Heiner Wolf Application 2010

I am Heiner Wolf. I am applying for XSF membership. I have been JSF/XSF member before.

Contact

 * JID: wolf.heiner@googlemail.com
 * Email: wolf.heiner@gmail.com

History
I have been writing code for many years. I write mostly C++/PHP/C# and I will continue to do so. I was engaged in virtual presence projects of the European Union during my PhD. I was CTO of weblin), a virtual presence system based on Jabber (now defunct). I am now working on a successor to weblin in the Open Virtual World project in my spare time, which also implementents 3D avatars on Web pages using the XMPP protocol with open source servers and custom clients. I speak and write about the topic "virtual presence with Jabber" (PDF slides).

Code

 * I was the lead developer of weblin, a virtual presence client which uses XMPP as transport protocol.
 * I developed the web portal where people configure their weblin avatar.
 * I am currently developing a new virtual presence client with XMPP transport.
 * I am developing the server code (web site + game server) for the avatar system.
 * I implemented a Twitter to Jabber gateway: TwiX (Twitter-to-XMPP)

XMPP Protocol

 * I was authoring XEP-0151 and a set-redirect proposal. I contributed to avatar discussions.
 * Virtual presence extensions to the XMPP protocol are documented at www.virtual-presence.org
 * I am active in the standardization of virtual worlds where I promote the use of XMPP not only as a chat protocol, but also as a virtual space protocol IETF draft for the Feb 2009 meeting. I think Linden Lab is on the wrong track by extending HTTP for 2-way messaging when there is also a mature and widely adopted messaging protocol.

Web sites

 * Virtual-Presence.org an aggregator of virtual presence systems and news


 * OpenVirtualWorld.com the Open Virtual World project blog


 * lmslog.virtual-presence.org the status log of Website-URL -> Chatroom-JID mapping changes


 * lms.virtual-presence.org/api/ a web front end for the URL mapping library


 * TwiX a Twitter to XMPP gateway


 * blog.wolfspelz.de my blog (german)

Why I'm applying
I work on virtual presence. Jabber/XMPP is the best infrastructure for it. I am sure that we will see millions of people on the web with their avatars and this might give a giant push to XMPP (not that it would need it :-). As a project and a company we rely heavily on Jabber, XMPP client libraries, servers, documentation, and know-how. We are using off the shelf open source XMPP servers. In other words: Jabber is very important to my professional work.