Jabber

[fanf]

Following http://www.livejournal.com/users/fanf/42585.html

Bob presented a revised version of my proposal to the SMT today, which included some changes as a result of the previous attempt - essentially, upgrading the perfunctory "oh, and maybe we could do these things" paragraphs to "we will do these". In particular, the web front-end and MSN gateway.

The main result was that I have the go-ahead!

I will have to write a paper for the IT Syndicate (which oversees the Computing Service) to get full approval for a significant new service. I will also have to get it working by the summer, complete with MUC, MSN, web, etc.

The oddest thing was some quibbling about the usability of the MSN gateway, based on no practical experience at all. Sigh. Still, no harm done.

If anyone wants to be added to my ineterst list, please email <fanf2@cam.ac.uk>. If anyone knows of other Universities in the UK which have Jabber services, I would be interested - I know of Portsmouth and Cardiff.

Comments

[captain-aj.livejournal.com]

Out of interest, to the people demanding the MSN gateway realise that you still need an MSN account to use it? :-)

[benc.livejournal.com]

We (kent.ac.uk) have a jabber server, but it's internal only and run by the recently revived Compsoc rather than Computing Service. It's significantly less popular than Compsoc's IRC server, but I suspect external access to other servers would make a huge difference to popularity (at least for students, who don't have outgoing "internet" access). Maybe next year ;)

[uitlander]

The biggest 'nasty' I know of relating to implementing/running Jabber is that Yahoo, MSN etc., erratically update/change their protocols without much (if any) warning. So your users may be unexpectedly without access to their service of choice for a few days whilst new transports are writted/updated and implemented. This is based on watching people administer Jabber servers on a small scale (<100 users) rather than doing it myself.