Last week for our second class we began learning how to use IRC to communicate with each other. This was a great exercise because it gave me a perspective of online chat I have never experienced. I have used other chat programs such as AIM, pidgin, but I have never done any real IRC that involved multiple members, some of which were located in other places across the country.
The main exercise we focused on was editing other classmates wiki pages on the Teaching Open Source Planet site without actually taking to each other, but instead entirely using IRC. I really enjoyed this exercise because it forced me to learn the basics of IRC and how to communicate effectively while using it. Hopefully we get to experience more IRC use during the course of the semester, because it is a great and effective development tool.
