Microsoft IM release almost here. Code named Istanbul. I’ve been keeping my ears to the ground over this one since Jan. It’s Microsoft’s latest attempt at instant messaging and what they call “real-time communications.” What is promised is Outlook sync, a interface with desktop/cell phones and PBX systems, and presence detection. Which all sounds like stuff I’ve been working on for 4 years. The only problem that I can see is that it is all focused functions within Live Communications Server 2005, which is understandable from their prospective… but, still it forces us to proprietary stuff and suffer more and more license fees. I’d like to see how this will to support customers that are not Win32 users, if that’s even the focus and function.
Regardless of all of this, it’s highly doubtful that it will integrate or, communicate with other IM platforms and it’s even more doubtful that office workers will abandon AIM/Y! that they’ve been using for 10 years on the sly. Around 1998, I stopped trying to block usage and just let them go with it. It’s the way the work world communicates and I don’t see it ever going away.
It reminds me of a story that I heard years ago from a beloved university professor of mine. Apparently, a small, private college was able to build many new facilities and renovate many existing ones. The president of the university decided to not install sidewalks during the construction phase and allowed students to migrate from building to building for several months. When the paths most obvious and direct began to emerge in the new grass, he then installed the walkways. Effective letting people determine the best course to get from one place to another. I don’t even know if that story is true or, at what university it took place. But, the lesson in this “parable” is clear. No matter how hard you try to hammer people into going the way you think is best, they will find their own pathways and use them despite you. Somewhere in the middle of those two extremes lies the common ground. More and more layers of software and policy will never change that.