I'm not sure where to start explaining the great new tools coming online.  I'll start with something small and fun and easy to try.  On your start page, you will see a new panel labeled "Assembla Instant Messaging".  This is your link to our Jabber IM server.  You can configure your jabber client to connect to the server at chat.assembla.com with your assembla username and password.  Or, you can just click on the link we provide to start a Web client, thanks to JWChat.

Why do our users need Assembla IM? They already have IM addresses. Because we show you all of your teammates, sorted into groups matching the spaces that you belong to.  This eliminates problems with sharing IM addresses, or setting up compatible clients.  A teammate will always be able to find other teammates, see presence indicators, and chat.  In the future we will to link this to the Assembla persistent chat tool, so you will be able to use your jabber client for that also.

This tool was conceived and implemented by Vladimir Zdorovenco, a university student from Moldova, and a member of the Assembla core development team.  He suggested the IM capability, and he modified ejabberd to integrate it with Assembla accounts.  Along the way, he built an LDAP service based on Ruby Ldapserver that allows external LDAP consuming applications (like ejabberd) to read Assembla accounts and teams.  I hope that we get a lot more tool ideas from our developers.