What is the best electronic communication solution for a group of about 30 people, the majority of whom will be using operating systems other than Linux?

What are the pros and cons between using AIM, my own IRC server, my own newsgroup, or email as a solution to this problem?

I envision an electronic communication system to allow for a lot of simultaneous interaction between all members of the group. I think that maybe setting up my own IRC server or my own news group would best facilitate my idea, however, I'd like some feedback from people that have experience with setting up an IRC or a newsgroup. Is this a good solution for helping a group efficiently communicate online? How difficult is it to implement this solution on a Linux machine? Is it a system that a group of people, unfamiliar with Linux, could easily utilize by connecting to it from other operating systems?

Thank you for any feedback.

I'd set-up something you haven't mentioned; a bulletin-board system
like this site ;} ... or maybe something Zope based?
One of my personal preferences would be
http://www.zope.org/Members/wankyu/NeoBoard
because it has threading.

The advantage is that you don't have heaps of replication (like in
e-Mail or Newsgroups [assuming that people download their stuff of
the server for responding]), that people who weren't present at the
time something occurred can see it later (unlike in AIM or IRC).


Cheers,
Tink

Whoa, that is a really good idea!

I have a follow up question for the Zope suggestion. I would be able to secure a static IP address where a Zope environment to live, however, an IP address really wouldn't be easy to remember for the group of non-technical people I would like to serve.

Is there a service out there that would link my static IP to some sort of alias or domain name for free?

Sure ... dyndns (you just keep the same IP), or ZoneEdit.


Cheers,
Tink