PSYC
For the Sony CD player, see Walkman.
PSYC (Protocol for SYnchronous Conferencing) is a flexible text-based protocol for delivery of data to a flexible number of recipients or people, by unicast or multicast. It is primarily used for text chat, multicasting presence, friendcasting, newscasting and plain instant messaging.
Existing systems can use PSYC, since PSYC hides its complexity from them. For example if an application wants to send data to one person or a group of people, it just needs to drop a few lines of text into a TCP connection or signed UDP packet to a static address.
The PSYC network resembles more the Web rather than IRC, which it once was inspired by. Each administrator of a machine on the Internet can install a PSYC server which has equal rights in the worldwide network. No hierarchies and no BOUNDARIES. The administrator then has the right to decide which rooms or people to host, without interfering with other PSYC servers. Should an administrator behave incorrectly towards her users, they will simply move on to a different server. Thus, administrators must behave to be a popular PSYC host for their friends and social network.
PSYC theory and protocol was first published in 1995. For reasons of perfectionism, version 1.0 of the protocol definition and appropriately stable software implementation are still taking time to be released. However both software and protocol have been in productive use ever since 1997. Since 2003 PSYC is being employed at the MTV Europe Music Awards for the hosted backstage video chat show.
The reference implementation of PSYC is called Psyced. It implements the Jabber and IRC protocols in full (both client and inter-server protocols) for better integration into existing communication infrastructures.
See also
- Synchronous conferencing
- Comparison of instant messaging protocols
External links
de:Protocol for SYnchronous Conferencing