I think this is really great. I think it would get more traffic if there was a java interface.
Hi Jim,
I don't think a Java solution is necessary, IRC clients are available for all platforms (Mozilla even has one built in). These have the advantage of being more feature-rich and easy-to-use than their jJva-equivalents. From my own experience, I would assume that the channel will slowly get larger over time without much external intervention, but if a quicker growth is desired, placing a link to Wikipedia Chat in the menu bar (Home Page | Recent Changes ..) should suffice; some additional instructions for setting up IRC might be desirable.
I'm sure there are several Java-applets capable of connecting to a parametrizable IRC server / channel, though.
Regards,
Erik