Spotlight Archive

IS&T News

IS&T Spotlight:

IS&T Pilots Jabber for Instant Messaging

In response to the demand for faster online collaboration, Information Services and Technology (IS&T) is piloting Jabber as an instant messaging (IM) service for MIT. IM lets users target information to those on their contact lists who are currently available, and enhances the ability to multi-task. It also has the potential to humanize electronic interactions by adding a sense of immediacy and connection.

Testing the Jabber protocol on campus is the first step in a strategy to implement an integrated platform of “presence” applications that enable real-time communication. In addition to IM, this open-source platform will provide support for extending presence services to voice over IP (VoIP), email, and conferencing. It will work with a wide range of operating systems and devices, including computers, cell phones, and PDAs.

Jabber’s Functionality
IS&T’s Jabber service lets MIT users communicate with one another and with Jabber users at other universities and elsewhere on the Internet. It also supports the creation and joining of chat rooms for group communication. Use of the MIT namespace (username@mit.edu) makes it easier to identify screen names of community members.

Jabber relies on XML-based protocols to create standard IM functionality: one-to-one chat, multi-user chat, and the ability to subscribe to someone else’s presence (for details, see the Jabber Software Foundation web page). While Jabber itself is not a multi-protocol IM client, there are IM clients that support Jabber and let you chat with users on AIM, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo, and other commercial services. IS&T recommends Gaim as a client for Windows, Linux, and Athena, and Adium X as the client for the Macintosh. For links to download sites, visit IS&T’s Jabber page.

Participate!
In October 2005, IS&T opened the Jabber pilot to a limited number of people in the MIT community in order to determine the requirements for support and service. The Jabber project team has addressed technical issues and conducted two focus groups, and is now ready to broaden its audience. Members of the MIT community are invited to participate in the ongoing pilot; to get started, see IS&T’s Jabber page). Feedback from pilot participants is strongly encouraged. To submit comments or questions, send email to wocky@mit.edu.