I would agree that real-time chat is extremely important with any type of project. We use it on a daily basis when we are hashing out ideas, having meetings, or trying to solve problems. We still use the old school IRC, but we also have an IRC web client for non-technical people (https://krita.org/en/irc/) . The main reason we have stayed with IRC is that you don't have to have an account to talk with people. This is great from a support standpoint with people just wanting to ask a question, but that concern might not be relevant with this group.

I am not sure if this is a concern for the ASWF, but having a public archive might be something you may, or may not want for the realtime chat. If the entire history of conversations are preserved, that can sometimes lead to privacy issues where people don't want everything they say "on the record". Not everything is always well thought out when you can talk in real time. Lists like this people at least have a bit of time to reflect on something before they post it.