It is Ray Tomlinson, a programmer who implemented an email system in
1971, who is credited to have invented the icon "@" of
cyberspace in 1972. Now comes Professor Fahlman claiming that he
invented the world's most popular emoticon ":-)" 25 years
ago in 1982. Check this interesting news item.*

Dr D.C.Misra

September 19, 2007

_____________________________________________________________________

WORLD'S MOST POPULAR 'EMOTIONAL ICON'

Smiley face turns 25.Are you:-)

Pittsburgh



IT WAS a serious contribution to the electronic lexicon.



Twenty-five years ago, Carnegie Mellon University professor Scott E.
Fah1man says, he was the first to use three keystrokes - a colon
followed by a hyphen and a parenthesis - as a horizontal "smiley face"
in a computer message. To mark the anniversary on Wednesday Fahlman and
his colleagues are starting an annual student contest for innovation in
technology-assisted, person-to-person communication. The Smiley Award,
sponsored by Yahoo Inc
<http://epaper.hindustantimes.com/ArticleText.aspx?article=19_09_2007_00\
1_021&kword=&mode=1> ., carries a $500 (about Rs 20,000) cash prize.
Language experts say the smiley face and other emotional icons, known as
emoticons, have given people a concise way in e-mail and other
electronic messages of expressing sentiments that otherwise would be
difficult to decipher.



Fah1man posted the emoticon in a message to an electronic bulletin board
at 11.04 am on September l9, 1982, during a discussion about the limits
of online humour and how to denote comments meant to be taken lightly.



"I propose the following character sequence for joke markers: :-),"
wrote Fahlman. "Read it sideways."



The suggestion gave computer users
<http://epaper.hindustantimes.com/ArticleText.aspx?article=19_09_2007_00\
1_021&kword=&mode=1> a way to convey humour or positive feelings with a
smile - or the opposite sentiments by reversing the parenthesis to form
a frown.



Carnegie Mellon said Fah1man's smileys
<http://epaper.hindustantimes.com/ArticleText.aspx?article=19_09_2007_00\
1_021&kword=&mode=1> spread front its campus to businesses to around
the world as the internet gained popularity. "I've never seen any hard
evidence that the :-) sequence was in use before my original post, and
I've never run into anyone who actually claims to have invented it
before I did," Fahlman said. AP



(Source: Hindustan Times, New Delhi, September 19, 2007, Wednesday, p-1,
http://epaper.hindustantimes.com/ArticleText.aspx?article=19_09_2007_001\
_021&kword=&mode=1, accessed: September 19, 2007).



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