Jarkko Oikarinen

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Jarkko Oikarinen (born 14 September 1963), known on IRC as WiZ, was the developer of the first Internet chat network, called IRC, short for Internet Relay Chat. He wrote the first server and client in August 1988, while working at the University of Oulu in Finland. It was first written to replace a program called MUT (MultiUser Talk) on a BBS called OuluBox in Finland. Jarkko Oikarinen found inspiration in a chat system known as Bitnet Relay, which operated on the BITNET. The Dvorak Award was granted to Oikarinen in 1997 for the development of IRC; in 2005 he received the Special Recognition Award by The Millennium Technology Prize Foundation.

Oikarinen received his Ph.D. from Oulu University in 1999. He has done research primarily in the fields of computer graphics and medical imaging; particularly volume rendering, computed axial tomography, and telemedicine.

[edit] External links

• The homepage of Jarkko Oikarinen
• IRC History by Jarkko Oikarinen