About this IRC stuff.  My experiences in the past with IRC seemed so
clunky and awkward.  I, in fact find IM to be much easier to use
thoughIM doesen't allow for very long messages, does it?

Another tool that is handy for live speech and text chat (line at a
time) is speak freely.  This is a GPL product that is peer to peer or
can be used with a base component, called a reflector.  I've used it
on another project and works great and does not require huge bandwidths.
-- 
Please avoid sending me Word or PowerPoint attachments.
   See http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html