Subject: I-D ACTION:draft-ramsdell-simp-protocol-00.txt

From: [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 21 Apr 2000 06:40:00 -0400

A New Internet-Draft is available from the on-line Internet-Drafts directories.

	Title		: Simple Instant Messaging and Presence 1.0 Protocol
	Author(s)	: J. Ramsdell
	Filename	: draft-ramsdell-simp-protocol-00.txt
	Pages		: 21
	Date		: 20-Apr-00
	
Instant messaging is designed to support message exchange at a rate
that supports chat-like conversations.  An instant message is
delivered quickly to a recipient if the recipient is listening for
messages, otherwise the message is dropped and the sender is informed
of the delivery failure.
A user of an instant messaging service can employ a presence service
to keep track of the listening status of a set of users.  By
consulting this service, a user has a good chance of predicting if a
message will get to its recipient.
The Simple Instant Messaging and Presence Protocol is designed so
that instant messaging and presence services can be provided by a set
of distributed servers spread across many administrative domains.
The vision is a service provided by a large number of sites much in
the way that electronic mail service is provided today.
The protocol is similar to email protocols.  Users are identified by
an Instant Message Address (IMA), which has the same syntax as an
Internet email address [Email].  A message is delivered by connecting
to the user's home server.  A future version of the protocol will
allow the use of digital signatures to authenticate the originator of
a message transported by this protocol.

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