Hi everyone,

As a few days have passed and no objections have come up, it seems safe to say there is general support for engaging with the DI.DAY initiative. \o/

I want to clarify one point about the idea that we are already "beyond this" because some XMPP community members have reached out to DI.DAY. I do not see that as a reason to slow down or stop further effort. If anything, it makes it more useful to make sure our own members and projects are aware of what is going on.

One helpful role for the Communications Team could be to spread awareness of the DI.DAY initiative within our own community. Not everyone follows the same channels, and not all projects will know about DI.DAY or about the opportunities it creates. Sharing this information simply gives people the chance to decide for themselves if and how they want to get involved.

It is also worth saying that the fact that some people have already reached out does not mean others cannot or should not do the same. I do not know what approach was used in the first outreach. Seeing interest from multiple projects and people can actually be a good signal for the DI.DAY organizers.

When it comes to showing solutions, I think it can sometimes be better to lead with individual projects rather than the word XMPP itself. XMPP as a term is not very appealing to most end users, and DI.DAY mainly targets end users. Showing real projects and what they offer may be more attractive, and less off putting for the organizers. Those projects can still mention XMPP if they want, but the focus would be on their value, not just on the protocol they use.

I also think there is more we can do than just aiming for a listing on the DI.DAY website. Even if some projects decide not to be listed there, they could still benefit from the visibility around the initiative by aligning blog posts, announcements, or other outreach with it.

Finally, I understand there is already a group chat where people involved are coordinating this work. Pointing interested members to that chat and inviting them to join the ongoing effort seems like a very practical next step.

To be clear, I am not against a simple public endorsement. I just feel there is a lot more we could do here, and that a slightly more active approach could massively benefit our projects and the wider ecosystem.

Kind regards,

  Guus

On Fri, Jan 9, 2026 at 9:50 PM Dave Cridland <dave@cridland.net> wrote:
Heiner,

I think this is exactly the kind of thing that both underlines Guus's notion that we (the XSF) might help promote such projects to the DID people (and quite possibly others), and also the kind of outreach that emus's message to the Members list helps start - so I'm glad Board asked him to communicate internally first.

As Guus says, I'm sure there's projects that I'm unaware of that would benefit, as well as projects like yours that I did know about but hadn't thought about in this context.

We should uncover these projects for the XSF's own purposes as well, they're fascinating examples of the diverse ways in which XMPP is used, and would make for some great content for the blog I'd think.

Plus we can help them promote themselves to sites and initiatives like DID, which may not care (and needn't be aware) they're using XMPP.

Dave.

On Fri, 9 Jan 2026 at 20:29, Heiner Wolf <wolf.heiner@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi all,

I do not know how we/you can use that, but ...

... keywords and goals of "Save Social - Networks for Democracy" align very much with our weblin.io project, were we have been using XMPP for a long time to create a chat client with animated avatars that lets people meet on web pages. 

So, 
it's a social network without being a Social Media Silo
it's based in europe, 
it's open source, 
does not require a login or profile,
does not require you to pay by profile data in order to talk to people,
works everywhere. There is no dedicated domain like facebook, x, tiktok.
It makes every web page a place where peole meet and talk, any web page,
enabling communication on the long tail of the web,
where like minded people meet because they visit the same pages..

Reclaim the Web.
The Web is the Metaverse.

All that aligns greatly with Di.Day's goals.
Of course, I also support XMPP in general for Di.Day.
Just wanted to mention a concrete XMPP based project that fits.

Best
hw
--
Dr. Heiner Wolf
Autor, Dev, Agile Coach, CTO


On Thu, 8 Jan 2026 at 22:44, Guus der Kinderen <guus.der.kinderen@gmail.com> wrote:
Hello everyone,

For those who may not be familiar with it (I wasn't until looking into it tonight), Digital Independence Day (DI.DAY) is a German initiative by "Save Social - Networks for Democracy" that aims to raise awareness around digital sovereignty, vendor independence, and alternatives to centralized platforms. The campaign combines public messaging with practical actions, such as curated "recipes" for switching tools and local events that help people move towards more independent digital infrastructure.

Speaking personally, I do not have objections to the initiative itself, and I agree that its general goals are well aligned with many of the values behind XMPP. At the same time, it would be wrong to assume that no one else might have reservations, or different ideas about how (or whether) XSF should associate itself with it. That in itself is a key reason for involving the members-list.

I would also like to suggest that we take a bit of time to think about how we engage, rather than focusing on a simple public endorsement. At the moment, the initiative does not list XMPP-specific content or any of our projects. Promoting it outwardly in its current form may be nice, but arguably does little to directly benefit our members, our ecosystem, or our projects.

Instead, I believe we may get much more value by first looking at ways to leverage this initiative for our community. For example:
  • Projects like Snikket or Quicksy could explore whether they qualify to be added as a "recipe" on the DI.DAY website.
  • Even for projects not on the DI.DAY website, we can probably think of ways to piggy-back on the initiative in a sensible way. 
  • Some projects might want to participate in or align with the initiative's recurring local events that help people switch tools and platforms.
The Communications Team could initially focus on reaching out within our ecosystem, making projects aware of the initiative and helping them engage with it where it makes sense. From my perspective, that kind of engagement would be far more meaningful than a token message of support for an initiative that does not yet reference our work.

I am very interested in hearing other views on this - both regarding potential concerns, and ideas for more effective or mutually beneficial ways of associating ourselves with DI.DAY.

Kind regards,

  Guus

On Thu, Jan 8, 2026 at 7:45 PM E.M. <emus@mailbox.org> wrote:
Dear all,

XSF Communication Team basically just intended to ask for permission
from Board. But they ask us to reach out to all of you. So here we go!

Currently there is a new initiative going on from Save Social – Networks
For Democracy. It's called the Digital Independence Day - Di.Day in
Germany. https://di.day/en (Sorry, no English version yet)

While XMPP members already contacted them to list XMPP as recommended
technology as well (we were not involved). Though, we think it is a good
thing, we wanted to ask if anything speaks against supporting this
campaign and aloow higher presence of XMPP as technology?

We are basically asking whether we can write messages in the media
channels like this:
________________
In Germany the word spreads for the "Digital Independence Day"
(https://di.day), and we also find vendor-independent messaging great!

Coincidentally, the first ‘DI.DAY’ was on the anniversary of XMPP,
January 4th!

So let's go for digital independence and sovereignty!
________________

We believe this could get us certain media attention in a significant
big media campaign in Germany.

Best regards,
Eddie