Tag Archives: IM

From IM to the First Point of Contact with the Internet (FPOCI)

IM (Instant Messaging) / chat has been around for a long time. Before AIM (AOL Instant Messenger, 1997) and ICQ (Internet Chat Query, 1996), there was the command line function ‘chat’ on unix (early 1980s) which evolved into IRC (Internet Relay Chat,1988); and for the VMS (Virtual Memory System) crowd there was phone (sometime in […]

Reviewing the History of Instant Messaging and What it Means to Over The Top Providers Today

Instant messaging is old, it predates the Internet, first appearing on multi-user operating systems like Compatible Time-Sharing System (CTSS) and Multiplexed Information and Computing Service (Multics) in the mid-1960s, its older than me! During the bulletin board system (BBS) phenomenon that peaked during the 1980s, some systems incorporated chat features that were similar to instant […]