PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania (AP) — It was a serious contribution to the electronic lexicon.
Carnegie Mellon professor Scott E. Fahlman was the first to use the 🙂 in a computer message.
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Twenty-five years ago, Carnegie Mellon University professor Scott E. Fahlman says, he was the first to use three keystrokes — a colon followed by a hyphen and a parenthesis — as a horizontal “smiley face” in a computer message.
To mark the anniversary Wednesday, Fahlman and his colleagues are starting an annual student contest for innovation in technology-assisted, person-to-person communication. The Smiley Award, sponsored by Yahoo Inc., carries a $500 cash prize.
