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IRC is great and relaying on such a simple and well understood process is smart. It provides group chat, persistency, and is much clearer than trying to decipher a dozen people talking on a radio frequency.

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The company I have just started at uses skype for its chat requirements. I hate it for a few reasons, but mostly because you can go back and change an existing chat message, leaving no trace that there'd been an edit.

I loathe it because of the repeated privacy concerns, reliance on a central company for not only its development but its OPERATION, and the presence of many competitors.

VoIP PBXes for "phone call" style video/audio

Mumble/Vent/Teamspeak for audio/text chatrooms

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