I think we do need to solve the Chat problem for OpenACS, and indications are, at least for now, that Jabber will solve those problems better than anything else. Tom, I have never heard of the project you linked to, but that could be cool.
We looked at Jabber integration very superficially. Basically just looked at the docs. But from what I remember, the back of the envelope thought was that since Jabber keeps its user info in an XML file, you could sync it with the OpenACS permissions (who's logged in, etc.) stuff reasonably easily. So Jabber integration with OpenACS seemed to be rather straightforward, if you're just trying to do chat.
Of course, the really cool thing is to try to use Jabber as a Messaging System (capitals indicating an institutional importance). In other words, leveraging its XML data exchange for use in alerts, rosters, email, etc.
I recently started subscribing to the Jabber mailing lists mostly to get an idea of what the community is like. It's very active and the people seem to be very smart and motivated. It's very beuracratic as they have JIGs (Jabber Implementation Groups) and some other things, but in some ways that's good because it forces people to be serious about their conributions.
I think that if someone were to take this project on full force, he or she could find a lot of support here and in the Jabber community. Currently, Jabber really doesn't have any asynchronous communication nor does it appear to have DB support.
I could be talking out of my well padded you know what, but that's m .02.
talli
