Chat Rooms for Grown-Ups

Tucked away in a less-traveled corner of the Internet hides a party with a guest list that's 100,000 strong. People constantly stream through the festivities and carry on in a mansion with thousands of ever-changing rooms. This isn't the World Wide Web. Like e-mail, this raucous get-together is a system all to itself: It's called Internet Relay Chat, or IRC.

IRC can be thought of as the Internet's version of America Online's chat rooms. Finnish computer science student Jarkko Oikarinen invented IRC back in 1988, using it to keep in touch with his friends around Scandinavia. The system spread like wildfire: Within 18 months of its release, IRC servers--the machines that bounce the chats around the globe--existed on every continent.

With the advent of Internet voice chat products like Microsoft NetMeeting, some people find IRC hopelessly archaic. But try holding a voice-based discussion with 40 people--you'll have quite a mess on your hands. As AOL users know, text-based chat rooms offer a powerful medium for large-group discussions. Best of all, IRC doesn't cost a penny: If you have an Internet connection, you're ready.

IRC has also played an important international role in recent years. Its golden moment came during the Gulf War, when telephone communications were cut between the Middle East and the West. IRC servers let computer users in Iraq and Kuwait communicate with friends and family all over the world; Kuwaiti citizens lucky enough to be outside the country during the invasion could share information and news.

Since then, in times of war, disaster, and strife, IRC has remained a dependable real-time line of communication. Like ham radio operators during previous wars, IRC enthusiasts can pass messages to worried relatives across national boundaries from Cuba, the former Yugoslavia, Somalia, South Africa, and most recently earthquake-ravaged Turkey and Greece.

But most IRC users have less weighty needs. Thousands of people meet in IRC "channels" each day to chat about the weather, share common interests, play games, or do whatever else strikes their fancy.