Skype Client XMPP Support for Facebook

Skype released a beta version for Windows with support for Facebook Chat. They are doing it through XMPP directly from Skype BETA Client.

Packet Trace with the proof that Skype Client now connects to Facebook using XMPP.

Once again XMPP moves forward in becoming the universal bus for 'realtime' communications.
Companies that are not understanding the importance of being 'realtime' will soon realize that their time is gone.

Hopefully in the future we also have support for other open alternatives for Audio/Video Communications on Skype like Jingle and Jingle Nodes. Like Google did adopting the Standard Jingle.

Standard Jingle on Google

After many year after its creation and early adoption, Google finally announced the switch from their own Jingle variant to the Standard Jingle Version created, approved and maintained by XMPP Foundation.
This comes in the right moment after the previously GIPS Media Company now owned by Google itself, announced the OpenSource WebRTC Project. Which intends to provide multimedia and realtime communication capabilities to Browser like Firefox, Chrome, Opera, etc...

Google intend to bring rich communication also to their other browser products like Orkut, iGoogle and even adSense with Ads that could place direct calls to the announcers.

This will enabled direct compatibility to the already know Jingle Clients Jitsi, OneTeam, Pidgin and others. The amplifier of this announcement is that soon we may be seeing native Jingle Support on Android OS, which will make a great and powerful opposition to Skype Mobile Market.

Nimbuzz was the very first Mobile Company to runs their entirely Voice Services over Jingle since 2007. They would have immediate benefit if they were allowing XMPP Federation, which currently is blocked. For now they support GTalk Calls but requires the user to have a Google account registered (which is not a big problem, but not as handy as it could be).

Hopefully Jingle Nodes will also be adopted soon as the default mechanism for Relay Sharing Discovering for Jingle. Stay tuned for more good news. 

XMPP Server SRV Record Tutorial

With the new Openfire Version (3.7.0) released in March. I noticed a change in the S2S (federation) integration and would like to share the tips to help the setup to be done by other XMPP System Admins.

To prevent connection issue among the Servers it is required the registration of the SRV records according to the example:

In the case of the domain minhaempresa.com.br and the jabber domain to be  xmpp.minhaempresa.com.br the following records are required:

• _jabber._tcp.xmpp.minhaempresa.com.br
• _jabber._tcp.minhaempresa.com.br
• _xmpp-server._tcp.xmpp.minhaempresa.com.br
• _xmpp-server._tcp.minhaempresa.com.br

All the registration must point to your jabber domain, as noticed below:

marcelo@hellboy:~$ dig srv _xmpp-server._tcp.minhaempresa.com.br

; <<>> DiG 9.7.3 <<>> srv _xmpp-server._tcp.minhaempresa.com.br
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 11368
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;_xmpp-server._tcp.minhaempresa.com.br. IN SRV

;; ANSWER SECTION:
_xmpp-server._tcp.minhaempresa.com.br. 86297 IN SRV 0 1 5269 xmpp.minhaempresa.com.br.

;; Query time: 16 msec
;; SERVER: 200.175.5.139#53(200.175.5.139)
;; WHEN: Sun May 15 00:24:00 2011
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 89

I've have faced this situation when migrating a customer server that was upgraded a from a previous version of Openfire. If you don't register the domain fixing SRV record, S2S functionallity will not work.

* This is an authorized translation from the Blog Mundo OpenSource written by Marcelo Terres.  Especial thanks for the great and simple guide for setting up DNS SRV records required for an XMPP server.

Open Discussion Day - 19th May

On May 19^th is celebrated Open Discussion Day, a promotion day dedicated for open communication systems and protocols.
Communication is a natural necessity and should be open and available for everyone.
If you care about your own freedom of choice on how you IM and Call your friends, like you currently have with your email, from which you can send and receive emails from every server. Consider using an XMPP solution for such.

XMPP is free to use, and they don't restrict you to one provider or one client or even server.

Related Posts:

• IM Freedom? Not yet... 
• http://opendiscussionday.org/ 

Android Video Call over Jingle

Finally! Google released what they already had. Video Call on Android!
As we know Google Talk already offers Video Calls even on gmail web client, now they extended the support also for Android 2.3.4.
The technology behind it, is the same behind gmail Video Call, XMPP and Jingle.

As GTalk also support XMPP Federation, Jingle is one step ahead towards World domination!

Promissing Alternative for XMPP API

Recently I got a comment in the blog about hXMPP which is an alternative for multi-platform code.
I spend some time checking their Jingle Code and also how easy is to use the examples. The result is that the developer should be proud. It is a very nice accomplished work.

Specially in Browsers with WebSocket support, that may be the way to go. For now thay have good BOSH Support.



Check the project and examples at: http://hxmpp.disktree.net/

Give it a try!

Jingle Nodes Updates

Jingle Nodes will complete 9 months of official Specification published. As suggested by @luissoeiro, I will summit what happened so far.

• Erlang Relay based on exmpp fully compatible with ejabberd and Tigase
• jn_erl_0.1.0.tar.gz
• Openfire Plugin, it is a simple and plug and play Plugin for Openfire
• jingleNodes.jar
• OneTeam client from process-one with full support for Jingle Nodes
• http://oneteam.im/
• Talkr.im a public XMPP Server from process-one with full support for Jingle Nodes
• http://talkr.im/
• Professional Logo contributed by Fernando Lins
• Jingle Nodes Selo.png
• Jingle Nodes Presented in 3 key events and confirmed other
• FOSDEM 2010
• SeaBeyond
• FISL11
• Campus Party Brazil 2011
• SIP Communicator announced Jingle Nodes Support is being added to main Version
• http://sip-communicator.org/
• Special thanks to NLNet that sponsored contributions and ignited the project
• http://www.nlnet.nl/

How to contribute to Jingle Nodes:

• Writing Code and Discuss the Specification - All fixes, patches and suggestions are always welcome (Jingle Nodes Group)
• Talk about the project - Talk about Jingle Nodes simplicity and how it's easier than other alternatives
• Propaganda - Add a Jingle Nodes Image to your Blog or Website (Jingle Nodes Selo.png)
• Write a Tutorial - Describe how you are making use of Jingle Nodes
• Testing and giving feedback - Your opinion matters!

Jingle and Gaming

I've being discussing too much about VoIP on Jingle and we are almost forgetting that Jingle is also very suitable for Realtime Games, that requires very low Latency.
Having Multi-Player games using Jingle doesn't mean all the commands, events and actions will be sent in XMPP Format through IQs.
Jingle can also be used to negotiate direct TCP or UDP ByteStreams which is the most suited for low latency Games like Shooting Games for instance:

<iq from='romeo@3drealms.com/borntobewild'
 id='ph37a419'
 to='juliet@dnforever.com/makemyday'
 type='set'>
    <jingle xmlns='urn:xmpp:jingle:1'
     action='session-initiate'
     initiator='romeo@3drealms.com/borntobewild'
     sid='ohhyeah'>
        <content creator='initiator' name='dukenukem'>
            <description
             xmlns='http://dukenukemonline.com'
             media='game'>
                <payload-type id='1' type='controller'/>
            </description>
            <transport
             xmlns='urn:xmpp:jingle:transports:tcp'
             pwd='asd88fgpdd777uzjYhagZg'
             ufrag='8hhy'>
                <candidate component='1'
                 foundation='2'
                 generation='0'
                 id='y3s2b30v3r'
                 ip='192.0.2.3'
                 network='1'
                 port='45664'
                 priority='1694498815'
                 protocol='tcp'
                 rel-addr='10.0.1.1'
                 rel-port='8998'
                 type='srflx'/>
            </transport>
        </content>
    </jingle>
</iq>

So if you are looking forward to build Multiplayer Games, you may consider ejabberd or Openfire a ready to use platform for such.
This is an insight post, so please fell free to send question and ideas as comments.

Jingle Nodes Proxy and EU Surveillance

"The German Pirate Party has disclosed some secret documents on how the EU is planning to monitor citizens. The so called INDECT Documents describe how a seamless surveillance could (or should) be implemented across Europe. The use of CCTV cameras, the internet (social networks) and even the use of UAVs are mentioned as data sources. Two of the nine documents can be downloaded from the German Pirate Party's website (PDFs in English)."

When I read this news on Slashdot.org, as an enthusiast of civil freedom, I immediately downloaded both documents available in the Link. But what I found was more interesting for me than the news itself. In the "The communications framework architecture" section, the document contains the following diagram:

They not only use XMPP and Jingle, but also Jingle based RTP Server/Proxy which is the essence of Jingle Nodes Specification. Specially if we refer to the very beginning back on the Jingle RTP Proxy in Openfire (2006):

2006 - Diagram for Openfire RTP Proxy

It is very cool to see how new technology is overwhelmed for a while, before the real life adoption starts.

In regard of the EU Surveillance, I hope they don't manage to use it for Surveillance but to provide Free and Open Communication alternative for Citizens. Because that is actually what the Architecture in the document and Jingle Nodes are about.

European population cannot accept what Egypt did and now India is trying to do with all Internet Communications system, install a dictatorial, monitored and censored Internet communication. This don't only harm Citizens Freedom but also basic rights of privacy.

For those people who believes these are anti-terrorist measures, stop acting like an ignorant blind animal, and remember that is way easier and anonymous for a terrorist to buy a pre-paid SIM card place one single call and then throw it away, to actually use Internet Communications. The main interest is "Command-and-Control" the ability to control Prices and Profits through a basic human necessity: Communication.

STOP 

Surveillance 

and 

START 

Open Communication!

Facebook VoIP Architecture and the Death of Phone Numbers

As we know Facebook supports XMPP for Chat, meaning you can use your preferred XMPP Client to use Facebook for Chat. But do you really think Facebook rolled out XMPP support only for Chat?
If so, you are indeed wrong.
Facebook wants to expend their communication profile. Like others like Google, MSN, Yahoo, Skype, etc, they also want realtime interaction meaning Voice and Video communications.

Reasons:

• Facebook users have more Facebook Friends than contacts in their phonebook.
• People change phone numbers and your are not automatically updated.
• Phone Numbers belongs to Operators/Countries, your Facebook account is much more personal.
• You can control who can call you. On regular phone you are often victim of unwanted calls.
• Phone Calls and SMS are more expensive them IM and VoIP in most cases.
• Facebook average number of Contacts per user is way bigger than Skype.
• Skype is too limited and close to create the same loyalty that Facebook always had.
• If they also open this for XMPP Federation, it would indeed speed up the death of "phone numbers" as we know.

Technology:

• As Facebook already have support for XMPP Chat, certainly they will use XMPP Jingle.
• For Media Relay and Distribution Points? For sure Jingle Nodes will be the simplest, fastest and most reliable way to delivery Multimedia for their gigantic number of users at once.
• How would it look like for browser users? They will use new advanced browser features to have Jingle Clients running on it. Like GMail already have for a long while.
• They already have the PERFECT routing and presence in place, XMPP for Chat, same exact route can be used for Jingle if Facebook enable support for IQ routing in their XMPP network.

Overall Picture:

This post is a proposition of how Facebook will do their Voice/Video support in near future. The use of Jingle and Jingle Nodes is not confirmed at all. But sure will be an extremely bad idea of Facebook to do not do it like described above! I challenge them to do it better and more open than this.

Jingle Nodes at FISL 11

New Jingle Nodes Specifications will be presented at FISL 11. Besides the regular updates about the specifications, it will also be discussed Jingle Nodes adoption plan and current implementations.

FISL takes place in Porto Alegre and it is the biggest OpenSource and OpenStandards event of Latin America.

Other XMPP topics like Openfire and ejabberd deployments (presented by the current Openfire maintainer Guus der Kinderen), and also clients like OneTeam/SIP Communicator Jingle Nodes Demo etc.

Especial Thanks to:

• NLnet Foundation who sponsored the development of the prototype APIs for Server and Client. And the whole campaign of the specification publish.
• Fernando Lins for the awesome and professional new Jingle Nodes Logo.

STUN Discovery via JIngle Nodes

After a few months finally I got time to review and update Jingle Nodes Specifications. It is not yet submitted to xmpp.org, but you can sneak peak for now at: Jingle Nodes [Temp]
The most relevant change is that Jingle Nodes now will support STUN Tracking, which means that users can also share known STUN Servers. This is very handy and most of all, it is very easy to access STUN Servers as they not require authentication for Public IP Discovery.
After all, the most popular XMPP Servers in the market already offers embedded STUN Service (ejabberd STUN).
Google Talk Network also provides STUN Services, so they can also be shared through Jingle Nodes.

Another minor fixes and changes were also added.
Please fell free to read and submit critics and comments to it.

Jingle Nodes - So far

After Jingle Nodes got submitted to XMPP.org inbox, the number of visits on the website and the Specifications grow at least 100%. This is a great step towards an OpenStandard P2P VoIP.
Imagine that the very first implementation was in Openfire in 2006, which was kind of rejected by several Jingle Developers(due STUN/TURN promiss) but accepted and used by SIP Community back there(which knew STUN/TURN are painful for P2P). 

In summary we already accomplished:

• In 2010, we have the specification on XMPP.org inbox: http://xmpp.org/extensions/inbox/jingle-nodes.html
• In 2010, we have the specification accepted as 'Experimental' on XMPP.org: http://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0278.html
  
• Server Side Component 100% ready to use - Check http://xmppjingle.org for Download and Sources
• Client Side API (60% done) -  Check http://xmppjingle.org for Download and Sources
• Demo Client (Under Selection) - If you are a Client developer of an OpenSource XMPP Client and have interest on Jingle Nodes supports, you are a potential candidate. Contact us.
• Sea Beyond - Paris, 17th December 2009: Jingle experimenting session and a presentation, which is a new technical event that explores the future of real-time communication technology. It is organized by ProcessOne, an authority in XMPP and real-time communication software. 
• FOSDEM 2010 - XMPP Devroom @FOSDEM 2010 Presentation and Investigation about other P2P Solution adopted by Jingle Developers
• Talkr.im - The free IM service Talkr.im is running a public Jingle Nodes for their users. 

Special thanks:

NLnet foundation financially supports organizations and people that contribute to an open information society. And NLnet is sponsoring Jingle Nodes Contributions and Developments which also explains the fast development and accomplishments of the project. The community of OpenStandards and Specially all involved with Jingle Nodes project are proud and thankful for having such a great foundation helping and incentive towards XMPP and Jingle Freedom.
Jingle Nodes is a specification based on implementation and deployment needs, meaning that we have it first running and compiling, for later publish of the complete specification. Which makes it a ready to use technology and not only a technology paper. Thanks NLnet :)

What we have in the horizon:

• An Official recommend demo Client.
• A New Better Professional Logo contributed by Fernando Lins
• More Corporate and Public Deployments.
• Specification Improvements and Approval.
• Adoption in major Jingle Clients.
• Events. We LOVE Events and Invitations!

Running Code

It has been just a few days since Jingle Nodes alpha XEP was dropped in XMPP.org inbox, and we already have running code :)
Talkr.im announced today that they are running a Jingle Node Public Relay in their Server, and every Talkr.im user can make use of it for Jingle Calls.

They are running the code from http://xmppjingle.org (Erlang Version), which holds main Jingle Nodes Contributions.

In order to consume their Relay services you just need one IQ Packet (see http://xmpp.org/extensions/inbox/jingle-nodes.html )

Lets see who will be the first to distribute a Jingle Client with Jingle Nodes support!

XMPP Facebook Jingle Support?

NO 

Unfortunately Facebook XMPP doesn't support IQ routing between users meaning "NO JINGLE ALLOWED!".
This is bad not only for the Users, but also bad for Facebook, which could be happy right now, with VoIP support.

Let's hope they improve their services in order to fully support XMPP allowing users to experience the best of IM Freedom!

Anyway, this is an important step for XMPP Community which just got 400 Million potential users.

Jingle Nodes goes to FOSDEM

Jingle Nodes is going to XMPP Summit 8 and FOSDEM, both events occurring simultaneously in Brussels, Belgium from 5 until 8 of February 2010.

If you are going to the summit, feel free to ping me about Jingle Nodes for ideas, question, contributions etc.
Attending FOSDEM you are invited for a quick talk about how Jingle can provide an Open alternative to Skype (for Skype as well).

For agenda check: http://xmpp.org/summit/summit8.shtml

The great portion of it will occur on Friday 5, the XMPP Hacking, a great opportunity for XMPP and Jingle developers interop what they have built. Less talk, more code!

Movies Bot and Bots website

movies@xmppguru.appspotchat.com

If sometimes you are at a video rent store, or in a torrent site searching for something to watch, and you often run out of convict opinion this is your Bot. Just send a message containing the name of the movie, and it will reply with a recommendation. 

I'm sure the Movies Bot can save you some money and time regarding "trash" movies, which by the way are big majority nowadays specially in Hollywood.

Of course you won't always agree about the opinion, but I'm pretty sure it will give you wise and precise alerts before renting/downloading really BAD movies!

Just give it a try and let us know the reliability of the answers.

NEWS!!!

Now you can follow the xmppguru and its extensions, go to http://xmppguru.appspot.com and check out in realtime latest questions and answers from other users.

quotes@xmppguru.appspotchat.com - a Self-Help Bot (or Not)

quotes@xmppguru.appspotchat.com

Yet Another XMPP Bot! This time it is meant for nice quotes that should increase your "anymus" at work, in a boring day or in both at the same time as usual. After checking that more than 25% of all messages to xmppguru@appspot.com where about personal problems and assistance requests, I decided to build something to help those poor XMPP users.
So basically the recommended usage is:

1. Swear to the Bot! Use bad words freely. He always understand you... (This is a MUST, if you don't say anything he won't help you)
2. Get a nice quote back that eventually will help you with motivation or pushes.

You can use the xmppguru extension by simple adding it to your GTalk's / Jabber Contacts: quotes@xmppguru.appspotchat.com

Examples of general usage
To receive a quote, simple express your feeling.

Chat Message: I hate this rainy day!!! Screw it!
quotes@xmppguru.appspot.com: "Sometimes water is better than snow..." - Someone from somewhere

Chat Message: what the f*** you are not helping shi*** bot!
zaptin@xmppguru.appspot.com: "" - "Honest disagreement is often a good sign of progress." - Gandhi

It is not scientifically proved, but it might help. At least, in the worst case, will be an always online friend that is always willing to hear your complains. Always there in your roster.

URL Shortener XMPP Bot

zaptin@xmppguru.appspotchat.com

XMPP Provides easy and clean ways to build XMPP Bots, as I showed on the previous post, we can use Google AppEngine to create 24h online, zero-maintenance Bots. Yes, I don't need to host this. Google is doing the job for now, for free, let it be.

You can use the xmppguru extension to Short URL simply add it to your GTalk's / Jabber Contacts: zaptin@xmppguru.appspotchat.com

Examples of general usage
To request a Short Version of your URL just send a message containing the URL.

Chat Message: http://pixagle.appspot.com
zaptin@xmppguru.appspot.com: http://zapt.in/D5 -> http://pixagle.appspot.com

Chat Message: xmppjingle.org
zaptin@xmppguru.appspot.com: http://zapt.in/D1 -> http://xmppjingle.org

This is quite handy, avoiding all the hassle to visit one of the other URL Shorteners just to have a smaller URL.

XMPP Bots - XMPPGuru

xmppguru@appspot.com

XMPP Provides easy and clean ways to build XMPP Bots, as I showed on the previous post, we can use Google AppEngine to create 24h online, zero-maintenance Bots.


One interesting Bot is a Guru One, the main objective of this Bot is to clarify topics, answer general knowledge questions and retrieve hints for general opinion.
You can add it to your GTalk's / Jabber Contacts: xmppguru@appspot.com


Examples of general knowledge:
Question: What is Aerosmith?
xmppguru: Aerosmith is an American hard rock band, sometimes referred to as "The Bad Boys from Boston" and "America's Greatest Rock and Roll Band".

Question: What is an atomic bomb?
xmppguru: nuclear weapon: an explosive device whose destructive power is due to the uncontrollable release of energy from the fission of heavy nuclei, usually uranium-235 or plutonium-239, by neutrons sustaining a rapid chain reaction

Question:  Who invented the harpoon?
xmppguru: Endangered Species question: Who invented the harpoon cannon? Sven (or Svend) Foyn (1809-1894) was a whaler born in Tønsberg in southeast Norway. In 1856, he invented the bow ... 

Examples of general opinion:

Question: What is a good song?

xmppguru: What is a good song to "give" someone who you are …

Question: Do you trust god?

xmppguru: The Bible tells us to have faith: (Hebrews 11:6 NIV) And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he ...

The Bot is not meant to have conscience neither deep lexical interpretation, the goal is to answer your question when possible, something directly with a straight answer, but something also vague hints.

For unknown answers the principe is the same of Horoscope, but in a scientific way. 

the best way of discovering how it works, purpose and functionality is by testing it.

Sometimes you will be surprised even asking by your full name. In the same way you will be surprised by crappy answers. Enjoy!