The foaf:jabberID property relates a foaf:Agent to a textual identifier assigned to them in the Jabber messaging system. See the Jabber site for more information about the Jabber protocols and tools.

Jabber, unlike several other online messaging systems, is based on an open, publically documented protocol specification, and has a variety of open source implementations. Jabber IDs can be assigned to a variety of kinds of thing, including software 'bots', chat rooms etc. For the purposes of FOAF, these are all considered to be kinds of foaf:Agent (ie. things that do stuff). The uses of Jabber go beyond simple IM chat applications. The foaf:jabberID property is provided as a basic hook to help support RDF description of Jabber users and services.

See foaf:OnlineChatAccount (and foaf:OnlineAccount) for a more general (and verbose) mechanism for describing IM and chat accounts.