This working group will define the protocol necessary to provide timely information to online users on the presence of other online users and allow them to exchange instant messages. An ad-hoc group is analyzing the functional needs of several organizations, and is developing requirements for a presence notification protocol. These requirements encompass the following capabilities, which shall be considered by this working group: In Scope: * Instant messaging * Queries of online status * Subscriptions to online status * Notifications of online status to those who are subscribed * Other common properties of users (besides online status) * Rich access controls definable by user * Addressing of users * Define how to do media negotiation and session initiation * Support for location independence * Consideration of how this will work with existing firewalls * Security considerations, especially privacy Further information on requirements can be found in the document, "Presence Information Protocol Requirements" (http://ds.internic.net/internet-drafts/draft-dusseault-pipr-00.txt) The scope of activity of this working group should remain narrowly focused on subscriptions, notifications and instant messages.  This working group will leverage off of previous work when it is applicable. Discussion of the security issues concerning a presence information protocol are essential to the creation of a protocol which implements this functionality in a manner usable by participants on the Internet.