It's possible that I could find some client money to throw at this problem over time, but I think we'd first need to come up with a set of concrete proposals about what the system could do. In general, the world of synchronous communication is pretty impoverished right now, and instant messaging is definitely not the be-all and end-all here. For my part, I'd need to see good one-to-many or many-to-many applications (e.g., chats, chat stadiums, application sharing, white boarding) as well as one-to-one applications (i.e., IM) to be able to find sponsorship. If those who are familiar with jabber can educate us on the possibilities, then we'll all have a better chance of finding clients who might need what it offers.