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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
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<page xmlns="http://projectmallard.org/1.0/" type="topic" id="overview" xml:lang="fi">
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<link type="guide" xref="index"/>
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<revision pkgversion="3.7" version="0.1" date="2012-11-30" status="draft"/>
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What instant messaging is and how you can use it.
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<credit type="author">
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<email>aruna.evam@gmail.com</email>
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<credit type="editor">
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<name>Ekaterina Gerasimova</name>
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<email>kittykat3756@gmail.com</email>
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<p>Creative Commons Share Alike 3.0</p>
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<title>Overview of instant messaging</title>
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Instant messaging, sometimes abbreviated to IM, is a text-based means to
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communicate instantly over the internet and the local network. While some
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IM applications work with only one type of account, others, including
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<link xref="introduction">Empathy</link>, provide IM facilities by using
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<link xref="add-account">accounts</link> from different service providers.
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Some of these even support audio and video calling.
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<table frame="all" shade="cols">
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<td><p><media type="image" src="figures/video_overview.png" mime="image/png" style="right" width="150" height="150"/></p></td>
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<td><p><media type="image" src="figures/conf_overview.png" mime="image/png" style="right" width="150" height="150"/></p></td>
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<td><p><media type="image" src="figures/croom_overview.png" mime="image/png" style="right" width="150" height="150"/></p></td>
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<td><p>Video Conference</p></td>
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<td><p>Group chats</p></td>
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<td><p>Chat rooms</p></td>
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Some instant messaging applications can be used to connect to chat rooms,
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online places where like-minded people meet to talk. One popular means to
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connect to several chat rooms is the Internet Relay Chat, also known as
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<link xref="irc-manage">IRC</link>. IRC provides
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<link xref="irc-join-room">public</link> chat rooms, which are open to
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anyone who creates an account on the IRC Server, and private chat rooms,
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which are <link xref="irc-join-pwd">password protected</link>
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and open only to a select few.