Dial tone. It’s one of those sacred rights we all have come to expect and depend upon. When you pick up a telephone you’ll get a dial tone and you’ll be able to call anybody.If they’re in some far flung part of the world you may have to do some fancy dialing, but for most normal people and companies you can call just about anybody.

Along comes instant messaging. Originally the reserved right of “SysOps,” systems operators in major computer facilities, instant messaging came to the masses having taken the long route through “chat rooms” where people of common interest could gather to share thoughts and ideas with larger groups. Sometimes some of the people in the chat room wanted to have a sidebar conversation so the IM providers created an “instant messaging” capability that was totally dyadic. One-to-One. Soon, this offspring became the primary thing.

Many Choices – Little Integration

For the past decade or more users have had a wide variety of choices of instant messaging networks to choose from, and especially in the earliest days, a member of one network could not communicate with members of other networks. If you were, for example, on AOL Instant Messenger (AIM), you could only communicate with others using AOL Instant Messenger. In fact, instant messaging services from Google, Yahoo, Microsoft Windows Live Messenger, Skype and others could not interact. Along came Facebook with its own “chat” capability and it, too, was segregated.

Software developers like Trillian came along and attempted to weave multiple networks together with software that could “aggregate” some networks.  But with each network constantly upgrading and changing, it was hard to keep the connections solid.

In more recent years several public messaging networks have agreed to interoperate, so you can now talk to Facebook friends on AIM or Skype for example, but you still can’t talk to Skype contacts from AIM. There's still no single network for IM.

Multiple Microsoft Messengers

Several recent events have now left Microsoft with multiple networks within itself. MSN Messenger has been around for many years and has folded into Windows Live! Messenger. At the same time the Microsoft Office Communications System (OCS) has been upgraded and expanded into Lync, which can easily federate with any domain or all domains and the public internet. Then, of course, there’s the recent Microsoft acquisition of the highly-popular Skype. At some point, Microsoft has to bring this all together.

This is clearly happening. Already, Microsoft has informed Windows Live! Messenger users that they should be upgrading to Skype, and that Windows Live! Messenger will eventually be retired everywhere except for mainland China. In the wake of the recent Lync Conference in San Diego, Lync product managers have been talking about where the roads of Skype and Lync will converge, making it very clear that they will.

The Public/Private Condundrum Comes to Communications

The challenges surround how to create a system that can be totally private to a single corporate entity while providing the ability to communicate with others outside the organization and perhaps even the public.  Much discussion surrounds the future role of enterprise voice capability.  Will it replace the public switched telephone network (PSTN), connect to it, expand upon it? 

Since it will be impacting decisions our readers will be making around migrating to Lync Server, Lync Online, various Exchange platforms, enterprise voice platforms and more, we’ll be tracking the progress of the convergence of Windows Live! Messenger, Skype and Lync as plans develop. Stay tuned, and ask questions.