix B: Author Information

Niklas Gustavsson
Email
niklas@protocol7.com
JabberID
nikgus@jabber.org

Copyright

This XMPP Extension Protocol is copyright © 1999 – 2024 by the XMPP Standards Foundation (XSF).

Permissions

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this specification (the "Specification"), to make use of the Specification without restriction, including without limitation the rights to implement the Specification in a software program, deploy the Specification in a network service, and copy, modify, merge, publish, translate, distribute, sublicense, or sell copies of the Specification, and to permit persons to whom the Specification is furnished to do so, subject to the condition that the foregoing copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Specification. Unless separate permission is granted, modified works that are redistributed shall not contain misleading information regarding the authors, title, number, or publisher of the Specification, and shall not claim endorsement of the modified works by the authors, any organization or project to which the authors belong, or the XMPP Standards Foundation.

Disclaimer of Warranty

## NOTE WELL: This Specification is provided on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, express or implied, including, without limitation, any warranties or conditions of TITLE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, MERCHANTABILITY, or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. ##

Limitation of Liability

In no event and under no legal theory, whether in tort (including negligence), contract, or otherwise, unless required by applicable law (such as deliberate and grossly negligent acts) or agreed to in writing, shall the XMPP Standards Foundation or any author of this Specification be liable for damages, including any direct, indirect, special, incidental, or consequential damages of any character arising from, out of, or in connection with the Specification or the implementation, deployment, or other use of the Specification (including but not limited to damages for loss of goodwill, work stoppage, computer failure or malfunction, or any and all other commercial damages or losses), even if the XMPP Standards Foundation or such author has been advised of the possibility of such damages.

IPR Conformance

This XMPP Extension Protocol has been contributed in full conformance with the XSF's Intellectual Property Rights Policy (a copy of which can be found at <https://xmpp.org/about/xsf/ipr-policy> or obtained by writing to XMPP Standards Foundation, P.O. Box 787, Parker, CO 80134 USA).

Visual Presentation

The HTML representation (you are looking at) is maintained by the XSF. It is based on the YAML CSS Framework, which is licensed under the terms of the CC-BY-SA 2.0 license.

Appendix D: Relation to XMPP

The Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) is defined in the XMPP Core (RFC 6120) and XMPP IM (RFC 6121) specifications contributed by the XMPP Standards Foundation to the Internet Standards Process, which is managed by the Internet Engineering Task Force in accordance with RFC 2026. Any protocol defined in this document has been developed outside the Internet Standards Process and is to be understood as an extension to XMPP rather than as an evolution, development, or modification of XMPP itself.

Appendix E: Discussion Venue

The primary venue for discussion of XMPP Extension Protocols is the <standards@xmpp.org> discussion list.

Discussion by the membership of the XSF might also be appropriate (see <https://mail.jabber.org/mailman/listinfo/members> for details).

Errata can be sent to <editor@xmpp.org>.

Appendix F: Requirements Conformance

The following requirements keywords as used in this document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119: "MUST", "SHALL", "REQUIRED"; "MUST NOT", "SHALL NOT"; "SHOULD", "RECOMMENDED"; "SHOULD NOT", "NOT RECOMMENDED"; "MAY", "OPTIONAL".

Appendix G: Notes

1. "Distributed SVG documents" (formerly at http://www.jabber.org/?oid=1025)

2. SVG over Jabber (http://www.protocol7.com/jabber/whiteboard_proposal.txt)

3. Jabberzilla Whiteboard (http://jabberzilla.mozdev.org/)

Appendix H: Revision History

Note: Older versions of this specification might be available at https://xmpp.org/extensions/attic/

  1. Version 1.1 (2002-05-08)
    Changed Status to Obsolete per approval of XEP-0019.
    psa
  2. Version 1.0 (2001-09-30)
    Initial release
    ng

Appendix I: Bib(La)TeX Entry

@report{gustavsson2001n/a,
  title = {Whiteboarding SIG},
  author = {Gustavsson, Niklas},
  type = {XEP},
  number = {0010},
  version = {1.1},
  institution = {XMPP Standards Foundation},
  url = {https://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0010.html},
  date = {2001-09-30/2002-05-08},
}

END