The Internet and federated email largely started in universities and research organizations.
I've regularly had contact from people in higher education expressing interest in having SIP or XMPP and frustration that only Skype seems to work. Yet it seems that the decision makers in these organizations continue to move very slowly, renewing support contracts on antiquated PBX systems rather than asking their IT department to put in SIP and XMPP.
Is anybody aware of any initiatives to change this situation? For example, I heard that authorities in France told universities not to trust Skype but didn't really offer a firm alternative.
Does anybody know of universities that have gone live with SIP or XMPP?
Can anybody suggest any mailing lists where this could be discussed? So far I've come across: ACM SIG UCCS: http://www.siguccs.org/
Given the sharp impact of austerity in some countries, I can't help thinking that there are some campuses that would seriously look at dumping the annual support contract for their phone system and consolidating on improved IT infrastructure, with SIP and XMPP running as services just like email.