The idea of proxying ZeroMQ over an HTTP layer is intriguing. I have never used the .*MQ variants, but I understand that request/response is pretty popular. At first glance, HTTP emulation seems like it might make a good, soft introduction to a different paradigm, but I'd love to hear from people who've actually used these libraries/protocols.
I hacked up a Faraday (my ruby HTTP client) plugin that uses ZeroMQ: https://github.com/technoweenie/faraday-zeromq. I honestly don't know if it's worth it though. It's easy enough to write your own ZeroMQ stuff.
