[DotGNU]To What Degree Jabber?

[Adam Theo]

Well, with no objections to using Jabber hitting the table in the past 
feeks now, and the Steering Committee is (hopefully) about to vote on 
the matter to make it official. I've seen some really good ideas here 
that will benefit DotGNU by using Jabber, but most importantly to me, 
will also help Jabber by pushing its limits and making it a better protocol.

I'd like to ask everyone to what degree they think Jabber should be 
adopted by DotGNU? There has been talk about using it as the default 
network transport by a couple of people, and using it to integrate other 
systems and protocols together. This is great since Jabber is perfect 
for this sort of thing. But I'd like to get a broader concensus. Here 
are some options:

 - Use Jabber as the Instant Communications/Messaging platform for 
DotGNU. This is where Jabber has its roots, and it is very good at 
reliable, fast communication between people.
 - Use Jabber as a secondary transport mechanisms to route XML and 
other data around the distributed DotGNU platform. Jabber is very 
capable of being a generic XML router, and this is where it has been 
heading for the past few months. A working example of this is Picto 
[http://picto.weblogger.com/], an open dictionary that uses Jabber to 
route data between its distributed servers, as well as get input from 
remote users.
 - Use Jabber as the default/main transport mechanism. Jabber has alot 
of strengths, even more than HTTP, in my opinion, and fewer weaknesses. 
HTTP was never meant for the kind of heavy-duty session management and 
flexible routing that DotGNU is going to need. Jabber is. It's a gamble, 
sure. Jabber is a new protocol, only being fully stable for a year now, 
but it has grown tremendously, with an estimated 100,000 servers in use 
today and dozens of developer tools available. It won't be fading away, 
it's here to stay :-) So the only issue here is whether you think Jabber 
is the best protocol to rely on.
 - Use Jabber as a glue to tie together other protocols and systems. 
Jabber has a long history of being a common ground for competing 
systems. Traditionally these systems have just been proprietary Instant 
Messgaing systems, but the same rules used there are already being 
applied elsewhere. There is functionality to send wireless pager 
messages, e-mail, and even communicate with the Groove platform. Jabber 
can help DotGNU be interoperable with .NET and the Liberty Alliance 
platform.

--
    /\  Adam Theo, Age 22, Tallahassee FL USA
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