Companies lobby for open IM standards

AOL (aol) has resisted attempts to make its popular IM programs interoperable with other firms' software. The letter cites AOL's pending merger with Time-Warner Inc. (TWX), and says that government should "support the principals of open standards and interoperability." Other firms signing the letter include Excite@Home (athm), Fujitsu Laboratories of America, and Odigo.

AOL spokeswoman Tricia Primrose said Wednesday that the company has made efforts to "to extend the benefits of instant messaging to as many consumers as possible," and cited several licensing deals the firm has signed with Internet service providers and other companies.

CMGI's (cmgi) Tribal Voice and iCast units have complained to the government before about AOL. Tribal Voice, along with Microsoft (msft) and other firms, has tried to make its instant messaging software interoperable with AOL Instant Messenger, but has been rebuffed by AOL.

A working group of the Internet Engineering Task Force is meeting later this month to consider proposals for an instant messaging standard. While AOL had pledged to work closely with the group, sources say the company has done little to aid the effort.

'With the merger the combined entity is a lot bigger than AOL is today. History teaches us that if people are bullies when they're small they don't change behavior when they get bigger.'|Margaret Heffernan, iCast However, AOL's Primrose denied those charges. She said the company has attended all but one of the IETF's working group meetings, and plans to submit its own proposal for a standard at the June 15 meeting.

The letter stops short of calling on the government agencies to halt the proposed merger. But it does urge them to "make it clear to the marketplace (their) expectation that no single provider will be allowed to put a wall around the market, either to keep their customers in or to keep competition and innovation out."

"We think the (interoperability) issue really is a separate issue (from the merger) and should be and is being considered by the IETF," Primrose said.

Margaret Heffernan, CEO of iCast, said that the companies are concerned that AOL's power over instant messaging, already strong today, would become even stronger after a merger.

"With the merger the combined entity is a lot bigger than AOL is today. History teaches us that if people are bullies when they're small they don't change behavior when they get bigger," she said.

Another issue is that the deal would give AOL the ability to tie content to instant messages -- requiring consumers to get stock quotes from Time-Warner-owned CNNfn for example, or sports scores from Sports Illustrated.

"There's a real concern that if you own the messaging environment you'll also own content that those messages contain," she said.