Non IRC based live chat for collaboration?

[Nicole]

 Hello
 I work for a company where there really is no office. Everyone works at 
home and we have many people in various countries.
 We have been communicating via skype chat, a bug tracker like custom 
ticketing system, and email. However doing this makes it hard to create 
a way for people working on the same projects but in different areas to 
stay on top of what is being done at the moment.(bill chats with bob 
about what they are doing but henry and jane who also work on the same 
project have no idea unless then everything is then sent to them)  We 
have used IRC in the past as an instant publishing system of what people 
are working on etc. As long as you stayed logged into the channel, you 
could scroll back and see what people were talking about. Everyone could 
stay connected to what was going on. However, management was not a fan 
of having things like this out on IRC, even if it's a private channel.

 So might anyone be able to recommend an alternative live chat type of 
system where people can freely sign in and out of.  (for instance we 
cannot use skype conference as they have to be invited in)  Would prefer 
something open sourced we would install or some free service.  (does 
Google maybe have anything like that,. they seem to have everything)



Thanks!

  Nicole