Online chat

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In this typical online chat program, the window to the left shows a list of contacts, and the window to the right shows a conversation between the user and one of those contacts. Gossip-chat.png
In this typical online chat program, the window to the left shows a list of contacts, and the window to the right shows a conversation between the user and one of those contacts.

Online chat is any direct text-, audio- or video-based (webcams), one-on-one 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 or other online games. 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 may address point-to-point communications as well as multicast communications from one sender to multiple receivers and voice and video chat, or may be a feature of a web conferencing service.

Contents

Online chat in a narrower sense is 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. The expression online chat comes from the word chat which means "informal conversation".

Synchronous conferencing or synchronous computer-mediated communication (SCMC) is any form of computer-mediated communication that occurs in real-time; that is, there is no significant delay between sending and receiving messages. [1] SCMC includes real-time forms of text, audio, and video communication. SCMC has been highly studied in the context of e-learning. [2]

History

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, [3] 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 called Talkomatic, created by Doug Brown and David R. Woolley in 1973 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 popular among PLATO users into the mid-1980s. In 2014, Brown and Woolley released a web-based version of Talkomatic. [4]

The first online system to use the actual command "chat" was created for The Source in 1979 by Tom Walker and Fritz Thane of Dialcom, Inc. [5]

The first [6] dedicated online chat service that was widely available to the public was the CompuServe CB Simulator in 1980, [7] created by CompuServe executive Alexander "Sandy" Trevor in Columbus, Ohio. Chat rooms gained mainstream popularity with AOL.[ when? ] [8] [ better source needed ]

Other chat platforms flourished during the 1980s. Among the earliest with a GUI was BroadCast, a Macintosh extension that became especially popular on university campuses in America and Germany. [9]

A conversation on IRC Colloquy.png
A conversation on IRC

Jarkko Oikarinen created Internet 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 as WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, Discord, Snapchat, Instagram, TikTok, and many more.

The first transatlantic Internet chat took place between Oulu, Finland and Corvallis, Oregon in February 1989. [10]

The first dedicated online chat service that was widely available to the public was the CompuServe CB Simulator in 1980, [11] [12] created by CompuServe executive Alexander "Sandy" Trevor in Columbus, Ohio. Ancestors include network chat software such as UNIX "talk" used in the 1970s.[ citation needed ]

Chat is implemented in multiple video-conferencing tools. A study of chat use during work-related videoconferencing found that chat during meetings allows participants to communicate without interrupting the meeting, plan action around common resources, and enables greater inclusion. [13] The study also found that chat can cause distractions and information asymmetries between participants.

Types

According to the type of media used, synchronous conferencing can be divided into [2]

According to the number of access point used, synchronous conferencing can be divided into

Methods

Some of the methods used in synchronous conferencing are:

Chat room

Screenshot of a group chat in the Briar communication client Screenshot of Briar 04 private group.png
Screenshot of a group chat in the Briar communication client

The terms chat room, or chatroom (and sometimes group chat; abbreviated as GC), are primarily used to describe any form of synchronous conferencing, occasionally even asynchronous conferencing. The term can thus span technology ranging from real-time online chat and online interaction with strangers (e.g., online forums) to fully immersive graphical 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 from instant messaging programs, 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.

Graphical multi-user environments

Visual chat rooms add graphics to the chat experience, in either 2D or 3D (employing virtual reality technology). These are characterized by using a graphic representation of the user, an avatar virtual elements such as games (in particular massively 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 as The Palace, also allow users to create/build their own spaces. Some of the most popular 3D chat experiences are IMVU and Second 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 and video communications, so that users may actually see and hear each other.

Games are also often played in chat rooms. These are typically implemented by an external process such as an IRC bot joining the room to conduct the game. Trivia question & answer games are most prevalent. A historic example is Hunt the Wumpus . [15] Chatroom-based implementations of the party game Mafia also exist.[ citation needed ] A similar, but more complex style of text-based gaming are MUDs, in which players interact within a textual, interactive fiction–like environment.

Conferencing

Both synchronous and asynchronous conferencing are online conferencing where the participants can interact while being physically located at different places in the world. Asynchronous conferencing allows the students to access the learning material at their convenience while synchronous conferencing requires that all participants including the instructor and the students be online at the time of the conference. [2]

While synchronous conferencing enables real-time interaction of the participants, asynchronous conferencing allows participants to post messages and others can respond to it at any convenient time. Sometimes a combination of both synchronous and asynchronous conferencing is used. Both methods give a permanent record of the conference. [16]

In education

Synchronous conferencing in education helps in the delivery of content through digital media. Since this is real-time teaching, it also brings the benefits of face-to-face teaching in distance learning. [17] Multiple higher education institutions offer well-designed quality e-learning opportunities. Some of the advantages of synchronous conferencing in education are: [18] [19]

Implementation

There are four critical factors identified for implementing synchronous conferencing for effective instruction to the students [2]

The tools for implementing synchronous conferencing depend on the type of educational problem addressed. This is in turn decides the method of synchronous conferencing to be used and the tool to be used in the learning context. The tool selected addresses the problem of improving the learning outcomes which cannot be solved with an asynchronous environment. There are a number of tools and platforms available for synchronous conferencing. [18]

The selection of tools and platforms also depends on the group size which depends on the activity for the course design.

Limitations

Some limitations for synchronous conferencing in learning are: [18] [20]

Chatiquette

The term chatiquette (chat etiquette) is a variation of netiquette (Internet etiquette) and describes basic rules of online communication. [21] [22] [23] These conventions or guidelines have been created to avoid misunderstandings and to simplify the communication between users. Chatiquette varies from community to community and generally describes basic courtesy. 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. [24] [25]

Chatrooms can produce a strong sense of online identity leading to impression of subculture. [26]

Chats are valuable sources of various types of information, the automatic processing of which is the object of chat/text mining technologies. [27]

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. [28] [29] [30]

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 in cyberspace. These virtual interactions involve us in 'talking' more freely and more widely than ever before. [31] With chatrooms replacing multiple face-to-face conversations, it is necessary to be able to have quick conversation as if the person were present, so some learn to type as quickly as they would normally speak. Some 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 [32] of new words created or slang words, a number 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". [33]

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. [31]

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." [31] In this article he is saying that young people are merely adapting to what they were given.

Protocols

The following are common chat programs and protocols:

Chat programs supporting multiple protocols:

Web sites with browser-based chat services:

See also

References

  1. ↑ Subramanian, Ramesh. "CSDL | IEEE Computer Society". www.computer.org.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Grant, Michael M; Cheon, Jongpil. "The Value of Using Synchronous Conferencing for Instruction and Students" (PDF). Journal of Interactive Online Learning. Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 August 2017. Retrieved 23 September 2015.
  3. ↑ Subramanian, Ramesh. "CSDL | IEEE Computer Society". www.computer.org.
  4. ↑ "Wired and Inspired", The Columbus Dispatch (Business page), by Mike Pramik, 12 November 2000
  5. ↑ "This Week in History: Man caught on tracks is killed".
  6. ↑ "CompuServe Innovator Resigns After 25 Years". The Columbus Dispatch . 11 May 1996. p. 2F.
  7. ↑ "Wired and Inspired", The Columbus Dispatch (Business page), by Mike Pramik, 12 November 2000
  8. ↑ "This Week in History: Man caught on tracks is killed".
  9. ↑ "Interesting Idea !". alt.irc. 28 July 1991. Retrieved 6 March 2015.
  10. ↑ "The 'Security Digest' Archives (TM) : TCP-IP Distribution List for February 1989". securitydigest.org. Archived from the original on 8 December 2017. Retrieved 6 May 2018.
  11. ↑ "CompuServe Innovator Resigns After 25 Years", The Columbus Dispatch , 11 May 1996, p. 2F.
  12. ↑ Mike Pramik, "Wired and Inspired", The Columbus Dispatch , (Business page), 12 November 2000.
  13. ↑ Sarkar, Advait; Rintel, Sean; Borowiec, Damian; Bergmann, Rachel; Gillett, Sharon; Bragg, Danielle; Baym, Nancy; Sellen, Abigail (8 May 2021), "The promise and peril of parallel chat in video meetings for work" , Extended Abstracts of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, New York, NY, USA: Association for Computing Machinery, pp. 1–8, doi:10.1145/3411763.3451793, ISBN   978-1-4503-8095-9, S2CID   233987188 , retrieved 1 November 2021{{citation}}: CS1 maint: work parameter with ISBN (link)
  14. ↑ Gregory, Sue; Lee, Mark J. W.; Dalgarno, Barney; Tynan, Belinda, eds. (2016). Learning in virtual worlds: research and applications. Issues in distance education. Edmonton, Alberta: AU Press, Athabasca University. ISBN   978-1-77199-133-9. OCLC   930542375.
  15. ↑ "Interesting Idea !". alt.irc. 28 July 1991. Retrieved 6 March 2015.
  16. ↑ "What is online conferencing?". Online Conferencing. Retrieved 23 September 2015.
  17. ↑ Ericson Nolasco, Clyde (1 February 2022). "Online Distance Learning: The New Normal In Education". eLearning Industry. Retrieved 30 May 2024.
  18. 1 2 3 Ozden, Sule. "Student Perceptions of Web-conferencing in Hybrid Classes" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 25 September 2015.
  19. ↑ Ferriter, Bill. "Using videoconferencing to connect your class to the world". Learn NC. Retrieved 25 September 2015.
  20. ↑ Anderson, Lynn; Fyvie, Barb; Koritko, Brenda (June 2006). "Best practices in synchronous conferencing moderation". The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning. 7 (1). doi: 10.19173/irrodl.v7i1.308 . Retrieved 25 September 2015.
  21. ↑ "IRC Chatiquette – Chat Etiquette". Livinginternet.com. 28 November 1995. Archived from the original on 2 April 2019. Retrieved 19 January 2012.
  22. ↑ "BBC - WebWise - How do I use instant messaging (IM)?". Uits.uark.edu. Archived from the original on 3 July 2017. Retrieved 1 August 2017.
  23. ↑ Steven C. Mills (2007). Using the Internet for Active Teaching and Learning. Pearson Merrill Prentice Hall. ISBN   978-0-13-110546-1. Archived from the original on 19 October 2008.
  24. ↑ "Electronic Discourse - On Speech and Writing on the Internet - 3. Internet Relay Chat Discourse". Epubl.luth.se. Archived from the original on 4 March 2012. Retrieved 19 January 2012.
  25. ↑ "CNET reviews - comparative reviews - chat clients - chatiquette". Archived from the original on 21 December 1996.
  26. ↑ Regina Lynn (4 May 2007). "Virtual Rape Is Traumatic, but Is It a Crime?". Wired. Archived from the original on 20 December 2014.
  27. ↑ "Texor". Yatsko's Computational Linguistics Laboratory. Archived from the original on 1 November 2014. Retrieved 29 June 2013.
  28. ↑ Zimmer, Ben (18 September 2008). "Language Log: Shattering the illusions of texting". University of Pennsylvania. Archived from the original on 16 February 2013.
  29. ↑ Liberman, Mark (2 August 2012). "Language Log: Texting and language skills". University of Pennsylvania. Archived from the original on 15 January 2013.
  30. ↑ Zwicky, Arnold (19 September 2008). "Language Log: The decline of writing in Dingburg". University of Pennsylvania. Archived from the original on 16 February 2013.
  31. 1 2 3 Merchant, Guy . "Teenagers in cyberspace: an investigation of language use and language change in internet chatrooms." Journal of Research in Reading . 2001, Vol. 24, Iss. 3, ISSN 0141-0423.
  32. ↑ Topping, Alexandra (10 June 2009). "'Web 2.0' declared millionth word in English language". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 24 October 2016.
  33. ↑ Birkerts, S. "Sense and semblance: The implications of virtuality." In B. Cox (Ed.), Literacy is not enough. Manchester University Press. 1998
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