In forming the group, FIMA is trying to rectify a situation that has been building in scope and complexity since the dawn of IM, when networks were built without the thought of interoperability. The situation intensified in 1999, when AOL first blocked MSN Messenger users from accessing the AIM network.. Since then, each of the four public IM nets have built in services and features to attract users to their own networks.

The IETF has already okayed SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) and its associated SIMPLE (SIP for Instant Messaging and Presence Leveraging Extensions) as standards for instant messaging. SIP is modeled upon other Internet protocols such as SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) and HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol), and is used to establish, change, and end sessions between one or more users in an IP-based network.

IBM/Lotus has already embraced SIP/SIMPLE in the newest release of Sametime. IBM has been attracted to SIP for Sametime for interoperability among EIM systems, as well as for connections to the public IM networks. While the latter is in doubt, the former is much more likely to come.

One bright sign in the public IM interoperability battle is Yahoo's indication that it is looking at incorporating the SIP/SIMPLE standard in both its public and enterprise software products. Yahoo last week launched its own enterprise IM platform, which connects to the Yahoo public IM network.

Yahoo sees problems with SIP/SIMPLE, though. "It only contains about one-tenth of the functionality we need," said Ken Hickman, Yahoo director of product strategy for the enterprise solutions division. "It's really basic messaging and presence. For example, a lot of features we have -- the file transfers, our IMvironments ("skins" for the instant-messaging window), the PC-to-phone capabilities, the chat stuff -- none of that is covered under SIMPLE at this point."

Even with its limitations, SIP/SIMPLE picked up additional presence in the financial-services arena earlier this week, with the launch of Reuters Messaging (RM). The new IM software supports the standard -- it is based on Microsoft Corp.'s upcoming Greenwich real-time communications platform, which will integrate presence into the Windows .NET Server 2003 platform to give enterprises access to voice, video and data collaboration.

Microsoft has been a big supporter of SIP/SIMPLE; it is already integrated into the Windows Messenger IM client found in Windows XP.

One big bump in the road for the adoption of SIP/SIMPLE across IM products came from AOL. The online giant, which once said it was interested in SIP/SIMPLE, abandoned server-to-server interoperability earlier this year, saying it was too costly. Instead, AOL is now looking to open the AIM network by establishing hosting agreements with third-party IM providers.

Another protocol, meantime, is expected to have an IETF working group dedicated to it this week -- an important step on the road to becoming a standard. XMPP (Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol) is an XML-based protocol developed by Denver-based Jabber, which already claims to have 60,000 servers deployed in the EIM market. Those servers are already able to achieve interoperability based on the XMPP protocol, Bamonti said.

"There's a mechanism built into the protocol that allows the servers to automatically find each other if they're on a publicly available network, and exchange presence information, roster information and message information," he said. "They're basically interoperable across the network and across domains from the outset."

For its part, Jabber says XMPP is able to get onto a standards track because of its broad adoption, which Bamonti said is much wider than any SIMPLE implementation. But SIP and XMPP shouldn't necessarily be seen as competitors. "(XMPP) has very good potential even as a compliment to SIMPLE, in acting in server-to-server interoperability," he said.

SIMPLE doesn't currently have any server-to-server specifications, as "they just haven't gotten that far," Bamonti pointed out.

Bob Woods is the managing editor of InstantMessagingPlanet.