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Leading Technology and Instant Messaging Companies Form IMUnified
Leading technology and instant messaging (IM) companies today announced the launch of a new coalition: IMUnified. The goal of this coalition is to rapidly enable users of all members' instant messaging services to communicate in a seamless, convenient, private and secure manner. The founding members of IMUnified are AT&T Corp., Excite@Home, iCAST Corp., the MSN network of Internet services, Odigo, Phone.com, Prodigy, Tribal Voice and Yahoo! Inc.
IMUnified intends to make publicly available by the end of August a set of specifications that will enable functional interoperability among its members' instant messaging services. Coalition members plan to implement this functional interoperability during the fall. IMUnified intends to be among the first to support protocols developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) in its efforts to create standards for IM interoperability.
Initially, IMUnified will build upon technologies already used by many coalition members to enable their Internet users to communicate freely with each other. IMUnified will subsequently focus its efforts on the implementation of deeper interoperability, rapidly incorporating the emerging specifications of the IETF standards process. The ultimate vision of IMUnified is to enable all users of instant messaging services to communicate freely with each other in the same simple and seamless manner they have come to expect from phone and e-mail-based communication. In addition, the coalition is fully committed to protecting users' privacy and security in the implementation of interoperable IM.
Not only does interoperability affect the present state of IM, but it also can significantly impact future innovation. The emergence of wireless IM draws attention to the lack of IM interoperability, as wireless users accustomed to placing calls to anyone will logically demand the same degree of flexibility with respect to instant messaging.
-The MacMilitia Staff enjoys instant messaging.
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