::.. Timing ..::

:: 2003/05/28 ::

Clay Shirky raves

But in a nice way -- over at the Many-to-Many blog at Corante. He likes the way I hand-wave at different time scales for online communities in the most recent issue of Message, The Future of Presence: Dont Strangle the Killer App.

:: Stowe Boyd 5/28/2003 09:12:28 AM [link] ::
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Steven McArthur takes the reins at AOL Messaging

My friend Todd Tweedy pointed out yesterday that I may have missed the point of the NY Times AOL story I commented on.

Steven McArthur, who was named head of AOL Messaging three months ago, was quted extensively, discussing AOL's future plans for video IM, deals in the works to use AIM for customer service, and various online services that could grow from AIM, such as online dating.

The point that I missed is that McArthur is running the Messaging show at AOL, and those that were formerly prominent were not mentioned at all.

Well, the time is long overdue for AOL to do the sorts of things that McArthur is talking about. There has been a seemingly endless series of reorganizations, announcements, partnerships, and plans coming from AOL's variously named instant messaging organizations, and very little in the way of real progress.

When you compare AOL's efforts to its arch competitors in the IM space -- Microsoft and Yahoo -- AOL comes away the loser. Although AOL's users are online longer, and use the service more frequently, numbers 2 and 3 are gaining ground.

And, worst of all (at least to me), is that AOL is squandering its opportunity to innovate. Video is not the only thing worth doing. But AOL is neither innovating around online community concepts (imagine the fusion of AIM with blog technologies, as just one galring example), nor is the company pushing ahead into support of work groups, the true province of enterprise IM solutions, like IBM Sametime. IBM and Microsoft are both investing a billion dollars this year in collaborative technologies, with IM as the centerpiece of those efforts. AOL should be doing the same.

I wrote a few months ago about this, and said that AOL would have to buy or build a real software company to actually compete in this space. It requires more than just providing a presence pipe to win the next round of the global IM wars.

Just consider the question of interoperability: if IM interoperability is inevitable, why doesn't AOL try to become the arbiter of IM interoperability? Since they have the largest base of users they could take the highground, and manage the global namespace -- which may turn out to be worth a thousand times more than today's AIM service.

Mr. McArthur, are you listening?

:: Stowe Boyd 5/28/2003 08:56:10 AM [link] ::
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RIM stock plummets on patent woes

Business 2.0 reports on Research in Motion's recent stock plunge, based on an unfavorable patent infringement finding. RIM's margins are being squeezed by hardware-based sales revenue, and now legal costs; and the very real possibility of having to pay millions every quarter to NTP, the company that has sued for patern infringement. RIM is also being sued by Good Technology, as well.

Personally, I don't really like the BlackBerry, although I used one for several months last year. The button interface definitely leads to "Carpal Thumbal Syndrome" with anything like regular use, and the display is bad.

Better PDAs exist, and RIM's claim to fame -- always on email -- is commonplace. WiFi and better phone/PDA combinations will spell the end for RIM, even if the law suits go away.

:: Stowe Boyd 5/28/2003 08:36:03 AM [link] ::
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AOL falling behind, may stumble

A recent NY Times article cites new data that suggest that AOL is fumbling its lead in the instant messaging space:

"Industry data indicates AOL is still losing ground. Over the last six months, the number of people using the company's instant messaging services in the United States fell by 5 percent, while the number of people using Microsoft's service rose 12 percent and the number using Yahoo's rose 3 percent, according to ComScore MediaMetrix.

While the company is blocked from offering video support -- a hot area for power users -- surely there are other sorts of innovations they can offer?

What about more sophisticated environments -- like Yahoo's IMvironments -- or better support for collaboration and team interaction, like Microsoft threedegrees? Is video the only thing on the horizon? Can't they make a better version of alerts -- like Factiva's technology?

There are more ways to innovate than one -- and I won't even start talking about interoperability.

:: Stowe Boyd 5/27/2003 03:48:14 PM [link] ::
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Mindalign product group reformulated as Parlano

I received email from Ryan Gaylor of what is now to be called Parlano, the company that is being reformed after the bankruptcy of divine. The email, which I guess was sent out to customers a few weeks ago, includes the following

"We are extremely pleased to announce that the bankruptcy and auction process for divine’s business entities, including the MindAlign business (originally Parlano) will be complete this Thursday, May 14th, 2003. Tomorrow Golden Gate Capital will issue a press release announcing the completion of its acquisition of Parlano, Inc, and independently several other divine assets. Parlano is the original name of the entity that developed and marketed MindAlign prior to being acquired by divine in 2001. Parlano will again operate as a separate corporation, fully funded by Golden Gate Capital and focused on serving the collaboration needs of the financial services industries and more broadly the developing Enterprise Instant Messaging (EIM) market.

Parlano Management

The current MindAlign team has been joined by Nick Fera and Doug States who will serve as the companies CEO and CFO respectively. Both individuals were originally executives with Parlano and have stayed close to the product and its development during their tenure with divine. Both individuals bring extensive enterprise software experience, as well as deep knowledge and passion about MindAlign and its customers.

So it looks like the spin out has been concluded, and Parlano is back in business. Contact Ryan Gaylor (ryan.gaylor@parlano.com) with any questions.


:: Stowe Boyd 5/27/2003 03:33:49 PM [link] ::
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Greenwich undergoes more Rebranding

I read in a recent Internetnews piece [pointed out by my pal, Britton Manasco] that Microsoft is once again renaming/rebranding the Greenwch product.

What once was "Microsoft Real-Time Communications Server (RTC Server) 2003 Standard Edition" will now be known as "Microsoft Office RTC Server 2003." Seems that the company wants to play up the integration with Office products.

Still, the Greenwich name was great, and all subsequent names have been icky.

:: Stowe Boyd 5/27/2003 03:26:29 PM [link] ::
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