Walking through campus to class during the bone-chilling months of winter is certainly part of attending the University of Wisconsin. Thanks to the Division of Information Technology (DoIT), there may be less walking and more typing in the near future.

DoIT’s communication manager, Brian Rust, said creation is underway for a new chat program that facilitates interaction in classroom-type settings and will be accessible to students, faculty and staff through the My UW-Madison portal. The program, “WiscChat,” is an Internet relay chat client, much like AOL Instant Messenger or MSN Messenger. In fact, WiscChat will be compatible with other chat programs when the final product is released next semester.

Rust hopes the program will be a hit.

“WiscChat can be used for impromptu discussions and meetings,” he said. “The program is really picking up where students have been for years.”

Students on campuses all over the world have been using chat programs to communicate without picking up a phone or meeting in a common room. Chat programs allow simultaneous messaging between individual computers — usually without any direct cost to the user — and many are run through major corporations such as Microsoft and America Online.

WiscChat is different in that only My UW-Madison members can access it. Also, advertisements and endorsements won’t be part of the chat experience.

Right now, the program is being tweaked so the final version can be released in January. Techs in the media department of DoIT, coordinated by Roger Hanson, are currently working on WiscChat so it will be ready. Making sure security issues aren’t a concern takes time and has slowed down the implementation.

“We want to make sure the program is only accessible to the right people. Security needs to be guaranteed,” explained Rust.

Techs are currently working on improving the program by fixing glitches and assuring its compatibility.

“The original program was purchased from a company, and now it is our job to make sure it works seamlessly with the My UW-Madison portal,” he said.

Students are paying for technology such as this program in their tuition bills. Each year, there is a 1.5 percent surcharge fee on tuition that goes toward such developments.

The actual cost ranges from $33 (in-state) to $138 (out-of-state) for undergrads per semester. This fee goes towards the computer labs, wireless network, software training classes, and My UW-Madison portal features that are free for student use during the year.

However, the actual WiscChat development is funded separately.

“Roughly half of the cost of WiscChat is coming from the Student Information Technology Initiative (SITI) fee. The rest is coming from DoIT central funds that are allocated for faculty and staff use,” Rust explained.

WiscChat is being tested within the UW community right now.

“(It) has been in a . . . test with about 700 students since the beginning of the semester,” Rust said. “No word yet on their reaction to it. We plan to fine-tune the service according to their feedback — as much as the program allows — and then release it to the campus.”

The idea for the new program was largely based on student surveys and focus groups. Students asked for the program, and Rust is optimistic that they will be happy with the final project.

“If student use of instant messaging (programs) now is any indication, then WiscChat will be successful,” he said.