What I Do
2006-04-20
Recently I realized that I don't post much about what I do day to day, since I assume that most folks who read this blog subscribe to the Standards list and therefore see all the specifications I work on. But that assumption is most likely false, so I will work to post more often about the items in my dotplan.
First, I'll try to describe in general terms what I do all day long.
In essence, I have overall responsibility for ensuring that Jabber/XMPP technologies (i.e., the Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol, its extensions and various implementations) are, and are perceived as, the open alternative and critical Internet standards for presence, messaging, and real-time communication. To that end, I do the following:
- Author the vast majority of XMPP specifications and extensions in a clear, compelling manner that maintains the overall cohesiveness of Jabber/XMPP technologies, as well as shepherd them through the IETF and JSF standards processes over 1-4 year periods for each specification
- Work smoothly with high-level technical respresentatives from leading Internet technology companies (e.g., Google, Apple, Sun, IBM) to extend XMPP technologies into new functional areas such as multimedia communications
- Translate requirements from organizations using XMPP technologies (e.g., telecommunications, government, and financial sectors) into specifications that are broadly acceptable to the entire Jabber/XMPP standards community
- Act as a technical and organizational liaison to other standards development organizations, such as the IETF, W3C, ITU-T, Liberty Alliance, and OASIS
- Present compelling talks about Jabber/XMPP technologies at 5-10 high-profile industry conferences each year
- Author clear, convincing technical articles about Jabber/XMPP technologies for industry publications
- Regularly represent Jabber/XMPP technologies to both journalists and industry analysts
- Consult regularly with open-source developers and with a variety of organizations regarding their existing projects in order to maintain forward momentum for the Jabber/XMPP community as a whole
- Publish timely news and observations to maintain the "buzz" around Jabber/XMPP technologies, leveraging cutting-edge technologies such as weblogs and wikis
- Manage the day-to-day operations of the Jabber Software Foundation; relevant aspects include financial (including recruiting and tending to sponsors, and setting financial goals), legal (e.g., setting intellectual property policies), technical (running the JSF's standards process and the functions of the Jabber Registrar), infrastructural (e.g., maintaining websites, servers, and discussion lists), and organizational (e.g., running XMPP interoperability events and potentially developer conferences)
It helps that I possess:
- High standing in the Jabber/XMPP community in order to provide overall leadership regarding the direction of Jabber/XMPP technologies
- Deep knowledge of open-source software but am also respectful of other licensing approaches, including commercial, freeware, and shareware
- Outstanding organizational and time management skills, thus being able to maintain high productivity in the face of constant interruptions from developers, users, and other members of the Jabber/XMPP community
- Extreme patience and humility, a positive attitude, and the political acumen and interpersonal tact to bring multiple (often competing) parties to consensus in a fully open manner
Yes, you can consider the foregoing a job description of sorts. Not that I always live up to the hype (cardinal rule: never listen to your own PR). :-)
Now, back to work...
Peter Saint-Andre > Journal