Singpolyma

Pempeth (from the ancient Greek for 'to send') is an experimental protocol to allow messages to be sent between people without the need to give out an email address (ala Facebook Messages). The original concept is outlined in my earlier post, the current draft is here.

Discovery

The client (message-sending software) can find the REST endpoint using XRDS/Yadis. The main type URL is http://singpolyma.net/pempeth/ to specify private/public messages add http://singpolyma.net/pempeth/private/ or http://singpolyma.net/pempeth/public/

For example:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<xrds:XRDS xmlns:xrds="xri://$xrds" xmlns="xri://$xrd*($v*2.0)">
<XRD>
<Service priority="50">
<Type>http://singpolyma.net/pempeth/</Type>
<Type>http://singpolyma.net/pempeth/private/</Type>
<URI>http://example.com/msg-endpoint</URI>
</Service>
</XRD>
</xrds:XRDS>

Passing Data

ALL data MUST be processed. Anything passed by either GET or POST variables must end up in the message somehow (unless there is a session id or some other server-specific data that should be removed). No fields are required. The following field names MAY be used for special purposes:

subject, from (contact of sending user), cc, url (of sending user), from_name (name of sending user), body

How this data gets to the user is up to the implementation.

Authorisation

Should authorisation of users be desired/required, use OAuth.

Implementations

opher.ca, rosebank.org, and parkhillbakery.com all have custom implementations for incoming Pempeth messages.

Any site (such as singpolyma.net) with the Pempeth WordPress Plugin installed.

CFRMZ - an experimental mostly-done comment forms service.

CFRMZ Send - an implementation of sending messages to these endpoints