Threading with Atom

The Atom feed specification has been enriched by a threading extension which further convince me it possess all the required qualities to be used as a standard for instant messaging logs.

As I mentioned earlier, Atom answers more than 90% of what is required to store and communicate content and meta-data for an IM logging system. With the addition of this latest RFC, it would become easier to reconcile IM threads. For example, to support the compliance applications requirements. Or to allow submission to a search engine.

More generally,  Atom may become a generalized exchange format for these applications, for any kind of conversation (IM, mail, blogs, wikis, etc…) That may not please the current vendors and their locked in proprietary exchange formats—the famous "we can export data as XML"—but this is what standards are about.

Technorati Tags: XMPP, Jabber, Atom, Interoperability, Instant messaging, Antecipate