Markus,

> The server does not need to be written in Squeak... why not use
> http://jabberd.jabberstudio.org/ ?
> I really can't think of anything gained from having the server
> been reimplemented in Squeak. Squeak happily uses e.g  DNS servers
> that are not written in Squeak.
>

There are quite a few interesting things you can do with your own chat
server. I would point out David N. Smith's Babble/Loops at:
http://www.dnsmith.com/dnsmith/babble/index.html as a shining example.

Another interesting concept is to link 'persistent' chat with Wikis, which
combines two ideas: the synchronous communication of the chat world
(augmented by making the chats persistent) and the asynchronous mode of the
Wiki. Creating a Squeak based server would facilitate a much tighter
coupling between the two, placing them both in the same 'space' as it were.

As a side note, I use this combination every day, except that I use AIM as
the chat service. 'Cutting and Pasting' the discussions from AIM onto the
wiki isn't a whole lot of fun. It would be much nicer to have all of this
integrated with the wiki itself so that a nice bridge could be employed.

The combination of the two ideas is very powerful, and by providing both
within Squeak means that you don't have worry about setting up several
different servers. Just fire up the Squeak image and off you go. This ease
of deployment cannot be underestimated; when you can set servers up in
minutes, the results are very impressive. One of the demos that we have been
doing is to install a WiFi accessible server while a customer watches. The
whole process takes just a few minutes and they are amazed when they can
browse the server content. We encourage them to play with the demo during
the talk.

Jim Benson