XMPP Newsletter

Here you can submit news items for inclusion in the next XMPP Newsletter (as managed by the CommTeam).

What determines relevancy?
The submission must ideally be a blog or article about XMPP/Jabber and/or XMPP-based software (clients, servers, libs).

Some exceptions might be made, for example for a release page showing a new release of some XMPP-based software.

However, marketing brochures (e.g. single-page marketing sites) for new products which don't contain information on XMPP, won't be included.

Make sure you read the Basic communication guide for XMPP techies

TODO/checklist
For the newsletter editors:


 * 1) Collect links in this wiki page, read and validate content
 * 2) Copywriting so it is readable by humans
 * 3) Add images
 * 4) Add clear CTA
 * 5) Subject line and preview text
 * 6) PR on website git repo for blog post (Markdown, Pelican), and peer review
 * 7) Analytics from latest newsletter in spreadsheet
 * 8) Newsletter via Tinyletter
 * 9) Twitter scheduling: text, image, hashtags, link, timestamp
 * 10) Empty this page, keep structure

Planning
October
 * 2019-09-27 Fri: end of submission
 * 2019-09-27 Fri: PR on GitHub
 * 2019-10-01 Tue: newsletter publication, blog post, tweets

Newsletter subject/title
[ Friendly, human introduction for the month (remove this mention before publishing) ]


 * Prepare for FOSDEM, modern XMPP features, and more news
 * FOSDEM 2020 Feb, modernization of XMPP, peer networks

Intro
Welcome to the XMPP newsletter October edition, covering the month of September.

New this month: we added the license (CC by-sa 4.0), and the credits as this is a community effort.

Be kind, inform your friends and colleagues: forward this newsletter!

Articles
Ralph Meijer, chairman of the Board of Directors of the XSF, has written an introductory piece about "XMPP Message Attaching, Fastening, References", specifications currently in progress.

In case of internet shut down, whether by disaster or voluntarily, peer networks are useful. Monal uses Airdrop (wifi and bluetooth) along with XMPP and OMEMO end-to-end encryption.

Monal and Airdrop screenshots

JabberFr, the French XMPP/Jabber community, has again translated the XMPP newsletter in French, merci beaucoup.

For the poor lonesome techies, we wrote a very minimalistic communication guide, could be worth for some.

Events
As usual every year, that time has come: we proudly announce the XMPP Summit 24 and the FOSDEM. The 24th XMPP Summit will happen on Thursday 30th and Friday 31st of January, and the FOSDEM will be held on Saturday 1st and Sunday 2nd of February. Prepare for the community gathering.

FOSDEM 2020

Servers
Réda Housni Alaoui is reviving the formerly dormant Vysper XMPP server, please pronounce "whisper".

Xabber Server v.0.9 alpha is released, with quick installation and management panel, and interesting innovations.

The Fastpath Service plugin has been released in versions 4.4.4 and 4.4.5., bringing support for managed queued chat requests, such as a support team might use.

MongooseIM 3.4.1 is out now with and important security upgrade, fixing a vulnerability that increased the chance of a cluster node crash. Read the whole thread on Twitter for more precise info.

Clients and applications
Profanity, the console/terminal app, has been released in version 0.7.0 after five months of work, brining OMEMO end-to-end encryption, followed by a 0.7.1 bug fix release.

Multiple Vulnerabilities found in Dino, please update as soon as possible.

Converse, the web app for team chat, has been released in versions 5.0.2 and 5.0.3 fixing security issues among others. A Converse Docker image has been released by odajay, and Agayon has released a plugin to verify HTTP Requests via XMPP.

The Android chat app Conversations has been released in version 2.5.8.

Services
Christopher Muclumbus, a listing and search engine of public XMPP/Jabber chat rooms/groups, has been updated with visual redesign, groupchats avatars, link to anonymous web chat if available, and software version pie chart.

Extensions and specifications
This month, three proposed XEP, and two updated. No XEP in Last Call, New, or Obsoleted.

Proposed
Message Fastening

Abstract: This specification defines a way for payloads on a message to be marked as being logically fastened to a previous message.

URL: https://xmpp.org/extensions/inbox/fasten.html

XMPP Compliance Suites 2020

Abstract: This document defines XMPP protocol compliance levels.

URL: https://xmpp.org/extensions/inbox/cs-2020.html

Authorization Tokens

Abstract: This document defines an XMPP protocol extension for issuing authentication tokens to client applications and provides methods for managing сlient connections.

URL: https://xmpp.org/extensions/inbox/auth-tokens.html

Updated

 * Version 0.13.1 of XEP-0280 (Message Carbons) has been released. Changelog: Add clear example on problematic (spoofed) carbon messages and that they need to be handled. (gl). URL: https://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0280.html
 * Version 1.16.0 of XEP-0060 (Publish-Subscribe) has been released. Changelog:Add a pubsub#rsm disco#info feature to clear confusion (edhelas). URL: https://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0060.html

Thanks and CTA, Call To Action (remove this mention before publishing)
This XMPP Newsletter is a community collaborative effort. Thanks to Nÿco, Daniel, Jwi, and MDosch for aggregating the news. Thanks Nÿco and SouL for the copywriting.

Please follow and relay the XMPP news on our Twitter account @xmpp.

License
This newsletter is published under CC by-sa license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/