Making Sense of Jabber
By Eliot Landrum
Instant messaging (IM) is big. No one was sure just how big until 1998 when America Online bought Mirabilis ICQ—the main competitor to AOL's own IM service—for a mind numbing $400 million. Keep in mind that Mirabilis never earned a penny and never had a profit model. Today millions of people use IM to transact business, talk with loved ones at college, and receive customer support. Users of IM have found a happy medium between phone conversations and email.
Despite the extreme popularity and growth of "first generation" IM systems like AIM (America Online Instant Messenger) and ICQ, the IM industry is surprisingly closed and unfriendly to third-party developers. No official development kits exist for any major IM network; there's no published information about vendor protocols; and there's no way to set up a new or private server. Using any major IM protocol requires closed-source and proprietary clients designed for specific platforms and certain uses.
Companies that want to use IM for private communication, whether internally or with customers, must either design a completely new IM system from the ground up or trust AOL enough to send all traffic (including sensitive information) through AOL's network.
In short, flexibility doesn't exist in the IM sphere.
Open Door
Industry leaders have recognized the need for an open standard to foster IM evolution, but a protocol agreement has yet to be finalized or even fully developed. The benefits of a fully open standard are not under dispute: Nearly all parties agree that an open standard would bring about an increase in client applications for a broader range of platforms and uses.<>
