Hi everyone!

I have seen and heard a comment or two about "face-to-face" chatting having advantages over the mailing list as a means of exchanging ideas and problem solving, and I would like to suggest an interesting alternative...

Internet Relay Chat (or IRC)

This is a much neglected part of the Internet, probably due to most people thinking of www as Internet, and E-Mail as E-Mail, but nevertheless it's all part of the same service.

IRC enables a bunch of people to get together on a channel, and to "talk" in real-time.  All that is required is an IRC client, just another program to go in your Comms folder, and an Internet connection (if you can use a www browser, you can use IRC, basically 8-)

I have already created, and registered a Private channel (#isogeochem.   Imaginative, huh?) in preparation, but would like a bit of feedback first, obviously:

I am already a Channel Operator for a software support channel, and I have found that the biggest problem is getting everyone together at the same time.  The number of times people have said "I was on at 8:30, and there was no-one there", when at 9:00 there were half a dozen people chatting, you wouldn't believe.  An added complication is that most people will have to access from work rather than home, so we have to cater for UK/US users.

This could mean that the best way of operating would be to set a time and date, once a week(!), or fortnight(?), or month to get together (most small channels work this way).  And to cater for time zones, we could use a latish GMT time.  I can't do the sums for west coast USA during British Summer Time, so HELP!!  It should work, I hope.  Half and hour a month?  Deserted labs and corridors?  Should be good!

I have pinpointed the places on the web to get Mac and PC clients, but I'll leave that bit for another time.  It _is_ a piece of cake to get set up and get chatting!  Here's a site you might want to look at for the basic info:

http://www.cris.com/~Jmjames/IRCABC.html  <-Remember that the IRCABC.html _is_ case sensitive.  VERY well informed site.  Have a look even if you aren't interested in using IRC...  The Gulf War stuff was an eye-opener for me.

OK, I'm finished with the promo!

If anyone is interested, dis-interested, or thinks I'm trying to disrupt the worldwide Geochemistry labs, could you please get back to me on my own address?  I don't want to clutter the M/L with stuff that only I will be answering.  I will post a message to the M/L letting everyone know how I'm getting on....


Arrabest and thanks for reading 8^)

Andrew Tait (IRC NICK:  Totty, always on #NetConnect from 9-11pm GMT [note the use of GMT, Britain.  Not BST!])

Home e-mail:  [log in to unmask]
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Place of work:  SURRC, East Kilbride, Glasgow G75 0QF.  SCOTLAND.

Quote of the day from one of my IRC friends:  "Totty...  He knows stuff :)"