Coalition pursues instant-messaging interoperability

A new coalition, IMUnified, has formed among technology and instant messaging (IM) companies with the goal of making members' instant messaging services interoperable, according to a July 25 announcement from IMUnified member Phone.com.

The founding members of IMUnified are AT&T, Excite@Home, iCAST, MSN, Odigo, Phone.com, Prodigy, Tribal Voice and Yahoo!

By the end of August, the coalition intends to publish a set of specifications that will enable functional interoperability among its members' instant messaging services allowing users of competing services to communicate with each other in a seamless, convenient, private and secure manner.

Coalition members plan to implement publicly available, functional interoperability during the fall, according to the Phone.com release, and IMUnified intends to be among the first to support protocols developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) in its efforts to create standards for instant message interoperability.

"Internet users want to exchange instant messages with each other, regardless of which service they use. We welcome the participation of other interested IM companies who share the vision of interoperability based on open standards and encourage them to join our efforts," said Brian Park, senior producer at Yahoo! Inc., in the press release.

"An open standard for instant messaging will be a big win for the users of all of our services. We are committed to supporting the creation of an open standards solution based on the work going on at the IETF," added Ross Bagully, chief executive officer of Tribal Voice. "Today's announcement brings us one step closer to making open communication between all instant messaging services a reality."

IMUnified initially will build on technologies already in use by many coalition members. It will subsequently focus its efforts on the implementation of deeper interoperability, rapidly incorporating the emerging specifications of the IETF standards process.

"One of the things that makes this coalition so exciting is the opportunity to work together and learn from each other so that we can create a system that is even more private and more secure than what is available today," said Yusuf Mehdi, vice president of Consumer Group for Microsoft Corp.

Not only does interoperability affect the present state of IM, but it can significantly impact future innovation, the Phone.com release states.

The emergence of wireless instant messaging draws attention to the lack of instant messaging interoperability, as wireless users accustomed to placing calls to anyone will logically demand the same degree of flexibility with respect to instant messaging.

"Web-enabled wireless phones will put always-on' IM in the pockets of hundreds of millions of new users around the world. We want to give each and every one of these new users the broadest amount of choice and flexibility when they seek to reach out and communicate with others," said Marc Linden, group vice president of carrier applications, at Phone.com.

More information on IMUnified and its activities is available online at www. IMUnified.org.