Collaborative Thinking

AP-AOL Instant Messaging Trends Survey

Catching up on some old feed items - in case you missed this:

Top-line survey findings among users of instant messaging include:

* More than half (55 percent) of teen IM users have used instant messaging to get help with their homework. This is a 17 percent increase over last year. Meanwhile, 22 percent of teens say they have sent an IM to ask for or accept a date.

* Forty-three percent of teen IM users say they have used instant messaging to say something they would not say to someone in person. Teenage girls are more likely than boys to do so. Nearly half of teenage girls surveyed have used instant messaging to say something they would not say in person, compared with just over a third of teenage boys. 

* Teens today are more likely to upload photos (42 percent in 2007 vs. 34 percent in 2006) while instant messaging. They are less likely to conduct online research for school (57 percent vs. 63 percent) or update their blog or social profile (33 percent vs. 42 percent) while sending IMs.

* Nearly three in four teens (70 percent) and one in four adults (24 percent) send more instant messages than emails.

* Multi-tasking remains very popular, as IM users tend to engage in multiple online activities while sending instant messages. Checking email is the most popular activity among eight in ten adult and teen IM users. After email, adult IM users most often conduct online searches (49 percent), while teens say they like to research homework assignments online (57 percent).

* Nearly four in five (79 percent) at-work IM users say they have used instant messaging in the office to take care of personal matters. One in five (19 percent) IM users say they send more instant messages than emails to their co-workers and colleagues.

AOL News and Broadcast Center

Web-Based Instant Messengers

A summary of popular web-based IM tools by Robin Good:

If you are looking for a way to connect to your favorite instant messaging network without having to install any kind of software on your computer you have certainly come to the right place.

We all know that instant messaging represents the most popular form of real-time communication between two or more people based on typed text. This type of communication is generally possible through the use of appropriate client software that needs to be installed on computers connected over a network such as the Internet.

However, the necessity to boost cross-platform communication has recently generated a major need for instant messaging applications that could be used by anybody, independently of the operating system they were adopting and - more importantly - without the need to download and install anything on the computer.

Source: Web-Based Instant Messengers: A Mini-Guide - Robin Good's Latest News

Yahoo Web-ifies its chat application (UPDATED)

I have all the major consumer IM clients installed - AOL, Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo. Since I use Yahoo for e-mail, My Yahoo, etc., I tend to use it more often than the others. The integration interoperability with Microsoft's online network works well. Skype comes in second. Since I'm also playing with Twitter from time to time, Google comes in next in terms of my own usage pattern.

UPDATED: Story from "Yodel Anecdotal" below. TechCrunch story here. Blog post from CNET story follows Yodel Anecdotal post.

Yahoo! Messenger, hold the download - Yodel Anecdotal

That’s right, today we launched the all-new Web-based Yahoo! Instant Messenger. In fact, it’s the first brand-new Messenger in over six years.

Yahoo! Messenger for the Web is live, and folks, it’s about to blow up. Feedback from initial users is so crazily positive, I expect this will become the primary IM service for millions. See for yourself at http://webmessenger.yahoo.com, or simply http://web.im.

By removing barriers for IMing, we’re about to witness a new and bigger life for Yahoo! Messenger. Chats will carry on from computer to computer, across campuses or cubes. Your friends will travel with you to Internet cafes around the globe. You no longer will need to maneuver around IT restrictions. And for the millions of Internet users who don’t own PCs, instant messaging is, with today’s launch, instantly available from any Internet-enabled computer. Wondering if this service is for you? Check out this quick demo to see it for yourself.

Hands down, the two most addictive features are message history (access and search archived conversations from anywhere!) and the emoticon picker. is my favorite, and if you can replicate this face in real life, I want to see it.

We went out of our way to support all the browsers — IE, Firefox, Netscape, Safari (I’ve been a Mac guy since 1984, so this was really important to me), and Opera (because we have a soft spot for Norwegians). I think this just might be the fastest, most refined Web IM app out there. And through our interoperability agreement with Windows Live Messenger, Web messaging users are able to connect with the largest community of IM users — 350 million user accounts!

Source: Yahoo! Messenger, hold the download - Yodel Anecdotal

Yahoo Web-ifies its chat application | CNET News.com

Yahoo is set to release late Wednesday a new Web-based version of its instant-messaging application that lets people use Yahoo Messenger on any browser and any Internet-connected computer rather than having to download it to a hard drive.

Yahoo Messenger for the Web allows people to check their instant messages and access their buddy list from anywhere, which could prove useful for those who are traveling or are forbidden from downloading client software to their computers at work.

The Web version of the chat application offers functions that the downloaded version does not, such as the ability to search current and archived messages from any computer. It also lets users maintain multiple conversations in one window with different tabs instead of opening up chats in multiple windows.

Source: Yahoo Web-ifies its chat application | CNET News.com

Yahoo Messenger for the Web | CNET News.com

Source: Yahoo Messenger for the Web

Reuters Collaborates With Yahoo! to Provide Enterprise Level Instant Messaging Connectivity to the Global Energy Markets

Product overview here and quick start guide here.

NEW YORK and LONDON, April 3 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Reuters (NASDAQ: RTRSY) (LSE: RTR) announces the launch of Reuters Messaging 6.0, the latest version of the Reuters Communication and Collaboration Services product suite, featuring connectivity to Yahoo!(R) Messenger. Energy market professionals can now leverage an enterprise-grade instant messaging application with access to the global trading communities who currently rely on Yahoo! Messenger. Reuters Messaging 6.0 substantially increases Reuters exposure to the energy markets, as traders and analysts will now be able to take advantage of the full range of collaboration services designed to help improve their trading security, speed and efficiency.

Reuters Messaging 6.0 enables energy market professionals to gain real- time access to their market counterparts globally across front, middle and back offices, increasing the efficiency of pre-trade discussion, post-trade scheduling, transportation and logistics. It also allows energy traders to quickly post prices to Platts daily via Reuters Messaging, a key source of energy pricing data.

With the introduction of IM connectivity to Yahoo! Messenger, Reuters Messaging 6.0 offers the ability to send text based messages, view presence, and access conversation history between networks by signing into one service. In addition to connectivity to Yahoo! Messenger, Reuters Messaging 6.0 adds tools to graphically share market data and insight with market counterparts. Reuters Messaging is the first enterprise instant messaging service to connect to the three leading public instant messaging networks providing extended reach to the financial community.

Source: Reuters :: Reuters Collaborates With Yahoo! to Provide Enterprise Level Instant Messaging Connectivity to the Global Energy Markets

IBM Sametime 7.5: Just-in-Time Rediscovery of Real-Time Collaboration

For Burton Group clients, a new report (45 pages) is available that examines IBM's efforts regarding real-time collaboration and unified communications. A summary is provided below. Clients need to log-in here.

IBM Sametime 7.5: Just-in-Time Rediscovery of Real-Time Collaboration
v1, 05 February 2007
 
Author(s): Mike Gotta
Additional Input: Karen Hobert, Peter O'Kelly

Conclusion
Sametime 7.5 solves many of IBM’s immediate challenges. It modernizes the user experience, transforms the client architecture, begins a modernization effort on the server, improves federation with external instant messaging (IM)/presence networks, and assists with establishing a partner ecosystem for unified communications based on standards. IBM’s rediscovery of real-time collaboration as a strategic endeavor occurs just in time. Microsoft is poised to release a next-generation platform in 2007 that will significantly up the ante. This Sametime release will protect IBM’s install-base, but IBM must continue to execute and build alliances with its communication vendor partners to stave off Microsoft hegemony.

Synopsis
IBM has not been quiet about Sametime 7.5. The marketing effort began in January 2006 when the release was highlighted at IBM’s Lotusphere conference, and reached a high point with the September 13, 2006, launch event. While some may consider IBM’s messaging to be over the top, Burton Group believes that it is a necessary maneuver. IBM’s commitment to Sametime has been ambiguous at times, allowing Microsoft to gain traction with its unified communication strategy and products (i.e., Office Communicator 2005 and Office Live Communications Server 2005). Prior to Sametime 7.5, IBM faced three barriers to becoming a resurgent force in the real-time collaboration market:

• The Sametime user experience was not state of the art. If users did not find Sametime to be a compelling product, IBM’s install-base and future adoption options would be threatened.
• A Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE) and a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)-based platform available under IBM’s Workplace brand duplicated Sametime’s capabilities. If information technology (IT) strategists felt that Sametime was not a viable platform, that perception would also threaten IBM’s install-base and growth options.
• IBM lacked an application and integration framework for real-time collaboration and unified communications. If enterprise decision makers concluded that IBM was not a credible solution provider, IBM would have to cede that ground to Microsoft, which would exploit that position to place greater competitive pressures on IBM.

Given these barriers, Sametime 7.5 is hugely strategic. Success will invigorate the Sametime brand and position IBM as a credible Microsoft alternative for real-time collaborative applications and unified communications. The following features demonstrate IBM’s commitment to modernize the platform:

• Numerous user interface and functional improvements
• A new client architecture, based on Eclipse, with a plug-in model for using Sametime as an application platform
• A new gateway for federation with public instant messaging (IM) networks
• Additional partnerships for audio and video technologies

Given the impact Sametime 7.5 will have on communication and collaboration strategies, IT organizations should not view this release as an incremental update. Instead, architects and infrastructure planners should assess the bigger picture of where IBM is heading with real-time collaboration and unified communications. Enterprises satisfied with IBM’s approach will come one step closer to the goal of a unified platform that encompasses IM, audio, video, web conferencing, and presence. Organizations that view Sametime negatively will likely adopt a Microsoft-oriented solution or a best-of-breed alternative.

Jabber XCP 5.2 Now Available

A timely platform update by Jabber (especially given IBM's recent efforts and Microsoft's pending OCS 2007 release later this year). While I don't expect a significant number of large enterprise organizations to look closely at Jabber for instant messaging (ala IBM Sametime and Microsoft Office Communicator), I'm hopeful that discussions on real-time collaborative applications and presence will not defacto assume that current incumbent vendors and SIP/SIMPLE represent the only options. IT groups should have a serious discussion regarding the development/developer aspects of real-time collaborative / presence-enabled applications and a reflective debate on "the meaning of presence and its implications" in a context broader than just personal productivity tools and communication devices. 

Jabber, Inc. today announced the general availability of the 5.2 release of the Jabber Extensible Communications Platform™ (Jabber XCP™). The highly programmable, scalable, and secure presence platform enhanced its industry leadership position with the addition of:

• A Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)/SIP for Instant Messaging and Presence Leveraging Extensions (SIMPLE) Gateway delivered on a new code base providing for transparent federation with SIP/SIMPLE-based messaging systems such as IBM Lotus Sametime, Microsoft Live Communications Server, and the AOL Instant Messenger service. A cornerstone of the company’s multi-protocol approach to real-time messaging, the new SIP/SIMPLE implementation is now available on the Microsoft Windows Server platform in addition to Solaris and Linux.
• Sun Solaris 10 support, the platform on which recent loads tests (http://www.jabber.com/index.cgi?CONTENT_ID=1080) confirmed Jabber XCP’s ability to scale past a million concurrent users. Jabber XCP is also available for the Solaris 9, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3.0 and 4.0, Microsoft Windows Server 2000 and 2003 platforms.
• InfoBroker (http://www.jabber.com/index.cgi?CONTENT_ID=622) enhancements that optimize the efficiency and scalability of Jabber XCP’s publish-and-subscribe module.
• Increased security integrity of Jabber XCP through obscured password storage in encrypted files.
• Stanza optimization, through the implementation of XMPP Extension Protocol 0033 (XEP-0033), which provides a method for both clients and servers to send a single stanza and have it delivered to multiple recipients. The benefit is reduced network traffic in situations such as multi-user chat and load balancing among clustered Jabber XCP routers.
• Auto-include Special Interest Groups (SIGs)/Schemas, which simplifies the job of developers by enabling new code to run on Jabber XCP without editing configuration files.

Source: Jabber XCP 5.2 Now Available

Oracle: A Unified Communications Contender Or Pretender?

Perhaps the news items below offer some foreshadowing regarding Oracle's movements in the area of enterprise unified communications. The February 2006 HotSip acquisition provided Oracle with a credible technology platform based on SIP and SIMPLE. When Oracle announced WebCenter Suite at Oracle OpenWorld (October 2006), it talked about a standards-based set of communication technologies that included presence and instant messaging (SIP/SIMPLE). If you read the "Introduction To WebCenter" PDF overview (page 8 - 10), the solution implements the HotSip technology (much to the chagrin I imagine of the Oracle Collaboration Suite team whose real-time collaboration assets where Jabber/XMPP-based).

Oracle has not very-well articulated where it is heading concerning unified communications within the enterprise. There could be some degree of internal alignment issues and some hesitancy on the part of management (given earlier failures to gain market traction with presence, instant messaging and web conferencing in the past). However, since UC-enabling business processes and applications is often talked about as the market end-state, you would expect Oracle at some point would come out swinging and position itself as a strong player (given its own application portfolio and middleware expertise).

Building on the company's proven track record for delivering business value to the communications industry, Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) today announced a key product milestone in the Oracle(R) Service Delivery Platform (SDP) roadmap -- Oracle Communication and Mobility Server (OCMS). A component of Oracle Fusion Middleware, OCMS includes a third generation, programmable Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) and Presence application server; proxy and registrar services; and a SIP-based VoIP soft phone client. OCMS combines carrier-grade scalability and reliability with the flexibility of Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) to enable rapid service development and cost-effective deployment.

Source: Oracle Corporation :: Oracle Delivers Key Communications Industry Milestone With Release of Carrier-Grade Oracle(R) Communication and Mobility Server

To accelerate the development and deployment of communications services on existing and next-generation networks, Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) today announced the Oracle Service Delivery Platform (SDP) Partner Initiative. Sharing a common vision for standards-based service delivery, Oracle and its partners have joined forces to collaborate and provide an expanded source of solutions to the communications industry. Partners including Independent Software Vendors (ISVs), infrastructure vendors, and System Integrators (SIs), can benefit from this initiative by using the Oracle SDP to deliver comprehensive, standards-based solutions to their customers.

Source: Oracle :: Oracle Launches Oracle Service Delivery Platform Partner Initiative

Whatever Happened to LCS 2005?

I caught this post by Adam Gartenberg (Offering Manager for the IBM Lotus Real-Time Collaboration products) and also read the Microsoft LCS article on Instant Messaging Planet. The article is not impressive. Microsoft has had a tremendous impact on the real-time collaboration and unified communications market. While it's technology solution has gaps (e.g., on-premise web conferencing) and in some areas is not yet mature (e.g., developer tools and interfaces), Microsoft's influence has reshaped the market landscape and the direction of many large enterprises that I have talked to over the past few years. It's nice to have IBM wake-up from its slumber to offer an alternative to Microsoft. Sametime 7.5 and the UC announcements at Lotusphere are promising. But work still needs to be done on the IBM side as well (e.g., unified messaging, hosted services, Sametime backend modernization). LCS deployments are arguably a bit more complicated because the system is not designed to be "just an IM platform", it has always been designed with a long-term view on telephony. Any slowness in terms of adoption is more the result of the issues identified in my comment to Adam:

Comment left on Adam's blog:

Adam, interesting article - I'm not sure where to start. In general, one can argue that the entire market uptake of IM has been slowed by growing concerns over security and the need to include proper archival and records management services (increasing the total costs of ownership for IM). Some organizations question the need for IM beyond personal productivity (difficulty in forming a business case, identifying ROI), also slowing overall market growth. Finally, people realize that an IM decision cannot be made in a stovepipe fashion. People making IM decisions are now thinking about the derivative implications it has in terms of unified communications - especially IP telephony. This is another reason why uptake has not been as rapid as other technologies in the past.

Specific to Microsoft - I've talked to many organizations, some quite large, over the years that have rolled out Communicator and LCS 2005. Other enterprises I talk to that have not rolled out real-time collaboration are looking at LCS, sometimes as part of their decision on Sharepoint. I have already talked to several large enterprises that have already planned to move to OCS 2007.

The web conferencing market is overwhelmingly hosted (WebEx around 65% and Microsoft around 25%) so not having on-premise web conferencing has not hurt LCS strategically. For example, I have talked to Sametime shops that use Sametime for IM but use hosted conferencing services for web conferencing.

As far as public IM networking connectivity, I would not expect that to be as popular given some of the reasons above but direct federation to business partners in an extranet fashion is valuable. Assessing adoption trends regarding federation in a quantitative manner is perhaps an incomplete approach.

Overall, I find this article incomplete in many ways and somewhat misleading from my perspective.

Adam's Original Post:

As you can imagine, an article titled "Whatever Happened to LCS 2005?" caught my eye when the latest Instant Messaging Planet e-mail digest came in today.  The article describes how analysts aren't seeing Microsoft's IM software getting the kind of traction they might have expected.

Source: Adam Gartenberg's Blog

Original Article From Instant Messaging Planet

It's hard to ignore a 400 pound gorilla. And when we're talking about the software market, the gorilla in question is invariably Microsoft. In the enterprise instant messaging segment of the market, the gorilla comes in the form of Microsoft's Live Communications Server (LCS) 2005.

But here's the thing: while the gorilla is not being ignored exactly, it's not getting the kind of attention that a large and very hairy primate might expect.

"There was an expectation in the market as a whole for LCS to do quite a bit better than it has," says Matt Anderson, a market analyst at research house Radicati Group. "Some people have signed up to it but installations have often taken longer than expected and overall the numbers are lower than you might have anticipated."

Source: Whatever Happened to LCS 2005?

Adobe - Antepo acquisition

It's nice to be right with a prediction. I've always thought that Antepo would make a nice acquisition for a vendor that was interested in real-time collaboration and unified communications and faced a "buy versus build" decision. This is a good move for Adobe overall. While the assets of Antepo will help Adobe with its Acrobat family of products and online services, I still believe they need a strong play more directly with SIP, especially in the area of IP telephony integration with communication vendors such as Avaya and Cisco. 

Adobe is pleased to announce that it has acquired Antepo, Inc. Antepo is a technology company that developed the Antepo Open Presence Network (OPN) System — an award-winning platform for Enterprise Instant Messaging and Presence capabilities — enabling real-time communication and collaboration while meeting critical business requirements for control, security, integration, and compliance.

The Antepo technologies and expertise acquired will support the development of Adobe's products and solutions for knowledge workers. The addition of Antepo's Presence and Enterprise Instant Messaging solutions will further expand the capabilities of the Adobe® Acrobat® software family for enabling knowledge workers to communicate and collaborate with confidence.

Source: Adobe - Antepo acquisition

Jabber XCP Scales Past One Million Concurrent Users

I imagine this would address any concerns regarding scale within an enterprise configuration:

January 16, 2007 – Denver, Colo. –Jabber, Inc. today announced the results of load and scalability testing conducted in Sun Microsystems’ Benchmark Centers. The tests were performed on the Jabber Extensible Communications Platform™ (Jabber XCP™) and began with a benchmark of 420,000 concurrent users on two Sun Fire™ T2000 servers. At the peak of scalability testing, the messaging platform was supporting in excess of one million concurrent users in a single Jabber XCP domain stretched across eight Sun Fire T2000 servers. Each additional server added the capability to support an incremental 150,000 concurrent users. Over the course of the trials, Jabber, Inc. reports that CPU utilization decreased significantly with each additional box, even with the additional users, suggesting that the efficiency of Jabber XCP increases with greater scale.

Source: Jabber, Inc. Enterprise Instant Messaging | Jabber XCP™ Scales Past One Million Concurrent Users