Episode 193: FOSSY 2023 with Matthew Wild & Stephen Paul Weber

Guests Matthew Wild | Stephen Paul Weber Panelists Richard Littauer
Show Notes Hello and welcome to Sustain! Richard is in Portland at
FOSSY, the Free and Open Source Software Yearly conference that is
held by the Software Freedom Conservancy. Today, he engages with
XMPP protocol experts Matthew Wild and Stephen Paul. Matthew shares
about his project, Snikket, which aims to make XMPP more accessible
for everyday communication among friends and family groups. Stephen
introduces JMP, a project designed to facilitate connections using
an XMPP based stack, allowing smoother transitions from other
communication platforms. They explore why XMPP stands out against
competitors, and you’ll get a glimpse into JMP’s transparent
funding model, Snikket’s user base, and the open source projects
it’s built upon. Our guests also discuss their future visions,
highlighting the importance of open communication and the potential
for growth in the XMPP ecosystem. Hit download to hear more!
[00:00:48] Matthew talks about his work with Snikket, and Stephen
talks about the project JMP, which helps people connect with their
friends and family using XMPP based stack and transition from other
communication platforms. [00:01:57] Matthew explains why XMPP is a
better protocol for Snikket compared to Signal; the main reason
being that XMPP is federated, giving users more choice. [00:02:42]
Matthew tells us how XMPP is different from Matrix and Delta Chat.
[00:04:06] Stephen agrees with Matthew, stating that JMP also
supports multiple protocols and wishes to promote open
communication, and acknowledges concerns around Matrix’s
scalability and funding models. [00:04:47] Stephen describes JMP’s
straightforward funding model with customers paying a monthly fee
for their services. Matthew reveals that Snicket’s user base is
hard to determine due to self-hosting and different statistics.
[00:06:21] Matthew explains that Snicket is built on a variety of
XMPP-based open-source projects, including Prosody, Conversations
on Android, and Siskin on iOS. Stephen mentions that JMP is a
five-member team. [00:07:37] Stephen explains JMP’s business model,
stating they function on a traditional business model where
customer directly pay for the services they receive, and they
operate as a cooperative. [00:08:59] JMP has about 3,300 paying
customers and Stephen explains they don’t have a dedicated
marketing team, but they use blogs. [00:10:03] Stephen explains
that he and the other primary founder of JMP do not currently draw
income from the project. [00:10:54] Richard asks Matthew and
Stephen about their long-term vision for their projects. Matthew
explains his goal is open communication and Stephen shares his goal
is create sustainable funding for the XMPP ecosystem. [00:13:22]
Why are Matthew and Stephen focused on XMPP? Matthew tells us he
always had a passion for communication and Stephen emphasizes the
importance of communication, stating it’s often overlooked and
consumes by proprietary silos, which can be harmful. [00:14:47]
Find out where you can follow Matthew and Stephen and learn more
about JMP and Snikket. Links SustainOSS (https://sustainoss.org/)
SustainOSS Twitter
(https://twitter.com/SustainOSS?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor)
SustainOSS Discourse (https://discourse.sustainoss.org/)
podcast@sustainoss.org (mailto:podcast@sustainoss.org) SustainOSS
Mastodon (https://mastodon.social/tags/sustainoss) Richard Littauer
Twitter (https://twitter.com/richlitt?lang=en) Software Freedom
Conservancy (https://sfconservancy.org/) Open OSS
(https://openoss.sourceforge.net/) Matthew Wild Website
(https://matthewwild.co.uk/) Stephen Paul Weber Website
(https://singpolyma.net/) Snikket (https://snikket.org/) JMP
(https://jmp.chat/) Credits Produced by Richard Littauer
(https://www.burntfen.com/) Edited by Paul M. Bahr at Peachtree
Sound (https://www.peachtreesound.com/) Show notes by DeAnn Bahr
Peachtree Sound (https://www.peachtreesound.com/) Special Guests:
Matthew Wild and Stephen Paul Weber.