Features to consider for future roadmap:
- Click to Chat -
- Might be very useful for HelpDesk, but may be resisted for cultural reasons, or feature completeness (like integration with Request Tracking system, for instance). Might pilot with someone else, like Stellar, or particular classes that could use such for TAs.
- Openfire has click to chat functionality (called Fastpath), but it requires using the Spark client, which may not be as acceptable to some users.
- Class and group chatroom creation driven by MIT database information.
- Emergency management information broadcast to chat users.
- SIP (for telephony)
- SMS bridging?
- Video/VoIP (may or may not be separate from SIP support)
- New desktop client - Jive provides a client (called "Spark"). However at present, limitations in Java render this client inoperable on machines with 64-bit processors. Choice fo clients to offer can be revisited when this issue has ben resolved. Until that time, Pidgin (formerly Gaim) and Adium X provide good funtionality, and offer users access to a number of IM networks in one package.
- Web Client
- Java Client
- Presence - there's may places one could get interested in showing presence, though one would need ot amke a case....
- Public IM Gateway - gateways carry significant security risks and historically represent a major maintenance burden as proprietary networks break their protocols specifically to disable such gateways. Third-party clients offer connection to proprietary networks without the risks and much of the burden. However, should the landscape change, so should our strategy