IETF 67 - Text Conferencing

Last Updated: 2006-03-10

Select from the following:

  1. Note Well
  2. Overview
  3. Getting Started
  4. Questions?
  5. How It Works
  6. Acknowledgements
  7. News

1.0 Note Well

Any submission to the IETF intended by the Contributor for publication as all or part of an IETF Internet-Draft or RFC and any statement made within the context of an IETF activity is considered an "IETF Contribution". Such statements include oral statements in IETF sessions, as well as written and electronic communications made at any time or place, which are addressed to:
  • the IETF plenary session,
  • any IETF working group or portion thereof,
  • the IESG, or any member thereof on behalf of the IESG,
  • the IAB or any member thereof on behalf of the IAB,
  • any IETF mailing list, including the IETF list itself, any working group or design team list, or any other list functioning under IETF auspices,
  • the RFC Editor or the Internet-Drafts function
All IETF Contributions are subject to the rules of RFC 3978 and RFC 3979.

Statements made outside of an IETF session, mailing list or other function, that are clearly not intended to be input to an IETF activity, group or function, are not IETF Contributions in the context of this notice.

Please consult RFC 3978 for details.

2.0 Overview

IETF text conferencing has been moved from ietf.xmpp.org to servers at ietf.org. Each IETF working group and BOF now has a year-round XMPP text conference room (e.g., for use as a "back channel" during IETF meetings, interim meetings, and any time text chat would be useful).

The conference facility is located on the Jabber/XMPP network at:

jabber.ietf.org

Each conference room is named using the official IETF abbreviation for the working group or BOF, as listed on the Active IETF Working Groups page (e.g., "appsarea", "dhc", "forces", and so on) or relevant IETF meeting agenda.

Logging is automatically enabled in each room. The logs are located here:

ietf-logs

3.0 Getting Started

If you don't already have one, get yourself a Jabber/XMPP client. Here are some suggestions:

platform suggestions
win32

Exodus
Psi
Trillian

'nix

Gaim
Psi
Tkabber

macos

Adium
iChat
Psi

When you start the client for the first time, it will ask if you want to register an account on a free public server. You can access the conference service from any server on the network, so go ahead and register an account with the server of your choice (the jabber.org server is a good option, but there are many public servers on the network, or you can run your own). But don't try to create an account on jabber.ietf.org (which does not have open registration) or jabber.ietf.org (which is the conference service only)!

If you want to find out more, instead of choosing these defaults, here are pointers to some additional information:

list of clients: http://www.jabber.org/software/clients.shtml
end-user howto: http://www.jabber.org/user/userguide/
public server list: http://www.xmpp.net
running your own server: http://www.jabber.org/admin/

To make sure everything is running ok, do "Join Group Chat" (or the equivalent) with your client:

Group/Room: hallway
Server: jabber.ietf.org

This conference room is up and running right now, although probably no one will be in it when you connect. (Note: you may need to provide the full conference room address, which is hallway@jabber.ietf.org).

Similarly, when you want to use the conference room for a given research group (e.g., one with the acronym 'foobar'), from your Jabber/XMPP client, follow the same procedure for joining a group chat but specify your room of choice:

Group/Room: foobar
Server: jabber.ietf.org
Using the Conference Room in Conjunction with Physical Meetings

  1. The chair asks if someone in the room is willing to act as "scribe". If no one volunteers, read no further, we're done!

  2. The scribe joins the conference room, and types in a running commentary as to what's going on in the room. For example, if a speaker makes a presentation, the scribe types in the URL for the presentation.

    Simlarly, during question time, a remote participant can type a question into the room and the scribe can pass it on to the speaker.

4.0 Questions?

If you have questions about the IETF text conferencing service, feel free to contact John Pope (admin of this chat service) via email or IM at <jpope@jabber.ietf.org>.

5.0 How It Works

Text conferencing at ietf.org uses the core protocol defined in the XMPP RFCs, supplemented by the text conferencing protocol extension defined in JEP-0045: Multi-User Chat.

6.0 Acknowledgements

Special thanks to David Sutton (lead developer of the mu-conference component) for code and scripts, and to Peter Saint-Andre for advice and assistance in moving the service to ietf.org

7.0 News

2006-03-10: Created rooms for dime, dirdir, dix, eai, hoakey, intarea, l1vpn, l2cp, ltans, nea, p2p-sip, raiarea, speermint, tcpm, asrg, dtnrg, hiprg, mobopts, p2prg, network.