“The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) this week put
its instant messaging (IM) standard on the back burner, choosing to
overhaul and revamp the protocol through a conglomeration of
proposals submitted by various IM companies before June
15.”
“Although the IETF had been working on Instant Messaging and
Presence Protocol (IMPP) since last year, the proposed protocol was
tangled up in details and “abstractions,” which necessitated a
change, said IMPP working group co-chair Dave Marvit with Fujitsu
Laboratories America.”
“It turns out, the more you think about IM and try to get a
really good standard that’s both secure and scalable and easy to
write to and all that good stuff, it’s hard,” explained Marvit,
adding that the group has been “banging around discussing the
issues kind of in abstract” until realizing about two months ago
that writing a protocol of this scope could not be done correctly
by a committee.”