Module 2 - Chat Task IRC Option

I use some form of realtime, synchronis chat on most days. Whether it is Messenger at work for communication with interstate team members. ICQ, Google Talk to catch up with friends and family or Skype, iChat to keep in-touch with business colleagues and partners. I can pretty much safely say that at some stage or another I have used most forms of chat.

Because of this reason, I chose to go with the Internet Relay Chat (IRC) option to complete part one of this task. Fortunately for me I all ready have an excellent Mac IRC client, Linkinus, installed on my machine so all I needed to do was brush of the cobwebs and away I went.

IRC is a different beast to the more common Instant Message (IM) clients such as MSN and ICQ. For one it's been around since the late 80's and in general IRC takes a bit more to set up than an IM client. Once online though IRC offers a world of opportunity for obtaining and sharing information or just plain socialising.

The main difference between IRC and that of other chat tools is the channel or group aspect of the system. IRC was created not as a one to one chat such as MSN or ICQ and as such it is primarily a mass communication tool where a large groups of people can communicate. As the chat is conducted primarily in a channel, IRC can be useful for sharing knowledge amongst a large range of users working on a project or with a shared interest. In times of emergency or world events, IRC has also been a major contributor to news gathering and reporting.

Most channels which I visited had regular users who you could approach for help or to find out information. An immediate draw back if unfamiliar with this group chat concept is the speed of conversation and background chatter that can occur. If you are new to IRC or online chatting this can be very disconcerting. That said, if needed you can also have private chats within IRC which allow for a more restrained and manageable chat environment.

I find that once you are over the technical obstacles of IRC, it can be a very rewarding method of communicating. For one you don't have to wait until friends are online, you can just log onto a channel and find someone like minded (or not) to chat with. Personally I feel this makes the whole IRC experience more sociable than IM.