VoIPSter has announced the formation of The OpenZoep Foundation and the premier release of the OpenZoep communications engine.

OpenZoep will enable the proliferation and rapid development of standards based telephony application throughout the world as VoIP grows and continues to take hold with users and service providers.

"Building VoIP clients using OpenZoep is very straightforward," said Dirk Griffioen, VoIPSter's Senior VOIP Engineer. "The OpenZoep API offers simple methods to communicate with the OpenZoep client-side VoIP engine and server-side web services."



Now with OpenZoep developers can build their own open standards based Internet Telephony software clients using the OpenZoep VoIP engine. As a result, all OpenZoep based applications will allow users to pick and choose their own premium services and access user directories around the world from any telephony service provider.

"OpenZoep wants to become the de facto open source VoIP solution that is embedded in software clients, web browsers, games and other mobile or desktop applications," said founder Sjoerd Hannema, CEO of VoIPSter. "With OpenZoep all applications can immediately begin offering free PC-to-PC VoIP calls, instant messaging (IM) and both outbound PSTN and SIP calls to free and premium SIP based telephony providers."

Using Open Standards To Maintain Operability

The OpenZoep communication protocol itself is based on the XMPP Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol, an open, XML-based protocol for near-real-time, extensible instant messaging and presence information. It is the core protocol of the Jabber Instant Messaging and Presence technology that is currently deployed on thousands of Jabber servers across the Internet and is used by millions of people worldwide.

"Already awkward interoperability issues are plaguing the IM industry. Those issues should be avoided at all cost in the VoIP market," said Sjoerd Hannema. "OpenZoep's founders feel it's not too late to promote open VoIP standards, even when some major players already have adopted proprietary protocols."

OpenZoep has also added so-called XMPP 'stanzas' for working with sound cards, mics and speakerphones as well as other audio input and output devices. These 'stanzas' simplifies the handling of phone calls and provides easier access for getting configuration information from the engine by making it easier for developers to work with.

With a mission to keep VoIP open and secure, OpenZoep believes computer-based telephony should be based on open source software. Only publicly accessible software allows the open source community to scrutinize the code for safety and quality.

Open Directories Make Finding Others Easier

Users will also benefit from a shared, global telephone directory that will make finding other people easier than ever before. By supporting open standards like SIP and XMPP OpenZoep also becomes interoperable with leading presence and identity based messaging platforms, protocols and services.

In collaboration with leading directory providers, OpenZoep will also introduce an initiative to establish a global service provider discovery server. This server allows end-users to pick and choose a service provider that offers PSTN in, PSTN out, voicemail and other telephony services from thousands of Internet Telephony Service Providers.

"Since OpenZoep uses Jabber for its presence and instant message handling, it is possible to search for users on other Jabber networks," said Griffioen. "This means user of OpenZoep based applications can benefit from a shared, global telephone directory. To accomplish this OpenZoep will pursue cooperation agreements with leading IM Federations and providers."

The OpenZoep Manifesto

With OpenZoep's any service provider could provide PSTN, voicemail, SMS and other services by following the open standards. By striving for top-notch speech quality, security, and openness; OpenZoep plans to support as many platforms as possible; by offering any version on any platform that is backward compatible for at least all telephony functions. The OpenZoep engine is currently available for Windows, with versions for OS X and Linux being ported.

Using OpenZoep based applications also means user may choose the service provider of his/her liking, while each service provider remains responsible for billing and customer support of their respective customers. Additionally, all providers will use one shared central OpenZoep/SIP directory that allows users to discover and invite friends and colleagues.

The OpenZoepAPI documentation is available at http://openzoep.org/docs/api/primer/