What is a Jabber client?

“To answer this question, we first have to decide what a Jabber client is. To many, it is a program with which to chat with friends, and join in group discussions. On one level, of course it is. The current cluster of available Jabber clients are focused pretty much on the initial competency (there’s a reason why I’m not using the phrase ‘core competency’) of Jabber: Instant Messaging (IM)….”

“Jabber is an architecture, a way of thinking, a set of protocols, just as much as it is an actual implementation in the form of a server and clients. And this architecture lends itself to much more than the
exchange of gossip between friends, or the hosting of WAMs (Wide Area Meetings 😉 in group chat. It can be injected easily into the virtual routes between systems and users, acting as “message plasma” to bind those entities taking part in conversations as equal partners, and to provide them with a space and time structure in which to engage in those conversations.”

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