Online chat
From Wikipedia, the free
encyclopedia
Online
chat may refer to any kind of communication over the Internet that offers a real-time transmission of text messages from sender to receiver. Chat messages are
generally short in order to enable other participants to respond quickly.
Thereby, a feeling similar to a spoken conversation is created, which
distinguishes chatting from other text-based online communication forms such as Internet forums and email.
Online chat may address point-to-point communications
as well as multicast communications from one
sender to many receivers and voice and video chat, or may be a feature of a web conferencing service.
Online
chat in a less stringent definition may be primarily any direct text-based or
video-based (webcams), one-on-one chat or one-to-many group chat (formally also known as synchronous conferencing),
using tools such as instant messengers, Internet Relay Chat (IRC), talkers and
possibly MUDs. The expression online chat comes from
the word chat which means "informal conversation".
Online chat includes web-based applications that
allow communication –often directly addressed, but anonymous between users in a
multi-user environment. Web conferencing is a more specific online service, that
is often sold as a service, hosted on a web server controlled by the vendor.
Online Chat Photo
History
The first online chat
system was called Talkomatic, created by Doug Brown and David R. Woolley in
1974 on the PLATO System at the University 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.
The first dedicated online
chat service that was widely available to the public was the CompuServe CB Simulator in 1980,[1][2] created by CompuServe executive Alexander "Sandy" Trevor
inColumbus, Ohio. Ancestors include network chat software such
as UNIX "talk" used
in the 1970s.
Chatiquette
The term chatiquette (chat etiquette) is a variation of netiquette (Internet
etiquette) and describes basic rules of online communication.[3][4][5][6] To avoid misunderstandings and to simplify the
communication between users in a chat these conventions or guidelines have been
created. Chatiquette varies from community to community, generally describing
basic courtesy; it introduces new user into the community and the
associated network culture. As an example, it is considered rude to write only
in upper case, because it appears as if the user is shouting.
The word chatiquette has
been used in connection with various chat systems (e.g. Internet Relay Chat) since
1995.[7][8]
Cultural Impact
Despite being virtual, chat
can spill into the outside world.[9] There can also be a strong sense of online identity leading to impression of subculture.[10] Compare Internet sociology.
Chats are valuable sources
of various types of information, the automatic processing of which is the
object of chat/text mining technologies.[11]Social Criticism
Criticism of online
chatting and text messaging include
concern that they replace proper English with shorthand or with an almost completely new hybrid
language.[12][13][14]
Writing is changing as it
takes on some of the functions and features of speech. Internet chat rooms and rapid real-time teleconferencing allow users to interact with whoever
happens to coexist incyberspace. These virtual interactions
involve us in 'talking' more freely and more widely than ever before.[15] With chatrooms replacing many face-to-face
conversations it is necessary to be able to have quick conversation as if the
person were present, so many people learn to type as quickly as they would normally speak. Critics[who?] are
wary that this casual form of speech is being used so much that it will slowly
take over common grammar; however, such a change has yet to be seen.
With the increasing
population of online chatrooms there has been a massive growth[16] of new words created or slang words, many of them documented on the website Urban Dictionary. Sven Birkerts wrote:
"as
new electronic modes of communication provoke similar anxieties amongst critics
who express concern that young people are at risk, endangered by a rising tide
of information over which the traditional controls of print media and the
guardians of knowledge have no control on it".[17]
This person is arguing that
the youth of the world may have too much freedom with what they can do or say
with the almost endless possibilities that the Internet gives them, and without
proper controlling it could very easily get out of hand and change the norm of
literacy of the world. In Guy Merchant's journal article Teenagers in
Cyberspace: An Investigation of Language Use and Language Change in Internet
Chatrooms; Merchant says
"that
teenagers and young people are in the leading the movement of change as they
take advantage of the possibilities of digital technology, drastically changing
the face of literacy in a variety of media through their uses of mobile phone
text messages, e-mails, web-pages and on-line chatrooms. This new literacy
develops skills that may well be important to the labor market but are
currently viewed with suspicion in the media and by educationalists.[15]
Merchant also says
"Younger people tend to be more adaptable than other sectors of society
and, in general, quicker to adapt to new technology. To some extent they are
the innovators, the forces of change in the new communication landscape."[15] In this article he is saying that young people
are merely adapting to what they were given.
Software and Protocols
Software and Protocols
The following are common
chat programs and protocols:
|
·
AOL Instant Messenger (AIM)
·
Camfrog
·
Campfire
·
I2P-Messenger (anonymous, end-to-end encrypted im for
the I2P network)
·
ICQ (OSCAR)
·
Internet Relay Chat (IRC)
·
MUD
·
Paltalk
|
·
QQ
·
SILC
·
Skype
·
Talk
·
Talker
·
TeamSpeak (TS)
·
WhatsApp
·
XMPP
·
Yahoo! Messenger No longer available
|
Chat programs supporting
multiple protocols:
·
Adium
·
IMVU
·
Kopete
|
·
Pidgin
·
Trillian
|
Web sites with
browser-based chat services (also see web chat):
|
·
Convore No longer available
·
eBuddy
·
Facebook
·
FilmOn
·
Gmail
·
Google+
·
MeBeam
·
Meebo No longer available
|
·
Mibbit
·
Souguide
·
Tokbox No longer available
·
Tinychat
·
Trillian
·
Woo Media No longer available
·
Wireclub
·
Zumbl
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