Instant messaging: Encyclopedia II - Instant messaging - Cooperation

Instant messaging - Cooperation

There have been several attempts to create a unified standard for instant messaging: IETF's SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) and SIMPLE (SIP for Instant Messaging and Presence Leverage), APEX (Application Exchange), Prim (Presence and Instant Messaging Protocol), the open XML-based XMPP (Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol), more commonly known as Jabber and OMA's (Open Mobile Alliance) IMPS (Instant Messaging and Presence Service) created specifically for mobile devices.

Most attempts at creating a unified standard for the major IM providers (AOL, Yahoo! and Microsoft) have failed and each continues to use its own proprietary protocol.

However, while discussions at IETF were stalled, Reuters head of collaboration services, David Gurle (the founder of Microsoft's Real Time Communication and Collaboration business), surprised everybody by signing the first inter-service provider connectivity agreement on September 2003. This historic agreement enabled AIM, ICQ and MSN Messenger users to talk with Reuters Messaging counterparts and vice-versa against an access fee. Following this breakthrough agreement between networks Microsoft, Yahoo! and AOL came to a deal where Microsoft's Live Communication Server 2005 (which is interestingly also used by Reuters for its Reuters Messaging service)users would also have the possibility to talk to public instant messaging users. This deal settled once for all the protocol for interconnectivy in the market as SIP/SIMPLE and established a connectivity fee for accessing public instant messaging clouds. Separately, on October 13, 2005 Microsoft and Yahoo! announced that by summer of 2006 they would interoperate using SIP/SIMPLE which is followed on December 2005 by the AOL and Google strategic parternership deal where Google Talk users would be to talk with AIM and ICQ users provided they have an identity at AOL.

There are two ways to combine the many disparate protocols:

1. One way is to combine the many disparate protocols inside the IM client application. Examples include Trillian, Zango Messenger, Gaim, Fire, Proteus, Miranda IM, Adium, Everybuddy, Ayttm, Kopete, Centericq, BitlBee, and IMVITE.
2. The other way is to combine the many disparate protocols inside the IM server application. This approach moves the task of communicating to the other services to the server. Clients need not know or care about other IM protocols. This approach is popular in Jabber/XMPP protocol servers however the presently available server bridge modules are immature and limited with respect to the full capabilities of the IM systems they bridge to.

The IMPS standard mentioned earlier is part of a mobile telephone industry initiative to bring instant messaging to mobile phones. The Open Mobile Alliance took over the standards, originally called Wireless Village, in November 2002. There is a free IMPS-based service called Yamigo which allows instant messaging on mobile phones even if your carrier doesn't provide its own Wireless Village service. Yamigo acts as a standalone instant messaging network, but can also integrate with ICQ, AIM, MSN, Yahoo and Jabber.

Some approaches, such as that adopted by the Sonork enterprise IM software or the Jabber/XMPP network or Winpopup LAN Messenger, allow organizations to create their own private instant messaging network by enabling them to limit access to the server (often with the IM network entirely behind their firewall) and administer user permissions. Typically, a dedicated corporate IM server has several advantages such as pre-populated contact lists, integrated authentication, and better security and privacy.

Some networks have made changes to prevent them from being utilized by such multi-network IM clients. For example, Trillian had to release several revisions and patches to allow its users to access the MSN, AOL, and Yahoo networks, after changes were made to these networks. The major IM providers typically cite the need for formal agreements as well as security concerns as reasons for making these changes.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Cooperation", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki