This talk explores the non-technical aspects of developing an open communication platform for the internet. XMPP has been continuously developed on the technical front for over 15 years, but what is our goal?

For many folk in the community, the goal is giving people the ability to communicate freely by giving them an unrestricted choice of software and service. Yet instead of outreach to those people beyond our community, our efforts are primarily poured into mailing lists, technical specifications and code. Small efforts to engage with those outside of our community and beyond our "comfort zone" of technical work can make a large difference.

We'll look at some of the work that has been, is being, and can be done by all of us to tackle today's proliferation of non-free proprietary messaging silos.