[Foundation] RE: good discussion
Iain Shigeoka
iainshigeoka at yahoo.com
Wed May 16 15:31:13 CDT 2001
At 03:43 PM 5/16/2001 -0500, you wrote:
>I vote to call the protocol IMTP (Instant Messaging Transport Protocol) ala
>HTTP, FTP, et. al.
>
>I think "Jabber Powered" or "Powered By Jabber" are actually misnomers,
>unless you actually have a Jabber Server embedded in your product. If your
>product is a client, I would assume that advertising that it is "IMTP
>compliant" would be what you really want. I mean after all, we don't want
>AIM to be "Powered by Jabber" but it sure would be nice if it were "IMTP
>Compatible"
This seems to be a popular idea. However, I think its a very important
distinction with large consequences.
>If it's an actual rename, then I suppose some clarification is in order (TBD
>by the foundation, I would assume) as to what exactly "Jabber" is and who
>can use it. In all honesty, since the server has been renamed, it's quite
>possible that the word "Jabber" might come out of common use and the whole
>discussion of who owns the trademark becomes moot.
This is one that I think is the largest consequence. "Jabber" becomes
irrelevant if the protocol is named "IMTP" or what ever. Who would really
care about "Jabber" as a name then? I mean who says they're Mosaic
compatible browsers these days? Unless the protocol name is catchy though,
I think complaint clients and servers will come up with another name for
the protocol or system (like web because HTTP is not too cool). Say we
start referring to the protocol as Imp. Then I'd have an imp client who's
name may or may not have anything to do with IMTP. Probably if my company
name were hoowa it would be called the "Hoowa Imp Communicator" or
something like that.
Since both j.c and j.o have gone through a lot of effort and the media has
already started to familiarize themselves with the name Jabber. Jabber.com
loses a big marketing advantage if they allow the Jabber name to not mean
the jabber protocol. However I don't think they can straddle the fence
forever and try and keep the name Jabber as the protocol and open, but have
Jabber the trademark be theirs and closed. I think Jabber.com is in a
really difficult position and I have a feeling they won't be able to
maintain it for long.
IMHO, eventually they will either need to rename themselves so they can
create clear brand identity separate from the Jabber protocols (like SGI is
separate from OpenGL), or they'll have to allow the protocols to be named
something else, making their current name have much less worth. I have no
ill will at all towards j.c and in fact really like the way they have tried
to handle the situation and themselves. I just think they have gotten into
a bad situation that is going to be painful and difficult to get out of.
As for our Jabber community, if we do decide on naming the protocols
something else, I suggest we use a marketable name as we will want to brand
our products with that name. As such, acronyms are probably out. I would
personally like an animal name as it would lend itself to a logo.
Perhaps something like the "whalesong" protocols. Long range, simple,
beautiful communication and a whale would make a cool mascot. :) Or take
a cut at microsoft and call it whalestorm! :)
-iain
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