Working better together - collaborative people, companies, and software,

I've long been a participant in the IETF, and a strong promoter of its standards, and its efficacy as a way to get vendors to implement the same thing for interoperability's sake. But lately, I've begun to consider whether open source software is going to overshadow the role the IETF has traditionally held, and change how “standards” are created. “Code trumps all.”

What made me start thinking this was when I checked in with the progress of the Eclipse Communications Framework project (also see the beta version of a new project website here). While the ECF is far from a perfect example, what started to dawn on me was that these guys are moving pretty fast to implement a nice way for collaborative communications to be realized in applications, and if they're successful, and the code is in open source, it could become the defacto standard for how application software does collaboration in a few yesrs.

The new idea for me here was when I looked at how fast the ECF is moving to affect how software is working, vs. how quickly (nee, slowly) the IETF SIP, and in particular the SIMPLE work has impacted collaboration software. The ECF guys are creating a framework that is protocol independent, but their first (and compelling) implementations are done using the XMPP protocol.

Technorati Tags: Collaboration, Software

Continue reading "Open source proves that code is better than standards" »

Posted by Jay Batson at 09:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I ain't whistlin’ dixie here, folks. The traditional telecom providers really, really, really want to change the way the internet works, switching from a model where you pay them (your high-speed Internet access provider, e.g. cable co., phone co.) for plain Internet access, and separately pay different websites their various offerings, to one where the telcos provide controlled access to everything on the web, where they decide (through various controls and user interfaces) what websites you can see, what services you can access / obtain on the web, and make sure your telcom provider (e.g. Verizon) is in the middle of the financial transaction (e.g. gets some of the money) when you pay for the service you want.

Technorati Tags: Internet, Net Neutrality

Continue reading "The battle for the Internet intensifies" »

Posted by Jay Batson at 04:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I'm clear: I'm on the side of network neutrality people. I think the Internet as we know it is in serious jeapordy.

I've been an Internet user since 1996, when I worked at BBN in Cambridge (back before BBN got broken up into Genuity, etc.). BBN was one of the companies who helped build what we know as the Internet today, by suppling network gear and operating one of the early networks that made up the network-of-networks. Since then, I've seen how the ability of anybody to connect anything to this network has created things beyond what I could have imagined in 1996. Even beyond what I imagined in 2003, when I wrote an “Internet futures” report for Forrester Research, where I was an analyst.

Technorati Tags: Internet, Net Neutrality

Continue reading "Your ability to use collaboration products in the future is in serious jeopardy." »

Posted by Jay Batson at 03:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I've been going to Interop since -- gee, 1992 (I think). I've seen it go from a show full of IP network rable-rousers, to a merger with the Novell world (to create Networld+Interop), to a disappearance of the Novell influence (renamed Interop). And last week, I had a chance to go see what it's like today. It was kind of sad....

Continue reading "Interop (the show) is history" »

Posted by Jay Batson at 03:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)