Instant Messaging and Presence Protocol
charter-ietf-impp-01

This working group will eventually define protocols and data formats
necessary to build an internet-scale end-user presence awareness,
notification and instant messaging system. Its initial task is to
determine specific design goals and requirements for such a service.
The design goals document will be submitted for IETF-wide review,
and based on that review, the group's charter will be extended.

Background:

Instant messaging differs from email primarily in that its primary
focus
is immediate end-user delivery. Presence information was readily
accessible on internet-connected systems years ago; when a user had an
open session to a well-known multi-user system, his friends and
colleagues could easily tell where he was connected from and whether he
was using his computer. Since that time, computing infrastructure has
become increasingly distributed and a given user may be consistently
available," but has no standard way to make this information known to
her peers. This working group will design a system to address this
need.

Goals:

The working group will develop an architecture for simple instant
messaging and presence awareness/notification. It will specify how
authentication, message integrity, encryption and access control are
integrated. It is desirable, but not required, for the working group
to develop a solution that works well for awareness of and
communication with entities other than human users.

Non-goals:

Providing a general notification mechanism for data other than user
presence information and instant messages.

The following keywords describe the scope for the working group.
Details are to be developed in the architecture document which is the
output of this working group:

• PRESENCE

• INSTANT MESSAGING

• SHARED

• NAMING

• AUTHENTICATION

• ACCESS CONTROL

• SCALABILITY

Deliverables:

The working group plans to deliver the following document:

• Requirements for Instant Messaging and Presence