Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
webcams and other types of interactive communication. Like forums,
chatrooms can be coordinated into topic areas and configured for public
or controlled access.
Chatroom systems provide the primary means for real-time social
community interaction, and are implemented in many social network-
ing solutions to allow public textual communication between members
in real time. Some chatrooms also include voice communication and
other forms of media enhancement to improve participant interaction.
Enhanced applications of chatroom solutions are employed in distance
education, online training, and social network sites, although commer-
cial and noncommercial users worldwide still commonly use the text-only
Internet Relay Chat (IRC) system.
Tip: Chatrooms have gained attention as venues for illicit communication
and other antisocial behaviors. As a result, chatrooms may gain additional
legal requirements for archival and legal discovery, like those imposed on
e-mail and instant messaging communications now.
Voice Communication
Improving connectivity and available bandwidth has allowed person-to-
person communications to include real-time audio feeds. In chatroom
systems, these are used to participate in open-forum or private communi-
cations between members with properly equipped systems. Instant messag-
ing clients have been extended to include enhanced voice communication
between users as well. This functionality has been extended into fully inte-
grated voice communication systems that replace traditional telephony with
telephone-like interfaces operating entirely over TCP/IP connectivity on
data networks, such as the Ventrilo group audio service commonly used by
online gamers for coordination and communication among participants.
Voice-over-IP (VoIP) systems provide standard telephonic device com-
munication between individuals without requiring telephony service con-
nections or per-call long-distance fees associated with the use of a public
switched telephone network (PSTN) connection. A common example of
this technology is the popular Skype service, which allows telephony-
style audio communication from a Skype-enabled computer or dedicated
Skype phone handset.
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