Irc

Invented by jarkko oikarinen.
A simple protocol at heart, yet extensible enough to be still going strong more than 30 years later.
My first taste of the "internet" (not really) came when I connected to a free account that an ISP in Argentina offered through a local number. With the free account you could only access a single website (the ISP's), and an IRC server. The IRC server had a tight community of people from around the country that were doing the same thing I was.
- satlink.