AOL, Lotus Test IM InteroperabilityAOL, Lotus Test IM Interoperability

America Online has begun interoperability trials with Lotus Development Corp. in an effort to make the companies' instant-messaging services mutually inclusive. AOL Time Warner is attempting to comply with a Federal Communications Commission mandate that it make its market-leading instant-messaging network compatible with competing IM networks.

AOL and Lotus are testing the viability of an open protocol that would allow users of AOL's AIM to chat with users of Lotus's Sametime and other IM services. The systems will communicate with each other on a server-to-server basis via the Session Initiation Protocol for Instant Messaging and Presence Leveraging (also referred to as "SIMPLE"), an IM standard being considered by the Internet Engineering Task Force. AOL and Lotus officials would not reveal a timetable for the trial, but they did say that if the trial is successful, it could remove barriers to all IM users communicating with one another.

AOL chose to do the trial with Lotus because of the latter's technical expertise in instant messaging and the companies' long-standing relationship, says an AOL spokeswoman. Sametime currently supports the AIM protocol, meaning its users can log into both systems and talk with AIM users. AIM users, however, cannot initiate conversations with Sametime users. No other IM vendors have been asked to participate in the trial.

Other IM providers--namely Microsoft--have accused AOL of promoting anti-competitive practices by not fostering an open protocol. "There's nothing to stop people from doing the work to develop interoperable protocols," says Bethann Cregg, marketing manager of the advanced collaboration team at Lotus. "But the idea of having one common protocol is more desirable."