Barry Appelman
Barry Appelman | |
|---|---|
| Occupation(s) | Computer scientist, software engineer |
| Known for | Pioneer of the "buddy list" concept and AOL Instant Messenger |
Barry Appelman is widely recognized as the pioneer behind the "buddy list" concept and AOL instant messenger. Although basic Instant messaging had been utilized within organizations for many years, the crucial element of presence awareness—identifying who was currently online—was missing until Appelman and his team at the Thomas Watson Research Center created mainframe-based software that displayed user availability, laying the foundation for contemporary Instant Messaging systems.
In 1994, while at AOL, Appelman engaged contract developer Stephen D. Williams to design a prototype that allowed AOL users to access an early version of the buddy list. AIM was initially launched internally for AOL staff in 1995, where it earned the nickname "the stalker feature" due to privacy concerns. The service became available to AOL subscribers in March 1996 and expanded to all Internet users by May 1997. AIM's user base grew rapidly, surpassing 53 million globally within a decade.
Career at AOL
Appelman joined AOL in 1993 and took charge of server and host development, spearheading several key innovations such as instant messaging platforms, scalable email solutions, advertising servers, and browsers supporting TCP/IP protocols. Collaborating with former colleagues from T.J. Watson Research Center, Matt Korn and Mike Connors, he played a vital role in transforming AOL from a distant third-place contender into a dominant force in the market over a short period.
Career at IBM T.W. Watson Research
Between 1984 and 1993, Appelman directed IBM’s integration of TCP/IP technology at the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center, overcoming internal preferences for IBM’s proprietary Systems Network Architecture. His leadership was instrumental in IBM’s early adoption of TCP/IP and Internet standards. Members of his team contributed significantly to Internet standardization efforts; for example, Yakov Rekhter authored influential routing protocol RFCs and advanced SNMP development.
Under Appelman’s direction, TCP/IP protocol stacks were created for various IBM operating systems: Dean Hiller worked on MVS, Jay Elinsky on VM/CMS, Yakov Rekhter on AIX, and Oleg Vishnepolsky on OS/2 as well as IBM POS terminals. Recognizing the critical need for security in open systems, Appelman facilitated the commercialization of MIT’s Kerberos by overseeing Galina Kofman’s efforts to port it across multiple platforms; Kofman also developed FTP capabilities for VM/CMS. Other notable innovations included NFS implementations led by Dick Ryniker.
Additional advancements achieved under Appelman’s guidance involved shifting TCP/IP processing from mainframes to OS/2 servers, creating graphical TCP/IP clients, developing SNMP and FTP application programming interfaces, producing the MYTE terminal emulator, integrating the S2 Spreadsheet with IBM DB2 over TCP connections, and pioneering early voice and video over IP technologies alongside Matt Korn in 1987.
Patents
Barry Appelman is credited with holding 77 patents that underscore his impactful technological innovations.
External links
- Barry Appelman ChannelWeb
- Talk Is Cheap: AOL's Buddy Lists Spark Race to Harness The Power of 'Presence' The Wall Street Journal