The Extensible Metadata Platform (XMP) is a specification describing RDF-based data and storage models for metadata about documents in any format. The specification includes information about embedding XMP in text files such as HTML and SVG/XML; image formats such as JPEG, TIFF, and GIF; and Adobe formats such as Illustrator, Photoshop, and Acrobat files. While its use of the RDF metadata format comes with some caveats, RDF enthusiasts should be pleased to see that the company making the most popular image manipulation tools has made those tools capable of reading and writing RDF metadata about these images.

XMPP is an XML streaming protocol for presence and messaging routing. Recently ratified as an IETF standard, XMPP serves as the basis for the Jabber instant-messaging system and provides a secure but easily programmed language for linking diverse networks.

Some of the world's busiest foreign exchange traders are slated to shift to a real-time standards based messaging system built by Jabber.

The charter of the XMPP WG specifies that "the final specifications will be consistent as much as practical with ... the requirements given in RFC2779". This document summarizes how the existing XMPP Internet-Drafts meet the requirements defined in RFC2779. Text that specifies each requirement is followed by text that specifies how XMPP meets that requirement.

Hoping to calm the tumultuous interoperability waters in a vast sea of instant messaging, one industry group says it has the fix for at least part of the problem.

This version of the prototype is the first one with a sizable amount of the XMPP spec implemented.

There’s a race on for the future of the enterprise messaging system. The contestants are backing competing protocols for IM and presence awareness. Which standard takes home the prize may depend less on technical merits than on brute force. At the head of the competition are SIMPLE (Session Initiation Protocol for Instant Messaging and Presence Leveraging Extensions) and the open-source, XML-based XMPP (eXtensible Messaging and Presence Protocol). Both are currently being developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).

Smack is an Open Source XMPP client library for instant messaging and presence.

One other point about the WSJ article. People from the SIP camp often say that XMPP is just for IM, Dale Malik's quote notwithstanding. A couple of months ago, I wrote an Internet Draft specifying how to initiate and negotiate sessions using SDPng over XMPP, called TINS. Using TINS, you can negotiate a connection between two endpoints, including protocols (RTP, H.323, etc.), codecs, and other client capabilities, so that the two clients can connect directly to one another.

XMPP also is known as the Jabber protocol because Jabber is based on XMPP. Jabber is not, however, the only instant messaging application that relies on XMPP.

XMPP (Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol) is a protocol based on Extensible Markup Language (XML) and intended for instant messaging (IM) and online presence detection. It functions between or among servers, and facilitates near-real-time operation. The protocol may eventually allow Internet users to send instant messages to anyone else on the Internet, regardless of differences in operating systems and browsers.

Instant messaging is a tool that many business users rely on, yet a bewildering array of IM protocols reduces its effectiveness. The open source Jabber Software Foundation is pushing XMPP, an open standard for IM and presence, as a solution to this mess - and not coincidentally, Jabber offers servers that use XMPP to mediate between IM clients that use different protocols.

Jabber, Inc. (www.jabber.com) today congratulated the independent Jabber Software Foundation (JSF) (www.jabber.org) for successfully guiding the core specification of the Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) through the Internet Engineering Task Force’s (IETF) rigorous peer-reviewed standardization process.

XMPP is an open, XML-based protocol for near real-time extensible messaging and presence. It is the core protocol of the Jabber Instant Messaging and Presence technology which is currently deployed on thousands of servers across the Internet and is used by millions of people worldwide. The XMPP working group shall adapt the XMPP for use as an IETF Instant Messaging and Presence technology.

SIMPLE's supporters also include two of the world's largest software players -- Microsoft (Quote, Chart), which supports SIMPLE in Windows Messenger and its future release of Greenwich, and IBM (Quote, Chart), through its Lotus SameTime product. By dint of being associated with two of the most influential vendors in the IT sector, SIMPLE naturally has strong support on the IETF.

The Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG) has approved the Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP): Core specification as an IETF Proposed Standard. XMPP Core is a "protocol for streaming XML elements in order to exchange structured information in close to real time between any two network endpoints. While XMPP provides a generalized, extensible framework for exchanging XML data, it is used mainly for the purpose of building instant messaging and presence applications that meet the requirements of RFC 2779."

It’s an unfortunate fact of life that Jabber (or XMPP) was a bit late to the instant messaging playing field. It’s an open standard that faces stiff competition from well-established technologies by big-name players, namely AOL and Microsoft. How many people do you know that use Jabber for instant messaging on a day-to-day basis? My guess is between five and zero.

Iris is a Qt/C++ library for working with the XMPP/Jabber protocol. Currently it is still under development, but already supports many important features. The design goal of Iris is to be written from the ground-up to fully support the official XMPP drafts. The library is powerful and easy-to-use, due to the heavy use of Qt constructs and data types. It should be useful for creating clients, servers, and other components.

Winfessor Inc. announced its latest release of the SoapBox Framework, a tool developers can use to build their own XMPP/Jabber instant messaging clients and servers. It supports the .NET Framework, .NET Compact Framework, and Mono, the company said.

The Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG) announced today the approval of an XMPP Working Group within the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), the group that sets the technical standards for the Internet. The Working Group has been formed to adapt the Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) for use as an IETF instant messaging and presence technology.