09-19-2008

Happy B-Day, Smiley

On Sept. 19, 1982, Scott E. Fahlman, then and now a faculty member in the Computer Science Department at Carnegie Mellon, posted a message on the department's online bulletin-board system proposing that we use :-) as a symbol for "I'm just kidding" and :-( as a symbol for "This is serious." The idea caught on and soon was in common use at Carnegie Mellon and a few other research universities.

As the Internet spread around the world and eventually into our living rooms, the smiley spread along with it. Love them or hate them, the smiley and the other "emoticons" that it inspired have become a ubiquitous feature of online communication.

In celebration of this pivotal event in the history of human communication, the Department of Computer Science has established an annual Smiley Award for "innovation in technology-assisted person-to-person communication."

The Smiley Award competition is open to graduate and undergraduate students from any part of Carnegie Mellon, or to small teams of students. The winning entry receives a $500 cash prize, provided by corporate sponsor, Yahoo! Incorporated. In addition, each winner receives a physical Smiley Award. The names of the annual winners are engraved on a plaque on permanent display in the Computer Science Department.

Bruce Gerson