All, Glyn has kindly allowed me to post the text of his article that will appear in today's Computing Weekly in the UK to this group. Enjoy, Al. ----- Original Message ----- From: -- EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED-- To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: -- EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED-- Sent: Thursday, June 14, 2001 6:28 AM Subject: Re: Jabber column > In-Reply-To: <004b01c0f3d0$3647dbc0$03a4a8c0@cola> > Well, believe it or not, Computer Weekly does not post my column > online.... > > However, as a Jabber fan, I'm happy to give permission for you to post the > following text to the mailing list, if you think people might be > interested. > > Best wishes > > Glyn Moody > > begins > > Talking about Jabber > > Last week I wrote about the growing number of companies that aim to work > within the current fragmented Instant Messaging (IM) market. One of the > most interesting of these is Jabber (http://www.jabber.org/). In part, > this stems from the fact that the Jabber project is open source. As such, > it not surprisingly believes in open standards (see > http://www.jabber.org/?oid=129 for more on its philosophy). > > A FAQ about its software can be found at > http://docs.jabber.org/general/html/faq.html, with a useful glossary at > http://docs.jabber.org/general/html/glossary.html. There is also a very > full Jabber User Guide (http://docs.jabber.org/no-sgml/userguide/), which > explains Jabber's use of a distributed IM server system, in contrast to > the centralised approach of AOL's AIM or ICQ, say. > > To use Jabber, you need client software > (http://docs.jabber.org/no-sgml/userguide/chooseclient.trp), and there are > a wide range of programs and supported platforms > (http://www.jabbercentral.com/clients/). You also need to register with a > server (http://docs.jabber.org/no-sgml/userguide/chooseserver.trp) to set > up an account (http://docs.jabber.org/no-sgml/userguide/register.trp). > > Using open standards, Jabber offers standard IM features, as well as a > chat mode that allows multiple individuals to send text messages to each > other as a group. And flowing in part from its commitment to openness, > Jabber is of note for the way it can work with a wide variety of other > systems, and not just Instant Messaging, using what it calls transports - > effectively plug-ins that provide a kind of translation to other > standards. Details of how it works with AOL's AIM, ICQ, MSN and Yahoo > messaging can be found at > http://docs.jabber.org/no-sgml/userguide/aim.trp. Jabber will even work > with old-style Internet Relay Chat servers. > > As befits an open project, Jabber provides extremely good documentation > (http://docs.jabber.org/), including a helpful overview of its technology > (http://docs.jabber.org/general/html/overview.html). There are details > about its server offering at > http://docs.jabber.org/no-sgml/howto-1.4.html, while a further source of > information and news is Jabber Central (http://www.jabbercentral.com/). > > But beyond its attempt to bring some harmony to the world of IM, Jabber is > also rather special in that alongside its open source work, it offers > commercial services from Jabber.com (http://www.jabber.com/). More about > how the company came to be formed can be found at > http://www.jabber.com/about/index.shtml. > > There are details about its broad mission > (http://www.jabber.com/about/mission.shtml), its products > (http://www.jabber.com/products/index.shtml), services > (http://www.jabber.com/services/index.shtml) and customers > (http://www.jabber.com/customers/index.shtml). The most significant of > these is France Telecom, which has also invested in the company > (http://www.jabber.com/news/release_050701.shtml). > > Also worth exploring are the interesting essays about marrying open source > with commerce (http://www.jabber.com/open_source/index.shtml), including > an open manifesto - how to do business with open source community - > (http://www.jabber.com/open_source/manifesto.shtml) and what it calls the > open enterprise (http://www.jabber.com/open_source/enterprise.shtml). The > Jabber open source licence > (http://www.jabber.com/open_source/license.shtml), derives from that > employed by Netscape for its Mozilla open source software. > > Many see the Jabber project as one of the most important and ambitious > open source undertakings around today. For it is not only trying to > promote a new, open IM standard - while embracing the leading proprietary > variants - but to build an entire platform that allows peer-to-peer > messaging to be employed for a huge range of tasks. And against the > increasingly dismal results of many longer-established open source > companies like VA Linux or Turbolinux, Jabber.com offers a fascinating new > test of whether it is possible to make money while remaining true to the > spirit of free software. > > (c) 2001 Glyn Moody > > ends > _______________________________________________ jdev mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mailman.jabber.org/listinfo/jdev
