What's a good freeware collaborative (i.e., multiuser) instant messenger?

Question

I'm looking for an app that my development team that is essentially an IM app, but multiple people can be in one "room." Similar to IRC.

Additional requirements (that preclude hosting an IRC server myself):
IM style appliction -- Download and install one app on each PC. The app lives in the tray. New messages appear in a notification window on everybody's pc.
Secure -- No Ventrillo Harassment nonsense. Only those with access can see and read what's going on.
Not My Job -- Doesn't require us to host a server, set up a server, etc. I just want to log on and go.
No friggen smileys -- If the client app has smilies I will have to kill someone.

Answer 1

You might want to look into Bonjour messaging. It creates a buddy list from the people on your local network. If you're on a Mac, it's included with iChat. Trillian for Windows also works with it.

Answer 2

It has smilies (sorry), but Skype does chat really well. Even uses a couple IRC idioms, like /me. It's encrypted and remotely hosted.

Answer 3

pidgin handles chat situations on most protocols.

Answer 4

I'd say any IM network can do those things. I'd look into jabber. IRC servers are quite hard to administer, though.

Answer 5

I use a conference bot with google talk. Everyone uses google talk, and to get into the chat room they merely send a message to the bot.

From then on, whenever someone sends a message to the bot, it is sent to everyone, and makes a reasonably easy, handy, and useful conference room.

It runs on Python, and I've had two of them going on my computer at home continuously - one since fall of 2005.

I did disable the "phone home" portion of code as I don't want to advertise these (they are family chat rooms, not public) and I also disabled the check to see if any participants are away, idle, or do not disturb - it always sends a message to everyone's IM. It also keeps logs, which I occasionaly mine for links and stats, but could be useful in terms of team documentation.

My family has significantly better communications since starting this, and I would expect a development team would have good results.

Answer 6

Meebo is web based and has a Firefox extension for notification. It is a web-based instant messaging application and allows chat rooms to combine people from different accounts. This way the team can also keep in touch if someone is traveling or telecommuting.

Answer 7

Take a look to : http://www.intramessenger.net/