Guus der Kinderen for Board 2025

Name: Guus der Kinderen

Location: Rosmalen, The Netherlands

Affiliation: Founder, GoodBytes

Contact: guus.der.kinderen@igniterealtime.org / guusdk@jabber.org

GitHub: github.com/guusdk

Statement

I'm standing for election to the XSF Board because I want to help shape decisions that make XMPP more reliable, interoperable, and easier to adopt in real-world deployments. My focus is on implementing protocols in real software, building tooling that catches problems early, and helping projects move from draft to deployed without unnecessary friction. I started working with XMPP in the early 2000s and over the years that curiosity turned into a job, a hobby, and eventually a community responsibility.

These days I run GoodBytes, where I do XMPP consulting and development work. I'm active in the Ignite Realtime community and I've served on the Ignite Realtime Foundation board; that work (Openfire, Spark, and related projects) has taught me a lot about what maintainers and deployers need from an ecosystem. I've also previously served on the XSF Board, which gave me practical insight into how the Foundation operates and where modest changes can yield real improvements.

On the standards side I've authored and co-authored a number of XEPs, for example XEP-0485 (PubSub Server Information), XEP-0495 (Happy Eyeballs), XEP-0483 (HTTP Online Meetings), and I was added as a co-author on XEP-0377 (Spam Reporting). These are concrete attempts to bridge the gap between the protocol text and real-world implementations.

I'm also working on projects meant to make interoperability and adoption less painful. The XMPP Interop Framework effort aims to provide repeatable tests you can drop into CI so implementers notice regressions early. The xmpp.work site is a small help to connect people and organisations working with XMPP so we can share who's doing what and where collaboration might help.

If elected I'll focus on improving interoperability, encouraging real-world adoption of XMPP, and keeping the Foundation approachable for people who just want to build things with XMPP. I don't love politics; I like getting things to work. If that sounds useful, I'd appreciate your support.