Should IBM open source Traveler?
by Volker Weber
There is some discussion at Ed's about the fact that Lotus Traveler only supports Windows Mobile. Some of the comments insinuate that Exchange also only supports Windows Mobile, which simply isn't true. Exchange uses the ActiveSync protocol, which a few other companies have licensed from Microsoft. Thus you can have Exchange "push" mail on Nokia S60 and selected Palm Treo devices.
So far IBM has not committed to any other platforms, but my understanding is that at least Symbian is in the works. Since IBM likes to see itself as a supporter of open source and open protocols, maybe they should release a protocol specification for the communication between the Traveler Domino server task and the device. Since Traveler is a free (and separate) download and IBM is not asking for a license fee, they could also entertain the idea of releasing the current version as open source to make it easier for others to write a sync agent for their mobile operating system. What do you think?
Comments
Based on the Lotus Notes Traveler 8.0.1 Troubleshooting technote, it looks like Traveler uses SyncML (OMA). But that's not sufficient information to build a work-alike client.
As far as I remember Traveller is third party code.
That is not sufficient information indeed. Symbian devices also have a generic SyncML client which is used by many services to sync PIM information as well as an IMAP client which can use the IDLE directive. Combine this with an capable IMAP server and a SyncML server and you have a standard protocol solution.
Hopefully IBM will publish the API for this so people can make their own ports without starting from zero.
Its after all buildt on OPEN technology right :)
