Notifications & Instant Messaging.

[Adam Tauno Williams <awilliam whitemice org>]

Is there any possibly technique or setting to make notifications useful?
For instant messaging [Empathy] the current situation is very
ineffective - notifications appear and disappear and if I'm not looking
at the screen at that moment.... I'm not notified.  

At least in Empathy is there a configuration option to
open-a-chat-window for any new incoming conversation?