Gnome Messager

[Lukas Sabota]

Hello fellow Ubuntu users and developers!
    I have conjured an idea for a project.  Say a user would like to 
message another user on his or her network.  Currently, this must be 
done through an Instant messaging application, or through the terminal.  
Not everyone has an instant messaging account, or has an Internet 
connection.  If someone attempts to message another user through a 
console utility like write, it will be ignored unless the user has a 
terminal open.
    Enter Gnome Massager.  Gnome Massager will catch the messages from 
'write' and display them to the user's screen.  Of course, this will 
also be able to be disabled, just like the 'mesg' command.  Gnome 
Massager will also catch broadcast messages from the root.
    Instead of starting a new protocol, it would easiest and more 
compatible to use the bsd utilities.  That way command-line to gnome 
messaging will be possible.
    If it is not possible to use the bsd messaging utility protocol, a 
new protocol should be written using dbus.  This protocol will have 
clients for the command-line and gnome.
    What are your thoughts on this project?  Please let me know! I'm 
writing this project to be a learning experience, and because there is a 
whole in the GNOME desktop in this area.  I believe this would be very 
beneficial in a educational environment, and would be nice for 
edubuntu.  Is there anything like this that currently exists? Am I 
reinventing the wheel?  Please let me know what your thoughts are.

God Bless,
Lukas