[KLUG Members] ICQ - was: Is this the end of Netscape?

[Robert G. Brown]

On 31 May 2003 21:01:39 -0400, Tony Gettig <tony@gettig.net> wrote:

>Anyone using Jabber? I believe it supports encryption, gateways to other
>providers...

I've poked my nose into Jabber from time to time, and found it unstable.
Admittedly it's been some time, and I would not be surprised if it is indeed
much improved by now. I also know that a couple of people on this list 
have used it more than that. It's possible that if my collabs and I were 
making our choice now, Jabber would be a top contender, and it will be one
if we have to rethink things in the future.

One of the conditions I live with is that my "organization" isn't really an
organization in the conventional sense, but a loose association of indepen-
dent contractors, joint ventures, and occasionally-engaged freelancers. As
such, anything like this becomes an exercise in cat herding. At the time we
made our choice, ICQ was really the only viable choice, and later on we
starting using encrryption in LICQ where possible and nessesary.

The other difference between my "organization" and Bruce's is that his is
really a lot more "dense" (not an intellectual bash :) ); they have an 
organization with conventional offices, and even if they have different
locations, they are not large in number, and each location has lots of
employees, etc... The one exception to this might be execs on the road,
or salesmen, but I suppose that did not drive the decision.

The ragtag group that I'm speaking of is exactly the opposite... individuals
scattered in home offices, some in the same cities, but most communication 
has to cross continents and/or oceans to reach another collaborator. In
this kind of setting, the case for IM'ing it becomes a lot stronger. With
the heavy lifting for most data/software being done by sftp/scp, most 
interactions become rather trivial, requiring fast turnaround. ICQ is
good for this, since the message is stored for delivery if the recipient
is not logged on.

						Regards,
						---> RGB <---