News Story

BuddySpace.org launched

Jiri Komzak, Tuesday 23 March 2004 | Annotate

KMi has launched a new public version of its Instant Messaging service under the name ‘BuddySpace.org’. BuddySpace.org features both new server functionality, including web-based administration, and a new secure client. The new server provides better group management and publishing functionality, in addition to existing features such as the automatic generation of contact groups. The groups are managed through a web interface. It allows normal users to change their personal details including location and password. Group administrators can also add and delete people from groups and generate and publish group maps. The new cross-server group generator is capable of constructing groups of contacts from different servers. Once a user is added into a group, he/she gets his/her group roster and receives notifications each time the group map changes. The username part of the Jabber ID on the new server is simply the person’s email address. The publishing functionality is also supported on the client side and used for download of the latest version of group maps. Users can publish a short textual description of their future activities or plans and subscribe to or browse those of their buddies. Multiple presences represent different availability of users for each group or even individuals – so you can appear ‘online’ to some users yet ‘do not disturb’ to others. The latest version of the BuddySpace client (2.5.1) adds important functionality in security (SSL and coding of passwords) and compatibility with the new version of the Jabber server used on some public servers. This makes the BuddySpace.org server in combination with the BuddySpace client a very strong tool for collaboration, especially for informal or relatively quickly changing groups.