I've been kicking around the idea of running a server offering services specifically to tablet users. Stuff such as Jabber, e-mail (IMAP) maybe blogging and whatever else you can think of. Totally free for everyone.

I noticed that a lot of people just don't use or know about Jabber and that you can use it for connecting to the various IM services (AIM, MSN, etc...) with it. Oftentimes, people get fed up of searching for a public Jabber server with the right gateways... stuff like that. So my idea is to basically take the guesswork out of the equation and set up a server for one and all. Full graphical tutorials for setups of all services on all tablets, etc...

So my question is would you be interested in using something like this personally? Why or why not? What other kinds of services would you like to see? Are you interested in lending a hand?

I'm just looking for a good way to give back to this community after getting so much from it.

A Jabber server sounds like a cool idea with as many transports as possible.

Once Modest is released, I'll give it a go with Google's new IMAP before deciding whether to go back on giving up on mobile email.

Blogging's covered with maddler's maemopeople.org, I think.

But, as I said at the outset, personally I'd find a Jabber server cool, because I have enough fun with the ones at work with just an XMPP transport to mean I don't want to run one at home, too

Wasn't aware of maemopeople being open. A consolidated set of services specifically for tablet users with full tutorials (because not all tablet users are powerusers/programmers)... we'll see.

Some of that was my goal with LDUG, which I could not pull off alone. Glad to see you taking this on, zero, and as I said I'll help where and how I can.

EDIT: if you want to try using 1and1's Linux hosting service, I could set that up and add you as an admin...

That could be interesting. I hope it's not too expensive or you've already got an account.

1and1 is cheap. I already have a Windows host, and could easily add Linux.

Okay... sounds good, but let's wait and see what sort of reception the idea gets first.

As far as Jabber goes, Openfire looks like an awesome Jabber server with all the options we'd need, though it runs on Java. Would that be doable?

I don't see why not.

A word of warning, although Openfire is certainly one of the best Jabber/XMPP servers around; there are a number of niggles we've had with it in the past. Nothing major, and nothing which should stop you using it, just expect a little bit of pain...

What kind of pain are we talking about?