Marshall-
Is there a way to browse available IETF jabber conferences?
yes, but the client you're using may not implement it.
in general, what you're looking for is a button/menu-item that says "browse".
when you select this, on my client, i get a window asking for a server name. if
i enter "conference.ietf.jabber.com", then i get a list of the conference rooms
there. i can then double-click on a room to join, etc...
if your client doesn't implement browsing, you can just do a join by clicking on
"join group chat..." and entering:
server: conference.ietf.jabber.com
room: <<use the secretariat acronym, e.g., "dccp">>
nickname:
and away you go.
/mtr