Backed by his memories of the future, Qi Tongwei possessed a well-grounded confidence that others found hard to imitate when discussing future development trends.
In fact, ever since computers began trickling into ordinary households in recent years, the first signs of many changes had already appeared—such as the multi-user real-time chat system IRC, developed in Finland by Jarkko Oikarinen in 1988, which stood for Internet Relay Chat.
There was also the BBS (Bulletin Board System), which allowed users to connect to a central computer via telephone lines to exchange information, discuss ideas, study, and reply to posts.
Chapter 687