What are your plans for node.js? How does npm work?

Hi all,
2 questions:1) In general I'm wondering what thoughts/plans folks have for using node.js on the i?  I'm thinking of a dashboard for monitoring.  It's all totally new.
2) Is trying to use some of the open source solutions for node.js going to work on the i?  We are not actually allowed out of our firewall on the i.  Last fall I wanted to use Scott Klement's json solutions but hit a brick wall when I couldn't reach out through the firewall.  Upside for me was I learned some c# - but sigh - I could have done it on the ibmi.
So my second question shows how green I am.  I've done just enough Ruby on Rails (not on the i) to think I understand that gem installation reaches out to the web to pick up the code.  Does npm with node.js work the same way?  Will I be able to work around this? 
Vicki Wilson