Screaming Penguin - Source Does Matter

Seems Instant Messenging has some heavy hitter users and those users are pissed off that they have to maintain 4 different IM systems on every desktop because the silly things dont interoperate. It seem ridiculous that the IM players couldnt come up with standards and interoperate on their own, but now Wall Street firms like Lehman Brothers, J.P. Morgan Chase, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, UBS and Deutsche Bank are telling them to get their act together. That kind of clout may help, lets hope.

Seems these companies all have members on the brand new Instant Messaging Standards Board (IMSB). The IMSB was formed to help "nudge" IM companies in the interoperable direction. More details about the IMSB are supposed to be released soon.

Also, even though the coming up with an interoperable standard movement is admirable, these companies dont seem to realize that there IS already an open standard and open system, its called Jabber. While I do realize their frustration with the "normal" IM flavors, I think the same amount of effort these companies are putting into twisting arms could have been used at implementing Jabber, and that alone would have been a wake up call for the proprietary clowns. Jabber can in fact interoperate with all of the players, but it requires that the companies maintain their own servers and allow access to at least one additional non standard port. Most people just want to download the client and GO.

For more see the linked news.com story.   IM giants told to work it out: news.com