Assembla Chat now includes video chat, thanks to a mashup with Tokbox OpenTok.  Just click on "Show my video in the upper right, like this:

And, you pop up live and in color on top of the chat, like this:

I love it because I can get up in your face and exhort you to work even harder.  Go Team!  It's great for more collaborative team building, too.  The first time we used it with our team, I could see that it was dark in Moldova, that sunlight was streaming through the window in Buenos Aires, and that two guys were sitting together and laughing.  That changed how we work together in some permanent way.

I'm thankful that the folks at Tokbox reached out and gave us a preview of OpenTok and got us on board.  It's a nice API that puts your user video streams into web pages with a bit of javascript.  They handle the blizzard of bits on their video servers.

We use both Skype chat and Assembla chat.  Skype chat is great for multitasking. I have about seven conversations going right now, and I feel fine, because I know you are probably doing the same thing.  Assembla chat is great for focusing your team on one project.  You can look at the main chat stream, catch up on history, pop up for video chat or presentation at any time.  And, you can set it to show the activity stream in real time.  You see who's commenting, who's committing, and what people are doing.

Assembla chat is also available to everyone without invitation, accessible as a pure Web HTTP chat that goes through firewalls, and it keeps a searchable record for future reference.  You can use the chat tool in your existing space, or go here for a dedicated real-time chat space.

Tokbox nominated us for "Best use of an API".  If you like it, vote here.