[JDEV] Microsoft Instant Messaging announcements

[Jeremie <jeremie@jabber.org>]

VERY interesting stuff here, and I think it's a great step!  The most
important thing to note is that Microsoft is developing on an open
protocol, currently RVP and in the future the IMPP specification.  This
allows us to both write a Jabber transport to speak to any of Microsoft's
IM products(clients and servers), as well as build an alternate Jabber
server that speaks RVP for Microsoft client software to connect to.


---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 23 Jul 1999 08:27:32 -0700
From: "Sonu Aggarwal (Exchange)" <sonuag@exchange.microsoft.com>
To: "'impp@iastate.edu'" <impp@iastate.edu>
Subject: Microsoft Instant Messaging announcements

As you may have noticed, there was a flurry of announcements yesterday
regarding Microsoft's new MSN Messenger service, unveiled midnight
Wednesday.  Since many of you have asked for clarification, I thought I'd
describe the relevant details for the list.

Microsoft will have two IM offerings - the MSN Messenger Service, targeted
at the mass market (like AOL, ICQ, etc.), and the Exchange Instant Messaging
product, which will be a component of "Platinum" - the next version of
Exchange,  targeted at the corporate space.  The MSN client will be the
client for both offerings.  The Exchange Instant Messaging product has a
federated server architecture and is based on the open and extensible RVP
protocol (which is indicative of the sort of protocol the IMPP WG intends to
design), while the MSN Messenger Service uses a different, MSN-specific
protocol that is optimized for a large, centralized deployment like MSN.
Microsoft is committed to moving both offerings to the IMPP protocol as and
when it emerges.  The announcements refer to the fact that AOL has so far
lacked involvement in IMPP efforts.

The MSN Messenger service is available to anyone with a Hotmail account
(which is free).  The MSN client can interop with AOL - one can have AOL
contacts, Hotmail contacts, and RVP contacts on the same contact list
concurrently.  The client logs the user into each service independently and
communicates with the corresponding server-specific protocol to each
service; there are no server gateways.

Hope that clarifies.


Sonu

(Program Manager - Exchange Instant Messaging)