Web-based Chat

by John Graves (jgraves@learncd.com)

Have you ever noticed the surreal silence of the World Wide Web? Here we have millions of people engaged in this communal activity with no way to talk directly to one another. No wonder they call it the ultimate library—the librarian has everyone gagged!

Web-based chat is changing all that. Anyone who has used email or newsgroups or Internet Relay Chat (IRC) might wonder why the Internet needs yet another way to talk. But consider some of the things that make the Web so popular: hypertext links, colorful graphics, multimedia and ease of use.

Imagine "talking" using the rich mix of digital content currently seen on the Web. You can mention your favorite Web site and provide a link to it in mid-sentence. You can emphasize words or whisper secrets. You can include a picture or movie of yourself or link to your recorded voice. What's more, you can do all these things without any special software other than a Web browser. How convenient! Web browsers just happen to be the most popular computer programs on the planet.

The mechanics of Web-based chat are simple. You start by pointing your browser to a chat page on the Web (see listing below). The page displays the comments of everyone participating in the chat. You join in by posting your comments using an online form.

The neat thing is you're not restricted to plain text. Your comments can be written in the same Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) that makes Web pages so interesting and interactive. Anything you see on a Web page can be included in your own Web-based chat posting. Here are some examples showing how HTML might be used in conversation:

<H1>Big Hello, Everyone!</H1>

Have you checked out <a href=3D"http://wwwiz.com">WWWiz</a> yet?

Here's the cover of the current issue:

Web-based chat brings people together on the Web for all types of interaction, from technical support to Texas Singles.

When the communication does not take place in real time, the facility for sharing the posted messages is called a forum or conference rather than a chat. David R. Woolley maintains a listing of Web Conferencing tools which includes nearly 100 different conferencing products. Some of these are very serious business tools designed to change the way people work together. Researchers call this kind of thing Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW). To give you an idea where it all may be headed, a five-day conference called CSCW 96, coming up in November in Boston, includes a workshop entitled "Extending CSCW into Domestic Environments." In other words, "Use your computer to work from home."

If you prefer to compose your HTML-laced messages at your leisure, all the features of Web-based chat are coming in the next generation of browser-based email. See Netscape's special report.

So get your browser fired up, learn a little HTML and the next time you want to get together with your friends or relatives tell them to meet you on the Web!

Chat Examples
Web Chat Listings
Internet Roundtable Society
WebChat Broadcasting System
Computer-Supported Cooperative Work
CSCW 96
E-CONF listserv

John Graves is a San Diego, California, Multimedia Developer dedicated to distributing knowledge via multimedia CD-ROM. Visit his Web site at http://www.learncd.com/.