I’ve been spending some time here and there preparing to convert this site to a fully MovableType powered site complete with a photoblog, remaindered links, code formatting, and anything else I can squeeze in that I find useful.

With the upgrade I have the opportunity to introduce some pretty cool functionality to the site, both on the admin side and on the front end. But what I can’t find, that I need help with, is the ability to post new entries via IM.

I’ve sort of figured out the details in my head – I could set up an IM bot on my webserver that could then post what it receives to MT. But then, that’s some serious rigging – is there a simpler way?

Also, in my searches, I found someone who’s managed to IM enable the comments on his site – not only can you post a comment through IM, but when others post comments, their comments are distributed to all users who posted comments to that entry previously. Instead of just witty comments in response to your entry, you get something sorely missed on most comment enabled entries – actual conversation.

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But then I take it too far – what if I could do everything from IM. Seriously – if I had an Internet enabled refrigerator (whatever that really means) I could send it an IM asking “Hey, how much butter do you have” and it could respond “I have fourteen sticks of butter, only six of which are toast crumb free”. I could ask my bank what my current balance was. I could tell my bill pay contact to pay the mortgage. I could order a book from Amazon. I could manage my entire life through IM.

What it boils down to, basically, is giving everything/everyone I currently interact with (electronic devices, web sites, people, financial entities, my aquarium) an Internet presence with the capability for me to remotely send commands and receive responses. IM, with little to no improvements, would be a great vehicle for that, especially now that it’s in cell phones, PDAs, and on every computer platform.