Internet Relay Chat (IRC)
- Date
- 1988 · confidence high
- Place
- Oulu, Finland
- Credited to
- Jarkko Oikarinen (University of Oulu)
- Field
- Communication
What it is
Oikarinen created a real-time chat protocol organized into topic channels to replace a messaging program on a university BBS. It was the first large-scale live group-chat system on the Internet.
Oikarinen created it in August 1988 at the University of Oulu to replace MUT on the OuluBox BBS; Wikidata dates it as operational in 1989.
What it led to
- Online communities and cultures organized by channel
- Real-time coordination of free-software projects
- Bots and conversational automation in chat channels