<HTML><BODY STYLE="font:10pt verdana; border:none;"><DIV>Peter Saint-Andre suggested that I pose this question to the list, and make it into a a suggestion.  Here is my original question to him:</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>---<BR>Let's say Ive got the 1.4.1 server up and running with the AOL and MSN transports also installed.  I've got three users:</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>1.  Me (WinJab user)<BR>2.  You (AIM user)<BR>3.  Someoneelse (MSN user)</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Will user 2 and user 3 be able to IM one another, or can only user 1 IM with users 2 and 3?  In other words, is it possible to have jabberd running and have NO users running a jabber client?  What I'm trying to avoid is setting up this service, then having all my users have to switch their IM clients to a jabber client.  I personally love WinJab, but many of my users are reluctant to swith from AIM or MSN.  Will they be able to IM each other?</DIV> <DIV>---</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>This, after a couple of e-mails to Peter, seemed like it could work, but is not presently part of the plans for the jabber server.  So my suggestion is this.  I believe that you would have a tremendously powerful platform if the jabber server could send and receive from any (AIM, MSN, ICQ, YAHOO) client and send to any client.  In other words, if jabber could serve as a unifying server to these various clients, you'd have a hell of a market for this.  To give you an example, I run a "community" web service called dinnertablechitchat.com.  This service allows families or groups a personal space to exchange news, pictures, wishlists, etc.  The site is in beta and so far has about 200 users, spanning 70 groups.  I recently sent out an e-mail to the users to ask what they would like to see added to the site, and they OVERWHELMINGLY responded:  instant messaging and chat.  I followed up with a question about whether they would be willing to use a new client for it, and they said no. They wanted to stick with what they've got.  That's what prompted the above question to Peter.  And I'm sure my 200 member (but growing :) site is tiny compared to some of the established sites out there, and a platform that would allow any IM client to speak to any other IM client would be very valuable.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>My $0.02</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>------------------<BR>Sean Brown<BR>brown_s_m@hotmail.com</DIV></BODY></HTML><DIV><BR><br clear=all><hr>Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at <a href="http://explorer.msn.com">http://explorer.msn.com</a><br></p></DIV>