No abstract

Status of this Memo This memo provides information for the Internet community. It does not specify an Internet standard of any kind. Distribution of this memo is unlimited.

Status of this Memo This memo provides information for the Internet community. It does not specify an Internet standard of any kind. Distribution of this memo is unlimited.

We introduce the Notification Service Transfer Protocol (NSTP), which provides a simple, common service for sharing state in synchronous multi-user applications. A Notification Server provides items of shared state to a collection of clients and notifies the clients whenever one of the items changes. The division between client and server in this system is unusual; the centralized state is uninterpreted by the server. Instead, the responsibility for semantics and processing falls on the clients, which collude to implement the application. After describing NSTP, we differentiate it from other systems in terms of the four design principles that have guided its development.

Presence and Instant Messaging have recently emerged as a new medium of communications over the Internet. Presence is a means for finding, retrieving, and subscribing to changes in the presence information (e.g. "online" or "offline") of other users. Instant messaging is a means for sending small, simple messages that are delivered immediately to online users.Applications of presence and instant messaging currently use independent, non-standard and non-interoperable protocols developed by various vendors. The goal of the Instant Messaging and Presence Protocol (IMPP) Working Group is to define a standard protocol so that independently developed applications of instant messaging and/or presence can interoperate across the Internet. This document defines a minimal set of requirements that IMPP must meet.