Re: Why are we here? What are our goals?

On 1/29/2004 4:45 PM, Hallam-Baker, Phillip wrote:

> I would want to see something that integrates the functionality of
> instant messaging, video conferencing, mail, audio, video p2p and
> resource syndication.

I think it's feasible to negotiate and launch real-time services from
within the mail system, but I'm not sure it's feasible to transport those
services over the mail network itself. The global messaging network is
larger than and different from the Internet network, so you pretty much
have to start with a design assumption that the nodes are going to be
disconnected from each other.

What that would mean, I think, would be that groupware or real-time
processes should be able to exchange identification and control messages
via mail (is this process connected? here is my identity data, and so
forth), but they should have their party separately.

This brings up all kinds of other issues. Processes need addresses (or
rather, an extension system must be provided for identifying the process
that a particular message is for). Control messages need to be filterable
on a per domain/server/user basis (among others) so that orgs and users
can allow/prohibit control messages for specific application types.
Rejecting a control message should not reveal anything about the network
or the user; that is actually kind of tough since a control message that
is rejected by a user's PC (for example) can reveal things like (1) the
user is online and checking their mail, (2) the software is installed but
not running, and so forth. Not impossible and I think we should work
towards that goal, but tough.

-- 
Eric A. Hall                                        http://www.ehsco.com/
Internet Core Protocols          http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/coreprot/