Maybe you have noticed that I'm currently dabbling again with the old sIBLformat as the base of a new program called
sIBLstage and a rework of lightsmithedit, wich now will be called sIBLlights. So is this a revival, or the beating of an dead horse ?

First of all I didn't contacted any of the former people involved in the project by purpose,
(So this should explain the state of "revival" pretty much)
I prefered to come up with a proposed solution first, and then make the needed modification afterwards when people have a clear picture what I'm after and can judge/comment on what I've done. (The new codebase will allow modifications much more easier) This reduces the risk that discussions in combination with long period of development times kills the traction.

A lot what sIBL did, has lost its importance  and other techniques in todays render market are needed.
Wich would require significant rewrites in the importer-plugins and software. wich I currently don't have the ressources to cope with.
(Time, energy and money)

But inspired by the fxphd article, wich describes how important it is to support LED stages with additional lights,  I was inspired and panned out a little program wich let you control DMX lights on basis of an hdri.  But after the initial draft, it was clear that a library of profiled lights would be required to have a no time setup on location....so this "little" program quickly became much more complex even in the drafting phase.

lightsmithedit was the goto application, since it was much better structured than sIBLedit, smaller and manageable in code, and had already some important parameters covered. And all the extra stuff would become handy to go full circle:
Light a scene in real world > transfer it into a cg application > and/or use the dcc data to light a real world scenery.
(I'm far away from this, but thats one of the "ultimate" goals)

Also. on small scale (wich I prefer to work on...besides that this is the part where I actually profit from the development, and its also the part with a higher fun factor), you could use a simple lcd or green screen as a backdrop, and combine it with some additional lights to light an object or human with an hdri.
An example of this would be a small budget filmaker wich uses a hdri captured on location to reshoot dialogue later, wich would also, if this becomes practical, enhance the need for hdri shoots outside the traditional vfx realm. (Wich for me also count as a hudge bonus)...Or use a downloaded location to light your salad bowl for product photography. But again, I'm currently not in the state to judge if this is actually as practically as it sounds on paper...but thats the whole point of my motivation doing this project: to see how well the concept will pan out in reality.

So why did I make it part of the sIBL family and not something own?
Because a reworked light element architecture would also be beneficiary to the sIBL architecture: if I ever do future work on these programs, I would have that part covered. To include spectral distribution in a lightsmith file might be an overkill now, but spectral rendering might be the "next big thing", and having a file format and library of profiled lights might be beneficiary luring in new users and more important, new coders. Also a lot whats already been defined in the format is essential for sIBLstage. (Edit from future me:)Not to mention that this work functions also as a partial rewrite of the sIBLedit. For example, the introduction of a streamlined sIBLloader class will make a future rewrite of sIBLedit much easier...or the new sIBL browser wich could be transplanted quite easily into sIBLedit).

So whats the future of sIBL...1
Once I got sIBLlight and sIBLstage running and release it, I'll inform the former members of the group and see how the resonance of those and users of sIBLstage are, From there I make my decisssion if and how I will go on. Also I'm not a person who could do the community work, so some extra hands are definitively needed for this. Also updates on sIBL will be much slower than 10 years ago, since my day work takes a lot of time and energy.

So no: currently its not a reboot or revival of the original intended sIBL, nor an intend to cash in on the name. But it DOES lay a framework for future enhancements in that regard.