211 lines
8.9 KiB
Markdown
211 lines
8.9 KiB
Markdown
---
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title: "Cambridge XMPP Sprint"
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date: 2018-08-30T15:00:00+01:00
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aliases:
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- "/2018/08/xmpp-sprint"
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- "/2018/08/xmpp-sprint/"
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tags: [XMPP, IM, Sprint]
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---
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This month, on August 18-19th, was held the first developer event in the XMPP
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community for a long time.
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The idea came up at the [Gulaschprogrammiernacht][0], in Karlsruhe earlier
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this year, talking with Daniel Gultsch, and JC Brand. We gathered there to
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work on an implementation of the [OMEMO encryption
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mechanism](https://conversations.im/omemo/) for
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[Converse.js](https://conversejs.org), and [Poezio](https://poez.io).
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Converse.js is currently seeing the changes merged. It's taking a bit more time
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for Poezio, but we'll get there.
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JC mentioned sprints organised by the Plone community, and I felt that was
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something we were missing for XMPP. While the XMPP summit is held every year
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before FOSDEM, it is often more oriented towards protocol discussions.
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Developer events are scarce.
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I set a goal for myself to start a movement in the community, gather
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interested people, and work together to improve the ecosystem.
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The first event -- of this hopefully long series of events -- was held this
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month, sponsored by my employer, [Collabora](https://collabora.com), in their
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UK offices in Cambridge!
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[0]: https://opkode.com/blog/2018-gulaschprogrammiernacht/
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## Who attended
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- [Daniel Gultsch][2] from [Conversations][3]
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- [MattJ][4] from [Prosody][5]
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- fiaxh and larma from [Dino][6]
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- Andrey Utkin from [decent.im][7]
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- [Link Mauve][8] from [JabberFR][9], and [Poezio][11]
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- [pep.][10] from Poezio
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- Friends and colleagues, first time XMPP contributors
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And remotely:
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- [JC Brand][12] from [Converse.js][13]
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[2]: https://gultsch.de/
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[3]: https://conversations.im
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[4]: https://matthewwild.co.uk/
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[5]: https://prosody.im
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[6]: https://dino.im
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[7]: https://decent.im
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[8]: https://linkmauve.fr
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[9]: https://jabberfr.org
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[10]: https://bouah.net
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[11]: https://poez.io
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[12]: https://opkode.com
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[13]: https://conversejs.org
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## Objectives
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We started the sprint with a short standup, to discuss ideas gathered during
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the previous weeks online, and to narrow the focus to a few feasible items.
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At this point it became clear that User Experience (UX) would be an important
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topic during the weekend, as it is also within the XMPP community of late.
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Here is roughly what was mentioned, and what we planned to work on:
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1. Bookmarks: Sync [Private XML](https://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0049.html)
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bookmarks with [PEP](https://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0048.html) ones.
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XMPP has different standard places to store bookmarks, and this has often
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proven to be a painful experience to the user, when using different clients
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for example. The objective here was to transparently synchronize both
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stores, so that the user gets an overall nicer experience.
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2. [Message Attaching](https://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0367.html) and
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Reactions.
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Message Attaching defines a way by which one can indicate that a message is
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semantically related, "attached", to an earlier message in the discussion.
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This can be useful for reactions, for example, or even for previews of
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links.
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3. [In-Band Registration](https://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0077.html) in
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clients that don't support it, namely Dino and Poezio.
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In-Band Registration is a mechanism that allows clients to provide an
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interface to create accounts on servers that allow it. This way the user
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doesn't have to go through multiple hops to start chatting with their
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friends.
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5. [Consistent color generation](https://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0392.html).
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This specification aims at providing algorithms that will be used to
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generate deterministic colors, so that they stay consistent across clients,
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and thus help with recognition, for nicknames in groupchats, for example.
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5. [Hats](https://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0317.html).
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Hats allow for customised roles and affiliations in chatrooms, an extension
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of the usual roles and affiliations. They can be used as regular "titles"
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that are displayed to other users, (e.g., "Teacher", "Student", "Developer
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of XYZ"), but can also carry permission information. The current
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specification needed reworking as it has been left with lots of TODOs, and
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was not really finished nor implementable.
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## Accomplishments
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Not everything that was mentioned on the saturday morning was worked on, but
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we did manage to get quite a few things done. This was also the opportunity to
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discuss about various topics.
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As this is also something I would like to encourage, I am happy to say that
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first-time XMPP users were able to contribute on projects, by providing
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feedback as well as patches.
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Here is a non-exhaustive list of issues/topics we worked on:
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__Conversations__
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- Use PEP Bookmarks if `urn:xmpp:bookmarks-conversion:0` is announced.
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[commit](https://github.com/siacs/Conversations/commit/dc5e7e5d95e30b8220a0f2d0ada969a3006c3437)
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- Experiments with Consistent Color Generation:
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Disabled by default variant that uses HSLUV instead of YCbCr.
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HSLUV provides more uniform colors and also 'nicer' colors by default.
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[commit](https://github.com/siacs/Conversations/commit/268fcd3838f35050008bc03a81c0873e515e75f6)
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- Updated Conversations Compliance Checker help for Prosody:
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[pull/6](https://github.com/iNPUTmice/caas/pull/6)
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__Converse.js__
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- Detailed [Converse.js][13] walkthrough for all people attending, by JC himself
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- Better ordering of name fallbacks:
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[pull/1168](https://github.com/conversejs/converse.js/pull/1168)
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- Attempt at a new UI/design:
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[pull/1167](https://github.com/conversejs/converse.js/pull/1167)
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- Almost working implementation of [Discovering Alternative XMPP Connection
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methods](https://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0156.html):
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[pull/1170](https://github.com/conversejs/converse.js/pull/1170)
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__Dino__
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- Implemented
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[SCRAM-SHA-1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salted_Challenge_Response_Authentication_Mechanism):
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[tree/scram-sha-1](https://github.com/dino/dino/tree/scram-sha-1)
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- [Fixed](https://github.com/dino/dino/issues/300) NVIDIA specific rendering
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and performance issue
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- [Experiments](https://github.com/dino/dino/tree/consistent-color) with
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Consistent Color Generation
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- Visually improved Sign In dialog
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- [Add In-Band Registration
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support](https://github.com/dino/dino/commit/4be8c92a2c0e454ae217aea8f8eac69c99416214)
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(supports [forms](https://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0077.html#extensibility)
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and [OOB](https://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0077.html#redirect))
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- Fixed display names in MUCs without localparts (!)
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__Packaging__
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- Added XMPP-related software to main Gentoo package repository
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- Slixmpp (Python lib) https://bugs.gentoo.org/533586
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- Poezio (console client app) https://bugs.gentoo.org/377137
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- Dino (GUI client app) https://bugs.gentoo.org/631772
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- Working on adding the following projects to the Gentoo main repo:
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- Biboumi (IRC gateway)
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- Spectrum (multiprotocol gateway)
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- Swift (client and library)
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- Profanity (console client)
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__Poezio__
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- XML pretty-printing plugin:
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[xmlindent.py](https://linkmauve.fr/files/xmlindent.py)
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- Started implementation of In-Band Registration in
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[Poezio!10](https://lab.louiz.org/poezio/poezio/merge_requests/10) and
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[Slixmpp!4](https://lab.louiz.org/poezio/slixmpp/merge_requests/4)
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- [Fixed](https://lab.louiz.org/poezio/poezio/merge_requests/9) launch script version
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- Discussed about how to correctly handle [xmpp
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URIs](https://lab.louiz.org/poezio/poezio/issues/3402) in Poezio
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__Prosody__
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- Bookmarks sync:
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[mod_bookmarks](https://modules.prosody.im/mod_bookmarks.html)
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- Updated default bookmarks for that:
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[mod_default_bookmarks](https://modules.prosody.im/mod_default_bookmarks.html)
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- Started implementation of hats as a Prosody module
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__XEPs (specifications)__
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- Synchronisation between
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[vCard-based](https://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0153.html) and
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[PEP](https://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0084.html) avatars:
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[pull/700](https://github.com/xsf/xeps/pull/700)
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- Started XEP for synchronisation between [Private
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XML](https://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0049.html) and
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[PEP](https://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0048.html) bookmarks
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- Message attachments XEP updated: [pull/696](https://github.com/xsf/xeps/pull/696)
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- Started writing of a counter-proposal XEP for Hats.
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Original information about the event is now listed [in the
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wiki](https://wiki.xmpp.org/web/Sprints/2018_August_Cambridge).
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I would like to thank everybody who participated, helped organise the event,
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and made all this possible. Thanks [Collabora](https://collabora.com) again
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for sponsoring the event and providing the venue.
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## What's Next
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Talks of organising a next sprint this year in Düsseldorf, or Paris, are
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already happening. I would also like to encourage anybody who wants to
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organize similar events in their region. If you are interested and want to
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help organize, or participate, please join the
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[chatroom](xmpp:xmpp-sprint@chat.cluxia.eu?join) for more information.
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