Speaking of Standards

Did AOL, the historical king of walled gardens, just become the biggest public advocate for SIP and open standards for VOIP?

That’s the point David Beckemeyer makes in his blog post challenging my view of the launch of AOL’s “Open Voice Program” as of questionable value. David counters:

However, it is significant for SIP - we now have a household brand not referring just to “VoIP” but referring to “SIP” - the standards-based protocol for VoIP, something neither Skype nor Vonage has done. SIP means interoperability and that’s a good thing for users and the VoIP ecosystem at large. A brand as big as AOL providing awareness for SIP and promoting interoperability is terrific - nobody else is doing it.

He goes on:

It’s important to note that we have never been able to do this so with Skype, even though the service has been out for four years or more - they could have offered this years ago.

Indeed… point taken, David.

While many of us in the VoIP industry have been trumpeting SIP as the VoIP protocol of choice for years, and work of groups like the SIP Forum has helped in that, outside the walls of our telecommunications/networking community a poll of people would probably find that pretty much no one has heard of “SIP” as it relates to VoIP.

On one level, why should they? It’s just a protocol and at the end of the day it shouldn’t really matter. People just want their phone to work… and SIP and other protocols are just the underlying plumbing.

But for those of us who passionately want to see that plumbing be based on open standards like SIP, David’s right… putting the AOL brand behind SIP is a good thing to help raise awareness of SIP and the need for interoperability. AOL is letting users connect any SIP device to their network. Any device. Not just “certified” ones… not “recommended” ones… any device.

It’s a beautiful thing.

And maybe, just maybe, the people who do start using the service will enjoy the freedom of choice that comes with interoperable open standards and maybe… maybe… they’ll start asking for that interoperability in other services. <rosecoloredglasses>Is that too much to hope for?</rosecoloredglasses>

And so while I still may wonder how many people will really use AOL’s service, as a huge believer in open standards… working for Voxeo, a company who bases its existence on open standards… as a believer in the messy but open process of the IETF to create SIP standards… as an advocate for open protocols and interoperability… as all of that I have to join David in applauding AOL’s move. Thank you, AOL, for jumping behind SIP and helping, in some small way, to help tear down the walls that have locked in telephony for way too long.

Go AOL! Go SIP!

Technorati Tags: aim, aim call out, aol, aol open voice, sip, ietf, standards, voip, telephony, telecommunications

Tags: SIP, Standards

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