[DotGNU]Concept: Forum

[Adam Theo]

Silvernerd <address@hidden>
> Oops, I believe I wasn't quite clear in my message, Forum isn't a try to
> invent things that Jabber already has, Forum is an attempt to integrate
> various technologies into a human friendly package.
>
> The thing is that Jabber, though it is very extensible, is only one kind
> of internet service. Jabber does not need to have for example a
> webbrowser integrated, since it's main focus is communication between
> humans.
>
> Forum (as I now call it) is another kind of app. It does not invent
> technologies, but integrates them in a user-friendly package. Forum will
> let app specially designed for a task (like Jabber) handle the
> individual tasks. So Forum does not compete with Jabber, it just uses
> it's power.
>
> I've been busy defining and extending the forum concept and found out
> that a forum should have a user interface (2D now and hopefully 3D in
> the
> future) and should support a variety of service types. I mean that a
> forum can (for example) have files for download, webpages to view and a
> chatbox. Also forums are highly and easily adaptable for the forum owner
> and forums can have a certain subject. You could have a DotGNU forum
> with all the downloadable files, webpages and a chat option.

Sounds like a very cool project. It would get my vote, and not just 
because it uses Jabber :-) I've had thoughts of trying to use Jabber to 
integrate a whole bunch of front-ends to the same collaboration forum. 
Have a web message board, a newsgroup, a mailing list, and a Jabber 
chatroom (or more) all working off of a Jabber backend, along with a web 
interface for Wiki-ized documentation and profile management. This seems 
to be much along the same lines.

As for the Jabber aspects: Yes, Jabber already has whiteboarding 
[http://www.jabber.org/jeps/jep-0010.html], which includes 
SVG-over-Jabber and XPM-over-Jabber, as well as an implimentation for 
the Mozilla web browser with Jabberzilla [http://jabberzilla.mozdev.org].

Also, Jabber is the perfect transport for not only human-to-human 
conversation, but also conversation with bots and other automated tools, 
and of course as a generic XML router to exchange chess moves or search 
queries :-)

I understand you probably already know all of this, since you'll be 
using Jabber as the backend for alot of it. You said there is no need to 
integrate a web front end for Jabber, but you know I always thought it 
would be cool to have a web-browser-based Jabber client that did a whole 
bunch of web-like stuff? I don't know how you plan to structure this 
thing exactly, but I think Jabber could fit its way into alot more roles 
than many people think.

Overall, I think it's a great project, and I think I'll try to 
contribute to it in my spare time if it's accepted. Especially with the 
Jabber and web front-end aspects.

Also, I hope you don't mind if I forward your post to the JDev list... 
Many people there would love to hear about this and hopefully contribute 
to it and the rest of DotGNU at hearing the word "Jabber" in there so 
much :-)

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