06-08, 11:00–11:50 (EST5EDT), Rocky Linux (BallroomB)
XMPP is more than a light and decentralized messaging protocol: Using "PubSub", one can transform it into a functional post-based social media. Clients like Movim use this to create entirely decentralized social media services.
For most people, the eXtensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) is exactly what it stands for. Its most popular usage is instant messaging: WhatsApp uses it for its messaging backend, for example. What truly makes XMPP special though is its federation features, similar to Email.
Nowadays, new feature extensions for XMPP are published as XEPs. These documents lay out additional features for the protocol, such as its decentralized messaging capabilities, voice and video calling, and file transfers. XEP-0060 describes a feature known as "Publish Subscribe" (PubSub). As the name implies, it allows XMPP users to subscribe to "nodes" and publish information to these as well.
Movim, a web-based XMPP client that works across all platforms, is known for using the PubSub feature to its fullest: It allows users to publish posts and subscribe to other users' nodes, all using Publish-Subscribe. Just like XMPP messaging and calling, this feature can be federated, allowing users to access posts across all public XMPP servers. PubSub also supports exporting to various formats, such as RSS and Atom, and Movim has a tool written in Python which allows its servers to retrieve Atom feeds and automatically convert them into PubSub nodes.
Unfortunately however, no other XMPP client to date comes close to Movim's level of PubSub integration. There is still a lot of work to be done here, and this technology is far from reaching its fullest potential. The future likely holds exciting growth for XMPP!
Hi, I'm Denshi! I'm mostly known for my YouTube channel, DenshiVideo, where I make a variety of Linux-related (and unrelated) videos. I run denshi.org, which is where I publish articles to my blog and RSS feed.