Actually, bridging is actually a first class citizen in Matrix - it's why the project's called Matrix (as we want to go federate/matrix together all the existing silos out there). Current bridges include:
...and a whole bunch of 3rd party ones too like https://github.com/SkaveRat/xmpptrix. Some of these are pretty beta, but they're all headed in the right direction. The IRC and Slack ones are the most mature.
Glad to hear that you think we are on the right track! [Disclaimer; i work on Matrix]
* IRC (https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-appservice-irc)
* Slack (https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-appservice-slack)
* Verto (https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-appservice-verto) (for talking VoIP with FreeSWITCHes)
* Respoke (https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-appservice-respoke) (for talking VoIP with Asterisks)
* Purple (https://github.com/matrix-org/node-purple/tree/master/appser...) (for talking through to Skype, Facebook, XMPP, ICQ, AIM... and anything else that libpurple supports)
...and a whole bunch of 3rd party ones too like https://github.com/SkaveRat/xmpptrix. Some of these are pretty beta, but they're all headed in the right direction. The IRC and Slack ones are the most mature.
Glad to hear that you think we are on the right track! [Disclaimer; i work on Matrix]