Coopetition

by Ed Sawicki - President
Accelerated Learning Center
Tailored Computers

If you were working with NetWare in the days when Ray Noorda ran Novell, you probably recall the term he often used to describe how the networking industry should operate. The term was "coopetition". Ray's attitude was that the network computing industry was huge and there were profit dollars for all. In fact, if all vendors cooperated on open standards and protocols, there would be more total profit than if companies forced their customers to choose sides.

This only works, of course, as long as vendors cooperate and nobody gets too greedy. A market leader that tries to control the market with proprietary standards and protocols hurts the industry (and its customers) as a whole. For a time, Noorda's coopetition worked well. We'd buy NetWare from Novell but ancillary software from other companies. It was a healthy time for the industry. Microsoft brought those days to an end by pushing the proprietary envelope further than any vendor ever has.

In recent weeks, America On Line has demonstrated its willingness to push on the same envelope. In early December, AOL blocked instant messaging traffic from AT&T's WorldNet even though AT&T's instant messaging technology conformed to AOL's published standard. AT&T subscribers could not access their "buddies" on AOL and AOL's servers would not allow AT&T users to register with them. Clearly, business users cannot and should not tolerate such vendor-induced network outages.

Even if AOL gives in, which they might have already done by the time you read this, they control the protocol. AOL can change it anytime they wish to keep the competition off balance. This has the unfortunate effect of keeping customers off balance as well.

The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) has started work on an open instant messaging protocol called Instant Messaging and Presence Protocol or IMPP which is designed to be compatible with AOL's current protocol. An open standard, IMPP would result in products that work together just as products that use the SMTP, POP and IMAP protocols do. It's in our best interest to throw our support behind the IETF efforts if we're to enjoy robust instant messaging in the future regardless of our choice of network providers.

Of course, AOL could block this protocol just as they're blocking AT&T. To support open protocols and open standards, we should be prepared to abandon AOL's protocol and even AOL's services if necessary. If the business world is to use instant messaging, we must embrace standards unencumbered by vendor self interest and just say no to companies that engage in the type of dirty tricks AOL has been playing recently.

Novell, a strategic partner with AOL in the area of instant messaging, should reexamine it's relationship with AOL. It would be sad if Novell, a company founded by Ray Noorda, should be hurt by practices that Ray sought to avoid.