[JDEV] Thoughts on AOL

[dlb]

One thing to consider regarding AOL is that they'll have to adopt some
measure of interoperability, either standards based or w/ specific competing
services , prior to launching IM enhanced  broadband  applications within
cable regions covered by the AOL - Time Warner consent decree.

I think that this argues for a focus on the continued development of Jabber
in its role as a user /resource aware XML messaging & routing architecture.
The fundamental extensibility of Jabber along with the work being done w/
XML-RPC and SOAP , and the design concepts being implemented w/ Jabber2 have
the potential to establish Jabber as the platform of choice for precisely
these sorts of applications.

I don't see any way of overcoming the network effects supporting the
existing AOL service - you're never going to get a significant number of AOL
IM users to adopt Jabber and AOL won't allow interop until they're forced
to.  One strategy that I think could work would be to position Jabber as a
competitor in the area of IM enhanced broadband apps and to deploy
applications and services within systems covered by the consent decree. AOL
isn't going to want a rival technology to gain a significant foothold in
this area and would eventually forward an interop proposal simply to enable
them to introduce rival applications.

preliminary work in this area could include :

Developing  OCAP (OpenCable Applications Platform) compatible jabber
components.

Developing ATVEF based clients for Liberate / AOLTV - ATVEF is based on web
dev. standards .

Promoting Jabber as a 'platform' for next generation BB and ITV apps.

if anyone else is interested in this area pls contact me

-David