[JDEV] End-User Web Presence (JabberCentral)

[Justin Mecham]

Hi folks,

In light of recent discussion regarding an end-user portal, and
considering my background (having created JabberCentral), I thought I 
would chime in and fill in some blanks and attempt to set things in
motion.

First a little background.  When JabberCentral was started in early 2000
there was quite a lot of energy behind it.  Populating it with content
was never a problem.  Over time we developed a comprehensive listing of
I believe all the Jabber clients (public, at least) that were available.
After this initial energy, things kind of died down.  Myself being too 
busy to write content and manage or solicit contributions led to the 
site becoming stale.

When the new Jabber.org site went up, and after discussing this issue
with Peter, I decided to shut the site down and redirect traffic to the
JSF.  My hope was that the new site could accommodate the audience that
JabberCentral had. Peter did not tell me to shut the site down, it was a
decision I made on my own.

I believe the first requirement of a successful Jabber portal is that a
group of dedicated people need to be involved to keep the gears turning.

Of late I have been pondering bringing JabberCentral back, having a
little more time on my hands and wanting to become involved with Jabber
again.  Seeing this discussion on JDEV, it seems there is a real demand
for filling the end-user informational void.  Can this transfer from a
theoretical disscussion to a productive design and implementation
discussion, and be followed up by volunteers that can spend time making
this happen?

The following list is what I believe should be the immediate, primary
focus:

o A comprehensive developer-maintained client list, with optional
  syndication capability from JabberStudio for projects that are hosted
  there (for file releases, news, etc).

o Documentation to assist in choosing a Jabber server to start out with,
  syndicating the list from jabber.org.

o Documentation covering the basics of a select group of the most
  popular clients (eventuall expanding into all clients, hopefully).

o Other documentation (FAQs, glossary, etc).

o News capability (syndicated from jabber.org, and also original
  end-user oriented postings).

o Forums (preferably Jabber-integrated).

I believe once these basics are implemented, a more robust site can be
tackled. Features that would be useful in the future would be:

o Internationalization support.
o Documentation covering the basics of setting up your own Jabber
  server.
o Community-oriented features to assist new users in finding people on
  Jabber to talk to.
o Directory of Jabber-powered services (bots, etc) that new users can 
  use to get the weather, etc.

Please add to these lists.

I am willing to get behind an effort to do this, and would like to
revive JabberCentral as the vehicle to accomplish this if there are
enough people willing to help make this happen.

Please respond with your comments and ideas. I propose that we hold a
Jabber conference within the next couple of days to utilize the energy
behind this discussion and take it to the next level.

-- Justin