Hello, I’ve been using XMPP for a while and it is great. Hosting a server is also very easy, there’s even Snikket which I’ve been able to convince semi-technical people to host on their computers. The problem is that not enough people use this protocol. (yet!)
I was wondering if anyone has tried to pitch the idea of hosting instances to universities lately. They all have their own email and web servers, why not have instant messaging as well? Historically places of study and research have been the starting points for technological improvement. Professors would show students that they can communicate easily without feeding Big Tech their data and without the fear that their communication channel could be taken away at any point.
If your specific university has taught you about XMPP, that’s great. Sadly here in Eastern Europe our professors aren’t really engaged in what they do and the things that they teach are pretty old. Even they use WhatsApp, which is depressing. (and infuriating because technically it also uses XMPP, just that it’s a modified and closed down version of it)
I’ve remained in contact with one of my professors who teaches cybersecurity, and it really wouldn’t be hard to convince him of the need for free ways to communicate online. If you did something similar, is there anything that I should know before I start this process?
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Most of them will probably have some jaded grey beard IT admin that will tell stories about how they used to have an xmpp server 20 years ago and no one was using it 🤷
Twenty years ago it wasn’t half as much fun. The early smartphone devices that allowed mobile internet access weren’t great, it all was expensive and people didn’t really chat on the go.
MSN and AOL were still huge.
I mean, I doubt I’d have used it much had I known about it back then, simply because it’s not much fun if people are online perhaps once or twice a week, as was the case back then, very often.
I used to write a lot more email due to that.
Universities traditionally use XMPP a lot, at least I have heard from a lot that do.
Pitch them something that integrates well into their environment with an Identity Provider and also show them how XMPP os great for complying witj privacy regulations, such as GDPR.
First think about what to pitch, then find some allies in the organisation, perhaps a professor or two, then pitch it with support.
Make a good pitch, if they say no it’s game over. Until then make good points.
