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Date:	Sun, 21 Jan 2001 21:06:37 PST
From:	"Dave Watson" <dwatson@deltanet.com >
Reply-To:	scoug-general@scoug.com
To:	scoug-general@scoug.com
Subject:	SCOUG-General: Notes on Saturday's discussions

Content Type: text/plain

Can't get much faster than instant

Instant messaging is getting to be "big time." You may have read
about it being included in the implications of the AOL Time Warner
merger. USA Today in July 1999
(http://usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/ctf684.htm) discussed the
competition between AOL and Microsoft, and the coming
advertising revenue potential. AOL is believed to have $100 million
in backlogged revenue for instant messaging banner ads. The
Washington Post updated it this month with a article that lays out
the current state pretty thoroughly
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A34492-
2001Jan8.html). Search Yahoo and others to find discussions on
CNET, ZDNet and elsewhere on how the recent US Government
approval of AOL's merger with Time Warner included some very
limited conditions which some felt was a sweetheart deal by the
outgoing administration. This might change if the new
administration is less hostile to Microsoft.

What is instant messaging? It's an internet tool that lets a server
know when you are online, and notifies you and your friends when
you're both online. Then you can send notes to your online friends
in realtime. The New York Times came out with a Primer this
month
(http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/12/technology/12INST.html).
AOL started a messaging concept in their software as far back as
1989. Miribilis made it popular with a tool called ICQ in the '90s,
and AOL jumped on board with a proprietary function called Buddy
Lists in 1996, then expanded it in 1997 to permit non-subscribers
to join the AOL Instant Messaging network, and finally bought
Miribilis in 1998 to cement the non-Microsoft competition. Then in
1999, Microsoft started their Messenger service for Microsoft
Network users, and included a feature that allowed AOL and AIM
users to coexist with Microsoft subscribers. This brought out
AOLs lawyers who used the courts in fine American tradition to
force Microsoft to stop communicating with AOLs messaging
servers.

The Washington Post article cited above says AOL has about 140
million registered subscribers, including 80 million on ICQ. A
survey last August suggested 21.5 million in the US on AIM, 9.1 on
ICQ, 10.6 million on Yahoo and 10.3 million on Microsoft
Messenger. And they have client software for Windows, Mac,
various flavors of Unix...

So what do we do about it in Warp? If you go to the Absolute
Authority on Instant Messaging
(http://www.absoluteauthority.com/Instant_Messaging/) and search
on OS2, you get "Unfortunately, there were no results for your
search terms." Many of us have learned that's not the end of it.
We've discussed apps in the Internet SIG and in SCOUG chats,
before it became cool.

If you go to Hobbes (http://hobbes.nmsu.edu) and search on
"instant," you find aimjava2.zip, a 1998 Java version of the AOL
Instant Messenger. We also saw an Odin port of AIM
(http://odin.netlabs.org) at the January SCOUG General Interest
Group meeting that was rated a "5" and looks very promising.

You also find a utility called jabber05.zip at Hobbes. This is a
separate protocol, and is a native OS/2 application which requires
EMX 0.9C runtime (also available at Hobbes).

If you like ICQ, there is a Java version at
http://www.icq.com/products. There's also a Win16 version if you
want to try it under Win-OS2. And there's a Russian-build clone
called IceCQ which is available at BMT Micro
(http://www.bmtmicro.com/BMTCatalog/os2/icecq.html) for $16.
You can get a trial version free from OS2.ru
(http://os2.ru/projects/index.phtml.en). See PC World for a good
set of tips on using ICQ
(http://www.pcworld.com/resource/printable/article.asp?aid=14007).

Yahoo, Excite and others have their own versions. Yahoo
(http://messenger.yahoo.com) has a Java version.

So what's in store? There are open standards being advocated by
FreeIM (http://www.freeim.org/homecontent.htm) and Internet
Engineering Task Force (http://www.ietf.org/html.charters/impp-
charter.html). The IETF site includes several draft and RFC
standards for this service. Other services such as Yahoo may
become popular. But you can bet that Microsoft will become a
major player, possibly cornering this market and subverting the
emerging standards. Avoiding future dependence on Microsoft
standards may best be achieved by supporting an alternative.

The OS2 community is declining, and can best look out for its
interests by pulling together. This depends on shared projects,
and shared communications. This could be enhanced by a
consensus to use the internet and instant messaging to stay in
touch. This would mean we need to agree on a common standard.
I propose that we try some of the above tools, and register with
various services and try them out. We should discuss our
observations and agree on the best overall solution. Then we
should begin using it to talk with each other.
If we don't communicate, we might as well start learning Windows.

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