1988
development of a peer-to-peer chat system for IBM mainframes (we just didn't have the
term for it back then) with optional decentralized servers.
1989
adapted that chat system to link up as a server to the Internet
Relay Chat network, which used to average about a hundred users
worldwide, at the time.
1990
developed tools for the world's first moderated chat-event: the gulf
war news #report channel.
several additions to ircII, the leading chat software of the time.
introduced the /me command among other features.
introduced numeric reply codes to the irc server.
1991
co-development and management of Nemesis, one of the internet's
top ten multi user adventure games in popularity and size. it
was shut down as it consumed 8% of the total bandwidth of the
city of Munich.
1992
creation of the most popular IRC client for IBM mainframes, rxIRC.
later included a simple web server to allow mainframe users to
have a homepage.
1993
paper on technological problems of IRC. conceptual work for a
future IRC replacement. in the meantime launch of
irc.pages.de,
an early portal site on chat demands.
1994
implementation of
home.pages.de,
the web's first redirection service.
development of a custom webserver www.spiegel.de ran on.
early prototype of PSYC, the new protocol for synchronous conferencing.
1995
realisation of several german weekly magazines' websites,
in particular technical management of the first STERN website.
1996
development of a web publishing system in use at Gruner+Jahr,
Europe's largest publisher. in parallel, completion of the theoretical
conception and specifications for
PSYC.
1997
the new psyced chat server thinks PSYC and acts as a webchat.
deployed at stern.de it places itself in the top five of
germany's chat systems.
other magazines like GEO and TV TODAY join in.
first VIP chat for Germany's leading news programme
"tagesschau" featuring Esther Dyson.
our CEO gets a job offer from a notable company in Redmond.
now we know freedom comes at a price.
1998
relaunch of DIE ZEIT. during the german elections started web-based
event chats reaching peaks like the video chat event with Guido
Westerwelle, the leader of the liberal party.
1999
regular event chats with german politicians like
president Rau, Merkel, Trittin, Stoiber, Däubler-Gmelin on the platform
of politik-digital.
by the way, PSYC can now be used to remote control an mp3 player.
2000
unlimited scalability! PSYC is used to network several chat servers
to handle thousands of people as they textually meet
pop legends
like Lionel Richie (20 servers involved) or sports stars like the german
national soccer players. Even the Olympics and the Miss Germany ceremonies
were treated to interactive coverage, not forgetting the Bambi,
Germany's most important media awards.
In the meantime the PSYC implementation learns how to do
decentralized friendship management.
2001
last year's chat event with Vanessa Amorosi makes it into one of
the most popular television shows in Germany: TV TOTAL. Film
maker Wim Wenders chooses our technology for an internet
appearance on his company's new website.
For an MES/MTV
chat and concert with R.E.M. we have set up a distributed network of 15 small
machines potentially capable of handling about 20'000 users.
Both this event for MTV and the politik-digital platform, which was mostly financed
through symlynX chat events,
are confered a Grimme Online Award.
Other successful chat events this year: HIM, Die Ärzte, Roxette,
Guano Apes, Lou Bega, Garbage, Right Said Fred,
Rednex, Anastacia, the A*Teens and Nigel Kennedy.
2002
i really couldn't say which of hundreds of chat events we have implemented
this year were the most interesting, so
let's mention those who drew the greatest amount of participants:
germany's leading teen-age stars, the No Angels and Bro'Sis
as well as national football stars like Mr. Ballack.
2003
even though t-online has developed its own moderated chat technology, it
continues to rely on us for all high-capacity chat events. so should you.
this year's highlights: Avril Lavigne, Harrison Ford,
President Rau, Sting
and several chats with pop-idols from Deutschland sucht den Superstar.
symlynX delivers the chat infrastructure for the MTV Europe Music Awards
simultanously on 12 EMA websites.
2004
This year the MTV Europe Music Awards take place in Rome.
Our technology starts to support Jabber clients and federation.
And we have a robust flash chat now.
2005
Each year the MTV Europe Music Awards chat events
grow bigger and better! In Lisbon we have Robbie Williams,
the Gorillaz, System of a Down,
Goldfrapp and many more as our guests.
Skin of Skunk Anansie is this year's host.
The world invents the word 'Comet' for the sort of push technology
we have been doing since 1997.
2006
symlynX developers publish XEP-0185: Dialback Key Generation and Validation and XEP-0190: Best Practice for Closing Idle Streams to fix holes in the design of XMPP/Jabber.
In Copenhagen it's Justin Timberlake, P.Diddy and our hosts
Juliette and the Licks ready to entertain the fans online.
2007
implementation of a multi-protocol messaging back-end for the MAGIX online desktop project myGOYA.
2008
symlynX provides the PSYC-based messaging and signaling backend in the
fresh and exciting new fonie.net
infrastructure technology for web-based telephony, voice and video
chat and messaging.