Email was a success because it predated the commercial providers. AOL started out with a closed email network, but eventually they added support for SMTP on the server side because it was in their best interest to join the rest of the world.
Unfortunately, subsequent federated systems (IM / microblogging) have largely failed because they were too late to the game. Big companies had already established a foothold with proprietary solutions before the open federated protocols existed. Unlike email, open IM/etc systems were never big enough to make them worth tapping into.
The reason the big services don't federate is political, not technical. Speaking as a developer, this is incredibly frustrating because it means no matter how awesome your new open protocol/service/platform is, the game is unwinnable.
Long ago, the FCC tried to force AOL to open up AIM to outsiders, by forbidding them to add videoconferencing capability until they complied. Did they open up their network? Of course not. Instead they waited years and years until the FCC dropped the issue.
Google was the first to do something right by supporting XMPP. I can only imagine this was due to the good will of the developers at the time. What's astounding is that none of the other big companies tried to federate with them. In the old days, you sometimes saw explicit partnerships between companies that allowed federation (like when MSN and Yahoo became compatible). Of course these no doubt involved meetings and contracts to put in place. And then there was Google, with port 5269 just plain open to the world. No contracts needed, yet nobody was compelled enough to take advantage of it.
All we needed was one of the other big services to federate and cause a domino effect, incentivizing the rest to join. I always had my hopes on Yahoo. They were in last place, but with enough incentive to join Google and enough size to create a formidable network in aggregate. To whoever was in charge of Yahoo messenger in 2006: Thanks for blowing our one chance at IM standardization. The opportunity is gone now. These days, there are so many proprietary IM systems that it's easy to lose count.
Reflecting on all of this, I think the only way we're ever going to get out of this mess is if the big companies start doing what's right. Like when Google did the right thing 9 years ago, except we need more than one big company doing it at the same time. If you're at Facebook, Twitter, etc, and you're reading this message: we're depending on you.
Unfortunately, subsequent federated systems (IM / microblogging) have largely failed because they were too late to the game. Big companies had already established a foothold with proprietary solutions before the open federated protocols existed. Unlike email, open IM/etc systems were never big enough to make them worth tapping into.
The reason the big services don't federate is political, not technical. Speaking as a developer, this is incredibly frustrating because it means no matter how awesome your new open protocol/service/platform is, the game is unwinnable.
Long ago, the FCC tried to force AOL to open up AIM to outsiders, by forbidding them to add videoconferencing capability until they complied. Did they open up their network? Of course not. Instead they waited years and years until the FCC dropped the issue.
Google was the first to do something right by supporting XMPP. I can only imagine this was due to the good will of the developers at the time. What's astounding is that none of the other big companies tried to federate with them. In the old days, you sometimes saw explicit partnerships between companies that allowed federation (like when MSN and Yahoo became compatible). Of course these no doubt involved meetings and contracts to put in place. And then there was Google, with port 5269 just plain open to the world. No contracts needed, yet nobody was compelled enough to take advantage of it.
All we needed was one of the other big services to federate and cause a domino effect, incentivizing the rest to join. I always had my hopes on Yahoo. They were in last place, but with enough incentive to join Google and enough size to create a formidable network in aggregate. To whoever was in charge of Yahoo messenger in 2006: Thanks for blowing our one chance at IM standardization. The opportunity is gone now. These days, there are so many proprietary IM systems that it's easy to lose count.
Reflecting on all of this, I think the only way we're ever going to get out of this mess is if the big companies start doing what's right. Like when Google did the right thing 9 years ago, except we need more than one big company doing it at the same time. If you're at Facebook, Twitter, etc, and you're reading this message: we're depending on you.