GOODBYE TO POWWOW!

I recently received an email from someone asking me "What happened to Powwow?". To be honest, I had not used the program in such a long time (nor had I updated this web page in ages) that I had no idea what she was talking about. So I decided to go to Tribal's website (www.tribal.com) and get some answers. Unfortunately, I discovered that Tribal Voice's website is now dead! I did some research on the subject and discovered that Tribal had been embroiled in an IM battle with AOL and many other Instant Messinging clients. If you remember, Powwow 4.0, which was released in early 2000, was "Interoperable" with AOL Messenger ("AIM"), giving the user the ability to AIM users and add them to their buddy list. America Online ("AOL"), creator of the AIM software, disapproved of Powwow's interoperability feature and blocked its users from accessing AIM's users.

Tribal Voice, Inc. responded to this action by filing a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission ("FCC") last spring, complaining that Instant Messaging should be free and that AOL was attempting to monopolize IMs. At first I wondered what the fuss was all about, then I realized this is the case with your telephone systems. Some of us have AT&T and others have GTE, Citizens, Sprint, etc. etc. Yet we can all call each other. I do not have to be an AT&T customer in order to phone my friends that use AT&T. Tribal Voice was making a similar type argument. So they make good point to me.

An Internet Engineering Task Force ("IETF") was organized to coordinate the creation of a single, universal protocol which would be interoperable amongst all instant messaging client. Unfortunately, from the archived articles I read, nobody could agree on a single protocol. In a ZDNet articledated June 8, 2001, ZDNet confirmed that talks to create an interoperable IM platform were stalled. I can't seem to find anything after that, so maybe that is all there is right now.

In September, 2000, Tribal Voice, Inc. and it's Powwow engine were acquired by CMGion, Inc. CMGi is known for it's "iCAST" streaming media player which also has a built-in chat client. CMGion planned to integrate the Powwow engine into its iCast software and create a new offering. This never occurred and in December, 2000, only 3 months after it acquiring Tribal Voice, CMGion announced that Powwow and iCast would be shut down. I can only speculate that CMGion was either not financially prepared to take on its new acquisition or too much money was spent fighting AOL and the FCC.

I found two articles in the ZDNet news archives, dated December 1, 2000 and December 11, 2000, which confirm that during the first week of December 2000, Tribal Voice announced they would shut down Powwow effective January 19, 2001. And so that was the end of Powwow. An entire series of articles which outline some of the events leading to the demise of Powwow can be found by CLICKING HERE.

Although Powwow is no longer involved in the cause for interoperability and talks have stalled at this point, there are still those that continue the fight. You can learn more by visiting the IMUnified HomePage. IMUnified is an organization of several instant message clients who are fighting for the creation of an interoperable protocol. Tribal Voice was a member of IMUnified until it shut down in January.

So that ends the legacy that was Powwow. We will miss it greatly.

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: 04/23/02 06:02:31 PM Copyright © 1996-2001 denise@pioneeris.net