The termchat room,orchatroom(and sometimesgroup chat;abbreviated asGC), is primarily used to describe any form ofsynchronous conferencing,occasionally evenasynchronous conferencing.The term can thus mean any technology, ranging from real-timeonline chatand online interaction with strangers (e.g.,online forums) to fully immersivegraphical social environments.
The primary use of a chat room is to share information via text with a group of other users. Generally speaking, the ability to converse with multiple people in the same conversation differentiates chat rooms frominstant messagingprograms, which are more typically designed for one-to-one communication. The users in a particular chat room are generally connected via a shared internet or other similar connection, and chat rooms exist catering for a wide range of subjects. New technology has enabled the use of file sharing and webcams.
History
editThis articleneeds additional citations forverification.(March 2022) |
The first chat system was used by the U.S. government in 1971. It was developed by Murray Turoff, a young PhD graduate from Berkeley,[1]and its first use was during President Nixon's wage-price freeze under Project Delphi. The system was called EMISARI and would allow 10 regional offices to link together in a real-time online chat known as the party line. It was in use up until 1986. The first public online chat system was calledTalkomatic,created by Doug Brown and David R. Woolley in 1973 on thePLATO Systemat theUniversity of Illinois.It offered several channels, each of which could accommodate up to five people, with messages appearing on all users' screens character-by-character as they were typed. Talkomatic was very popular among PLATO users into the mid-1980s. In 2014 Brown and Woolley released a web-based version of Talkomatic.
The first[2]dedicated online chat service that was widely available to the public was the CompuServeCB Simulatorin 1980,[3]created byCompuServeexecutive Alexander "Sandy" Trevor inColumbus, Ohio.Chat rooms gained mainstream popularity withAOL.[4]
Jarkko OikarinencreatedInternet Relay Chat(IRC) in 1988. Many peer-to-peer clients have chat rooms, e.g. Ares Galaxy,eMule,Filetopia,Retroshare,Vuze,WASTE,WinMX,etc. Many popular social media platforms are now used as chat rooms, such asWhatsApp,Facebook,Twitter,Discord,Snapchat,Instagram,TikTok,and many more.
Graphical multi-user environments
editVisual chat rooms add graphics to the chat experience, in either 2D or 3D (employingvirtual realitytechnology). These are characterized by using a graphic representation of the user, anavatarvirtual elements such as games (in particularmassively multiplayer online games) and educational material most often developed by individual site owners, who in general are simply more advanced users of the systems. The most popular environments, such asThe Palace,also allow users to create orbuildtheir own spaces. Some of the most popular 3D chat experiences areIMVUandSecond Life(though they extend far beyond just chat). Many such implementations generate profit by selling virtual goods to users at a high margin.
Some online chat rooms also incorporate audio andvideo communications,so that users may actually see and hear each other.
Games
editGames are also often played in chat rooms. These are typically implemented by an external process such as anIRC botjoining the room to conduct the game.Triviaquestion & answer games are most prevalent. A historic example isHunt the Wumpus.[5]Chatroom-based implementations of the party gameMafiaalso exist.[citation needed]A similar, but more complex style of text-based gaming areMUDs,in which players interact within a textual,interactive fiction–like environment.
See also
editReferences
edit- ^Subramanian, Ramesh."CSDL | IEEE Computer Society".www.computer.org.
- ^"CompuServe Innovator Resigns After 25 Years",The Columbus Dispatch,11 May 1996, p. 2F
- ^"Wired and Inspired",The Columbus Dispatch(Business page), by Mike Pramik, 12 November 2000
- ^"This Week in History: Man caught on tracks is killed".
- ^"INTERESTING IDEA!".alt.irc. 28 July 1991.Retrieved6 March2015.
External links
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- The Psychology of Cyberspace[usurped](2006)—E-book exploring the psychological aspects of online environments by Dr.John Suler,Rider University
- Woolley, David R. (January 1994)."PLATO: The Emergence of Online Community".Matrix News.Archived fromthe originalon September 4, 2013.RetrievedMarch 16,2012.