Talkomatic
Talkomatic is an online chat system[1] that facilitates real-time text communication among a small group of people. Unlike other chat systems, each participant in Talkomatic has their own section of the screen, broadcasting messages letter-by-letter as they are typed.
History
The original Talkomatic was the first multi-user online chat system, with the possible exception of the Party Line function of the Emergency Management Information Systems And Reference Index (EMISARI) system, created for the US Office of Emergency Preparedness by Murray Turoff in 1971 [2] .[3] Talkomatic was created by Doug Brown and David R. Woolley in 1973 on the PLATO System[4] at the University of Illinois. It offered six channels, each of which could hold up to five participants.[5] Along with PLATO Notes and a wide variety of games, Talkomatic was one of the features of PLATO that gave rise to a large online community that persisted into the mid 1980s.
Ray Ozzie's smartphone app, Talko, launched in September 2014, is named after Talkomatic, which Ozzie experienced while working on the PLATO System in the 1970s.
Web version
In March 2014, Brown and Woolley released a new version of Talkomatic designed for the web. It is conceptually similar to the original system, but earlier limitations such as the maximum room count have been lifted.
References
- ↑ Falk, Joni K.; Drayton, Brian. Creating and Sustaining Online Professional Learning Communities. Teachers College Press. pp. 8–. ISBN 9780807772140. Retrieved 30 May 2014.
- ↑ IRC History -- EMISARI
- ↑ Hiltz, Roxanne. The Network Nation: Human Communication via Computer. ISBN 0262581205.
- ↑ Bidgoli, Hossein (2004). The Internet Encyclopedia. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 665–. ISBN 9780471222040. Retrieved 30 May 2014.
- ↑ PC Mag. Ziff Davis, Inc. 17 April 1984. pp. 221–. Retrieved 30 May 2014.
- Woolley, David R (January 1994). "PLATO: The Emergence of Online Community". Matrix News. Retrieved May 30, 2014.
- Encyclopedia of New Media. Sage Publications. 2003.