Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

Re: Amy Wohl on Instant Messaging

Author:Ryan Tate
Posted:8/2/1999; 11:23:58 AM
Topic:Amy Wohl on Instant Messaging
Msg #:9014 (In response to 9009)
Prev/Next:9013 / 9015

The inefficiency of those squabbles bother me, but I can't see a public policy debate doing any better to keep up with the latest definition of "big server".

i agree here, and i really wonder if something as serious as a tax is really called for in the IM realm.

what's the upside for the user in open-standards IM? is this just open standards for the sake of ... open standards?

saying Open Standards Are Good, Period is one thing for a private company to do in determining what products to pursue. it is quite another in the case of a government deciding whether to extend coercive bureacracy. the government has an obligation to really think things out.

as an occaisional IM user, and former occaisional IRC user, i have no problem with AOL controlling this space. the software runs on my 68k mac, which is rare these days, it is free, it is easy-to-use, it doesn't censor my speech. it is feature-rich. so what if it isn't standards-based?

this isn't like the old telco monopoly. if aol stagnates or censors or gets buggy, i can switch very easily to a competitor. if the competitors disappear in a year, they will quickly rise again if aol drops the ball.

a tax for open-standards IM would be a bad precedent.




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