AOL seeks approval to offer advanced IM service

AOL seeks approval to offer advanced IM service When the Federal Communications Commission (News - Websites) approved the merger of America Online and Time Warner in 2001, the agency barred the new company from offering such advanced instant messaging services like video conferencing until it was interoperable with other services.

The company offered the FCC data from comScore Media Metrix that said AOL Time Warner had about an average 58.5 percent share of the text instant-messaging market while Microsoft and Yahoo had 22.2 percent and 19.3 percent, respectively, over the last four months.

Interesting tidbit...the remnants of iCast living on in that they paid about $300K to lobby the FCC to add the condition to the merger.

Jabber News

Jabber News Jabber, Inc., a leading software developer of secure instant messaging and presence-enabled communications, today announced that it closed a $7.2 million private placement late last week. Intel Capital, Intel’s strategic investing arm, joined existing investors France Telecom Technology Investissements (FTTI), the technology investment vehicle of France Telecom’s (NYSE: FTE) wholly owned France Telecom R&D, and Webb Interactive Services (OTCBB: WEBB), which founded Jabber, Inc. in 2000.

Microsoft's Shifting Plan Has Users Frustrated

Microsoft's Shifting Plan Has Users Frustrated "You definitely need a map to keep up," says Robert Mahowald, research manager for collaboration at IDC. "Microsoft has to explain why this stuff has moved out of Exchange and why IT has to set it all up again in a different place. From a product perspective, they are putting things where they need to be, but they have to explain how it all ties together." Driving Microsoft's evolution has been the company's .NET Web services initiative and a shift to support contextual collaboration, which is the ability to embed collaborative components such as instant messaging and presence directly into applications. The company now insists that services such as instant messaging, team workspaces and conferencing need to be platform services and not confined to a single application.

It's tough doing the right things sometimes...but, it'll be worth it despite the rocky road!

CRN: Daily Archives

CRN: Greenwich Server Gets Pushed Back
Windows Server 2003 is due to ship April 24. Windows SharePoint Services remains on track to launch in June, followed by Greenwich and then the digital rights management (DRM) server add-on in February 2004, channel sources said.

Forbes.com: TVs Join The Home Network

Forbes.com: TVs Join The Home Network Sony is cutting cords with these sets. They can receive a video signal via a wireless home network using a Sony-made wireless base station. Sony's favored wireless technology is known best by the arcane name of its technical standard, IEEE 802.11a.

Wireless audio should be a breeze with video wireless humming along...

Sony TV would grab streams from the Net | CNET News.com

Sony TV would grab streams from the Net | CNET News.com Sony's vision of the television as the centerpiece of its strategy for networked digital media. The new Sony TV will include a built-in Internet connection and tuners for receiving broadcasts from cable, satellite and over-the-air transmissions, according to sources.

So many efforts, so little results on the US cable side...so why not go internet!

BW Online | April 2, 2003 | A Cable Lifeline for DVR Technology Now, the more established and well-known cable companies are getting in on the action. As of Apr. 1, Cox offers DVR service in Gainesville, Fla., and Fairfax, Va. Time Warner Cable, which began rolling out the service in August, offers it in 15 of its 34 cable systems. Research firm International Data Corp. (IDC) projects the number of DVR homes will double in 2003 from 1.5 million to 3 million.

Keep 'em rolling...let's not Pause to think about it...

Microsoft puts its spin on office chat | CNET News.com
'SIP changes everything," Smith, the general manager of Microsoft's embedded systems group, said. SIP is "the disruptive technology that ushers this convergence in."

and as he says - SIP is not just for IM but for many services over many protovols.

IM and the IETF With the creation of the Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) working group in fall 2002, there are now four working groups chartered to develop IM-related protocols. Understanding how these inter-relate-or at times don't-will help networkers prepare their companies for the leap to a real-time infrastructure.

Nice quick overview of the protocol work going on.

AOL Lands New Patent, Beefs Up IM in '8.0 Plus' "We need to educate our members on features we already have in the field, but that they don't know about," Chang said. ... Highlighting AOL Alerts represents an effort by the company to be a contender in an area seen by some as a growing competitive arena and a potential moneymaker.

Hmm, trying to make money the old fashion way - I guess the faux ad model doesn't cut it anymore.

EPIC - Tools for Protecting Online Privacy EPIC Online Guide
to Practical Privacy Tools

Very useful set of links to privacy and security solutions - it's true, only the paranoid do survive - privately!

Boston Globe Online / Business / Making sense of Web searches When you're looking up information on the Web, sometimes it's pretty tough to keep track of it all...If you're looking to avoid that kind of information clutter, a little program called Net Snippets can help. Net Snippets isn't a search tool. It doesn't help you find stuff. What it does almost effortlessly is organize, annotate, and store the results of your searches as ''snippets.''

A local, store-and-forward blogthis!-like utility. It is definitely something I could use, especially if it could save automatically into a Notes database!

AOL's broadband crusade | CNET News.com "I'm not so sure consumers can view the difference between an MSN and an AOL to be $5 more," Gallant said.

The divide is much bigger than $5 - bundle however many services they want there is no real need for a broadband portal, as currently defined, at $9.95 (MSN) or $14.95 (AOL) and whatever Yahoo tries to charge shortly.

A Closer Look: IM in Office 2003 The new version of Windows SharePoint Services included in Office System 2003 adds presence awareness, based on users' availability on the .NET Service or Exchange Instant Messaging. As a result, colleagues' and partners' statuses are syndicated through SharePoint documents, lists, calendars, discussions, and surveys. Members also can choose to receive notifications via IM (if online) when SharePoint site content changes.