Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

AOL is acting offline

2003; Wiley; Volume: 13; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1002/nem.477

1099-1190

Gilbert Held,

Leadership, Human Resources, Global Affairs

AOL is acting offlineO ver the past decade many authors and pundits have had a literal field day knocking AOL.From an inability to access their network to the relatively high fees they charge AOL became lovingly referred to as 'always offline' as well as some other terms that are not suitable for print.While many users exercised their right to migrate to other service providers AOL remains by far the largest service provider in the world.As the pioneer of instant messaging AOL has truly benefited the lives of millions of subscribers.Unfortunately, by operating a closed instant messaging system AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) users cannot converse with their friends and associates using Yahoo Messenger, MSN Messenger and other popular instant-messaging applications.Similarly, users that do not use AIM cannot chat with the large base of AOL subscribers.In an era of open systems it appears that AOL is not acting in the best interest of its subscribers nor the general public by maintaining AIM as a closed system.Even worse, whenever a third party attempts to make their software compatible with AIM, AOL will rapidly block the software.The third party will then literally tweak its product to get around the blockage, resulting in a cat and mouse game between AOL and the third-party software developer.According to AOL, the third-party products that attempt to provide compatibility with AIM are undermining its security.While we live in an era of hackers that do take advantage of open systems, let's not run up the security flag to prevent interoperability.If AOL is really concerned about security, it could publish a set of specifications that would allow third-party products to interoperate with AIM in a secure manner.Instead, they simply run up the security flag and claim third-party products are a threat.The only threat third-party products represent is a threat to AOL's customer base.As AOL users experience the features built into third-party products, they might realize they do not have to remain a subscriber to obtain the benefits of instant messaging.However, with over 20 million subscribers the ability to converse with AOL members can significantly increase the productivity of both subscribers and nonsubscribers.Thus, let's challenge AOL.If AOL truly believes in the need for security, let them publish specifications that when met will enable instant messaging interoperability.In the absence of any specifications I can only presume AOL is acting offline and is blocking productivity and innovation.