XEP-0010: Whiteboarding SIG

A proposal to form a SIG to develop a protocol for whiteboarding over Jabber.

WARNING: This document has been obsoleted by the XMPP Standards Foundation. Implementation of the protocol described herein is not recommended. Developers desiring similar functionality should implement the protocol that supersedes this one (if any).

Document Information

Series: XEP
Number: 0010
Publisher: XMPP Standards Foundation
Status: Obsolete
Type: SIG Formation
Version: 1.1
Last Updated: 2002-05-08
Approving Body: XMPP Council
Dependencies: None
Supersedes: None
Superseded By: None
Short Name:
Wiki Page: <http://wiki.jabber.org/index.php/Whiteboarding SIG (XEP-0010)>

Author Information

Niklas Gustavsson

Email: niklas@protocol7.com
JabberID: nikgus@jabber.org

Legal Notices

Copyright

This XMPP Extension Protocol is copyright (c) 1999 - 2008 by the XMPP Standards Foundation (XSF).

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## NOTE WELL: This Specification is provided on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, express or implied, including, without limitation, any warranties or conditions of TITLE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, MERCHANTABILITY, or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. In no event shall the XMPP Standards Foundation or the authors of this Specification be liable for any claim, damages, or other liability, whether in an action of contract, tort, or otherwise, arising from, out of, or in connection with the Specification or the implementation, deployment, or other use of the Specification. ##

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IPR Conformance

This XMPP Extension Protocol has been contributed in full conformance with the XSF's Intellectual Property Rights Policy (a copy of which may be found at <http://www.xmpp.org/extensions/ipr-policy.shtml> or obtained by writing to XSF, P.O. Box 1641, Denver, CO 80201 USA).

Discussion Venue

The preferred venue for discussion of this document is the Standards discussion list: <http://mail.jabber.org/mailman/listinfo/standards>.

Errata may be sent to <editor@xmpp.org>.

Table of Contents


1. Introduction
2. Deliverables
    2.1. Requirements
    2.2. Analysis of existing work
    2.3. Graphics data format
    2.4. Jabber protocol
Notes
Revision History

1. Introduction

Jabber is often thought of simply as a system for instant messaging, albeit an open one. However, Jabber technology can be used, and is being used, in applications quite different from simple IM. One of these applications is whiteboarding. In collaborative work, the ability to draw (for example, to design sketches, UML schemas, house architectures, and organizational plans) is essential, as exemplified by the success of real-world whiteboarding applications such as Microsoft NetMeeting. Whiteboarding can also be used for entertainment purposes such as games and quizzes. Because of the value of whiteboarding as an important real-time collaboration tool, other IM services are beginning to offer these capabilities. For these and other reasons, I believe that a good protocol for whiteboarding in Jabber would be of great value.

There exists today a protocol draft for sending streaming XPM over Jabber [1]. XPM is a bitmap format, which makes it well-suited for certain applications (e.g., smaller drawings and sketches). However, significant changes in an XPM image will require sending large amounts of XML data (even with the compression described in the protocol draft). Also, for example, XPM does not scale without loss of resolution, nor does it support metadata. In addition, the current draft specifies the data format only, not the way the data will be sent or handled by Jabber servers and clients.

Therefore, the Whiteboard SIG should develop a standard way of handling whiteboards in Jabber and a format for data transfer. This might be based on vector graphics, bitmap data, or a combination of these two. In addition, the protocol should work in the context of both regular messaging and conferencing. The protocol for whiteboarding during conferencing might depend on the new protocol proposal to come from the Conferencing SIG [2].

2. Deliverables

The Whiteboarding SIG should produce the following deliverables (these deliverables will be presented to the Jabber Council):

2.1 Requirements

A set of requirements that the proposed protocol should fulfill.

2.2 Analysis of existing work

There are today at least four different attempts [3] [4] [5] to create a whiteboarding protocol in Jabber. The Whiteboarding SIG should evaluate them all and see which features of each are worth keeping.

2.3 Graphics data format

One or more data formats for the graphics data, presented both as a description and as a DTD or XML schema.

2.4 Jabber protocol

The actual protocol for how the graphics data is sent over Jabber. This will also include an analysis of any associated functionality that must be performed by Jabber servers and clients.

Notes

1. XPM over Jabber (http://docs.jabber.org/draft-proto/html/sxpm.html)

2. Conferencing protocol draft (http://jabber.org/?oid=1538)

3. Distributed SVG documents (http://www.jabber.org/?oid=1025)

4. SVG over Jabber (http://www.protocol7.com/jabber/whiteboard_proposal.txt)

5. Jabberzilla Whiteboard (http://jabberzilla.mozdev.org/)

Revision History

Version 1.1 (2002-05-08)

Changed Status to Obsolete per approval of XEP-0019. (psa)

Version 1.0 (2001-09-30)

Initial release (ng)

END