[JDEV] OT: AOL Patents IM (Patent creates IM wrinkle )

[Pete Chown]

I used a system in 1990 (on MVS of all things) that provided this type 
of feature.  When you logged on to the mainframe it displayed a "buddy 
list" showing who of your friends was online.  You could also ask for 
the list to be repeated later if you wanted.  It was of course updated 
to reflect anyone who had logged on or off in the meantime.

If you saw someone that you wanted to talk to, you then used a separate 
command to send them a message.  There was also a command that would 
display profile information about the user.

The mainframe that this ran on has long since been scrapped, but if 
anyone gets sued over this patent I should still be able to find the 
people concerned in running it.

-- 
Pete