We have spent some time recording Clara's poetry and now I have a sample ready to go on her website:
Foreshadowing a Shitty Day by Victory Butler
If you enjoyed this then stay tuned for a link to the finished website in the near future!
Nov 29, 2010
Apr 28, 2010
Top Ten Media Revelations – Part One
For Rob William’s class in Electronic Media Writing we were asked to write about what we thought were our top ten revelations with media over the semester.
1. Free-Form Interview
My first revelation was to just how open and flowing a free-form televised interview is. I had always assumed that interviews were pre-scripted and conducted in a very controlled manner. And if they were not scripted, they were done with cuts in the footage. I never had any notion that there would be televised interviews that allowed the speaker to answer as they pleased.
It is interesting how much research in put into an interview to make it work. In a sense, the free-form interview isn’t really free at all but a series of calculated moves made to provoke predictable answers. This in itself is a revelation as well. The art of the interview is something that takes much practice to master. (Photo from news.softpedia.com)
2. The Promptness of News
News media is an interesting avenue. It is a revelation to me how the timelines of news from scripting to broadcast works. No other media has the need for such short timelines. This creates a different environment for news writers. The speed at which a script can be put together then slotted into the outline for a nightly show is amazing. From sum up to sun down intricate pieces are formed and put together to give you your nightly news. If I were to get into this field I think I would be quickly overwhelmed.
(Photo from illinoisloyalty.com)
3. The Breakdown of the Big Dogs
This revelation comes from the battle between the big media dogs and the small time pups. Mega industries like the movies and television are mostly inaccessible to the small dogs, but the internet has opened a new avenue for those lower on the totem pole. And the internet is just the beginning.
Valve, the company behind great games like Half-Life, and Team Fortress recruited a team of students who created a small game as part of their senior project. This game became the basis for the popular Portal game. In this way the small dogs were eaten by the large, but really this is not what happened. The team of students remained a team just as they were and were given the resources they needed to make a real game.
It is now becoming the case that as the big dogs are becoming less willing to take chances they are falling short to the innovations of the small dogs. Somehow the playing field has evened out a bit.
(Photo from buddiesboarding.co.uk)
4. The Medium Never Dies
While the statements that no mediums ever die can be contested, one of my revelations was that essentially every medium will continue to exist in some form no matter what happens. Newspapers have hit hard times, but in the end we will always have some sort of periodical. It maybe that we must give up the cheap oversized cuts of paper for friendlier forms, but that may not all be that bad. One of my biggest complaints and reasons I don’t buy the paper often is because those pages are just too unwieldy. I mean, really, who designed them to be so huge?
Retro mediums are all still around and have found places in niche markets. Many people will tell you that you cannot beat the audio quality of a vinyl record. Because of that, many new artists today sell vinyl versions of their CDs. The same will be true of books as the e-book gains ground. No matter how popular e-books become, there will still be a market for bound books.
(Photo from geekalerts.com)
5. The Social Network Medium
Everyone wants to talk about Facebook, or Twitter, or what’s going to be the next big social media, but a revelation I had was that they are all one entity. They do not function well together yet, but I believe the future is driving us to chare more and more and that means social media sites like Facebook and Twitter will have to be friendlier to each other more and more.
When you visit You Tube now, you get a list of ways you can share videos over social networks. The goal is to get you to chare what you see with others. There are also ways to get your posts in twitter to show up in Facebook as well. This blurs the lines between the two most popular social media entities.
Companies have already seen the power of these social networks and have become a part of them. The beauty of the businesses involvement is that they don’t do it through direct advertising, but through direct involvement. The companies are now social entities that we can interact with. These companies are no longer just advertising to us, they have become one of us.
1. Free-Form Interview
It is interesting how much research in put into an interview to make it work. In a sense, the free-form interview isn’t really free at all but a series of calculated moves made to provoke predictable answers. This in itself is a revelation as well. The art of the interview is something that takes much practice to master. (Photo from news.softpedia.com)
2. The Promptness of News
(Photo from illinoisloyalty.com)
3. The Breakdown of the Big Dogs
Valve, the company behind great games like Half-Life, and Team Fortress recruited a team of students who created a small game as part of their senior project. This game became the basis for the popular Portal game. In this way the small dogs were eaten by the large, but really this is not what happened. The team of students remained a team just as they were and were given the resources they needed to make a real game.
It is now becoming the case that as the big dogs are becoming less willing to take chances they are falling short to the innovations of the small dogs. Somehow the playing field has evened out a bit.
(Photo from buddiesboarding.co.uk)
4. The Medium Never Dies
Retro mediums are all still around and have found places in niche markets. Many people will tell you that you cannot beat the audio quality of a vinyl record. Because of that, many new artists today sell vinyl versions of their CDs. The same will be true of books as the e-book gains ground. No matter how popular e-books become, there will still be a market for bound books.
(Photo from geekalerts.com)
5. The Social Network Medium
Everyone wants to talk about Facebook, or Twitter, or what’s going to be the next big social media, but a revelation I had was that they are all one entity. They do not function well together yet, but I believe the future is driving us to chare more and more and that means social media sites like Facebook and Twitter will have to be friendlier to each other more and more.
(photo from aflexworld.wordpress.com)
Companies have already seen the power of these social networks and have become a part of them. The beauty of the businesses involvement is that they don’t do it through direct advertising, but through direct involvement. The companies are now social entities that we can interact with. These companies are no longer just advertising to us, they have become one of us.
Top Ten Media Revelations - Part Two
6. Media for Children
I was quite surprised when Hilliard talked about media that was geared for children and how deliberately it was trying to maculate them. This revelation comes to me when I feel like I should have realized that there is no demographic that’s off limits for media messages. All that effort that goes into persuading adults to buy certain products also goes into getting children to do the same.
I remember watching the cartoon ‘Transformers’ as a child and hearing how some adults referred to it as a half-hour toy advertisement. One of my favorite movies when I was young was the transformers movie. I can only imagine how upset those same adults were that there was a two hour advertisement that your kids wanted you to pay for. But even still, how could you not appreciate a movie with a cast such as this one:
I now look at shows geared for kids and most of them are really just methods of getting kids to buy toys. They may not have made the toys first like the transformers had done but the money to be made is that which is found in merchandising.
7. Writing for Your Medium
Many chapters of Hilliard cover writing for various formats. This is really not a revelation in itself, but the fact that each and every form of media needs its own format of writing is. The writing we have work on during the semester has covered categories like Television and radio, but the real essence of writing for a media is fine tuning it to the specific needs of the studio. The ultimate goal of writing a piece of copy for any media is to translate ideas on paper to ideas on film, in broadcast, or in print. With the internet we now have micro-mediums like You Tube that would essentially require its own scripting format.
For as many ways that you can convey information you can have a separate way of scripting it. New forms of micro-mediums are always cropping up and with them we will have new formats of writing. We may see someday new standardized formats to fir the video blog or online news segment, or maybe the idea that one format will fit a medium will be tossed out and studios will call all the shots.
8. Cutting through the clutter with advertising
I heard the idea of gearing advertising to cut through the clutter was from the documentary, “The Persuaders.” The idea was that your ad had to somehow jump out beyond other ads and engage the viewer. The revelation part of this came when I realized while watching the film, just how prevalent advertising has become in a short amount of time.
The change in the content of advertising is dramatic if you compare ads from the 1980’s to the ads of today. It’s a whole new game now. Advertising has to have emotion and feeling that the customers can associate with. The ad has to call to those that it needs to address and keep their interest. The tactics that advertisers now need to use are more varied. They will almost do anything to get viewers to listen. Take the following ad from Old Spice for instance:
This ad is remarkably similar to the now old internet phenomena, ‘Power Thirst’ mock commercial:
Is this is a good directions for advertising? Well in this case I think so; anything that forces the advertisers to get more creative makes their ads more worth my time.
9. Can Writing be Taught?
Late in Hilliard’s writing he spoke on having the talent to write. I call this one a revelation because I have never actually seen anyone state as plainly that writing takes finesse. I almost feel like most people don’t want to admit that there is something that hard work will not make up for.
Along the same lines, I think that a lot of what makes writing good comes out of experience. I think there is apart of a person that gives them that writing flair, but I also think that more people have it than most people would think. I feel that more people have a hard time writing because they lack a firm grasp of the language and the format of the medium. I would not ever consider myself a writer until I was clued in by a college professor and first learned grammar. Still, there was that certain finesse and passion for writing even before I learned the basics of writing.
In the end there is a certain type of person that writes. Most people can do it and do it well, but few can take it to higher levels while still enjoy what they are doing.
10. Future of Writing in a Cross Media Culture
My final revelation comes out of my seventh revelation. The micro-mediums that exist over the internet have clouded the lines between mediums. We now have Television programming brought to us over the internet by Hulu.com and internet over televisions. Advertisers are even breaking the boundaries of what ads are by using product placement and by creating mini-dramas like BMW’s. What the future has in store is a place where media has become more amorphous and has found a place in every facet of culture.
Advertising is a really big part of this change. New forms of advertising are needed to fill in gaps where traditional advertising is failing. The internet is one example of a place where this is occurring. Internet ad revenue is low and placed like Hulu.com are suffering from not enough revenue. However, they are showing ads during broad casts and the next step is get information on the viewers so advertising can be catered to their wants and needs. At first this may be a scary thought, but I will be happy when I no longer have to listen to the same high cholesterol medication ad over and over again. I can see this specific targeting of advertising becoming a boon to the advertising industry if they are willing to embrace it’s format.
The picture to the above right is from Real Fresh TV - the future of social advertising. You can follow the link to get more informationon.
I was quite surprised when Hilliard talked about media that was geared for children and how deliberately it was trying to maculate them. This revelation comes to me when I feel like I should have realized that there is no demographic that’s off limits for media messages. All that effort that goes into persuading adults to buy certain products also goes into getting children to do the same.
I remember watching the cartoon ‘Transformers’ as a child and hearing how some adults referred to it as a half-hour toy advertisement. One of my favorite movies when I was young was the transformers movie. I can only imagine how upset those same adults were that there was a two hour advertisement that your kids wanted you to pay for. But even still, how could you not appreciate a movie with a cast such as this one:
I now look at shows geared for kids and most of them are really just methods of getting kids to buy toys. They may not have made the toys first like the transformers had done but the money to be made is that which is found in merchandising.
7. Writing for Your Medium
For as many ways that you can convey information you can have a separate way of scripting it. New forms of micro-mediums are always cropping up and with them we will have new formats of writing. We may see someday new standardized formats to fir the video blog or online news segment, or maybe the idea that one format will fit a medium will be tossed out and studios will call all the shots.
8. Cutting through the clutter with advertising
I heard the idea of gearing advertising to cut through the clutter was from the documentary, “The Persuaders.” The idea was that your ad had to somehow jump out beyond other ads and engage the viewer. The revelation part of this came when I realized while watching the film, just how prevalent advertising has become in a short amount of time.
The change in the content of advertising is dramatic if you compare ads from the 1980’s to the ads of today. It’s a whole new game now. Advertising has to have emotion and feeling that the customers can associate with. The ad has to call to those that it needs to address and keep their interest. The tactics that advertisers now need to use are more varied. They will almost do anything to get viewers to listen. Take the following ad from Old Spice for instance:
This ad is remarkably similar to the now old internet phenomena, ‘Power Thirst’ mock commercial:
Is this is a good directions for advertising? Well in this case I think so; anything that forces the advertisers to get more creative makes their ads more worth my time.
9. Can Writing be Taught?
Along the same lines, I think that a lot of what makes writing good comes out of experience. I think there is apart of a person that gives them that writing flair, but I also think that more people have it than most people would think. I feel that more people have a hard time writing because they lack a firm grasp of the language and the format of the medium. I would not ever consider myself a writer until I was clued in by a college professor and first learned grammar. Still, there was that certain finesse and passion for writing even before I learned the basics of writing.
In the end there is a certain type of person that writes. Most people can do it and do it well, but few can take it to higher levels while still enjoy what they are doing.
10. Future of Writing in a Cross Media Culture
My final revelation comes out of my seventh revelation. The micro-mediums that exist over the internet have clouded the lines between mediums. We now have Television programming brought to us over the internet by Hulu.com and internet over televisions. Advertisers are even breaking the boundaries of what ads are by using product placement and by creating mini-dramas like BMW’s. What the future has in store is a place where media has become more amorphous and has found a place in every facet of culture.
The picture to the above right is from Real Fresh TV - the future of social advertising. You can follow the link to get more informationon.
Apr 18, 2010
Eve Online: A love/Hate Relationship. Sixth Meditation on Media
A long time ago in a town far, far away, I beta tested a game called Eve Online. Oh, what wonders I beheld in Eve’s beautifully painted solar systems and asteroid fields. Before I could bet my footing and understand the game, the beta was over and I was ejected from it (for lack of money to pay the subscription). A few years later my friends had picked it up and so I started playing again with them.
Eve Online is a Massive Multiplayer Online game or MMO created by the Icelandic company CCP. That means that everyone who plays, plays together… or at least near each other. Eve Online has only one server cluster so there is no one you cannot meet-if they play Eve, you can find them.
I have been playing eve for almost four years now, but when I say play, I hardly mean so. I don’t play eve like I play any other game. Eve play’s itself. To learn a new skill it eve, you just plug it into your training que and away you go. Each skill take a certain amount of real life time in order to be learned, whether you are playing the game or not. Right at this moment my character in the game is training some shield related skill and I’m not even logged in to the game. That skill will complete in 22 hours whether I’m there or not.
When I used to actually play Eve (I also hope to again when I get time) My time was spent making money to afford the expensive space ships I want to fly around. The ships are so expensive you can save up for months just to afford one. You can also get it blown up by another player in a matter of seconds if you’re not careful. This is where the love/hate comes in.
CCP takes pride in the fact that they listen to their player base and make changes to the game based on feedback given through their forum. The problem is that the only ones who are on the forums are the older player base who doesn’t want to see the game change. This means that even though the game always gets improvements, the core elements to the game that make it a boring game will never leave. I have tried to speak out on the forums about those problems, but anyone who proposes a change gets flamed by the older players within minutes.
Even with those nagging flaws, I still let my character sit and train skills for that eventual day I might play again. I have fond memories of playing with my fiends and I would like to keep the door open for good times in the future.
Here is one of the trailers for Eve Online. I like this one because it makes the game look way more exciting than it actually is.
This second video gives some insight into how the large scale fleet battle work:
Like any other media, EVE Online has an effect on us individually and on society as part of a larger MMO movement in games.
Triune Brain:
Eve Online is considered a thinking MMO. The first few minutes you play it can leave your neo-cortex throbbing from an information overload. Eve is not a simple game and it takes time to learn how to navigate the multilayered user interface. There is also true to real life market data and hundreds of statistics on ships and equipment you can purchase.
The limbic brain is also engaged with Eve’s light atmospheric music. IT really gives the game its feel. There is nothing more spacey than some light, flowing, down-tempo techno.
The reptilian brain sits dormant for most of time spent playing that is until you get into a fight. When you are stuck in a battle with a ship you spent the last two months saving up for, you can’t help but sweat. I have never been so nervous in any other situation in my life. One wrong move and you have lost the last two months worth of playtime. Eve is not a forgiving game. There is nothing like that moment in Eve when your reptilian brain fires up and all you know is that you have to escape.
Eight Shifts:
Technological Shift – Eve’s server cluster is something amazing. Every player that plays Eve Online plays together. I don’t even want to think of the technological overhead that makes it possible. There are battles in Eve where each side brings one to two hundred pilots. I have never heard of any other game accomplishing a battle with that many player participants.
Economic Shift – Eve Online boasts a real to life economy. Assets in the game are produced by players and sold to other players. Money is not made by selling anything to computers. The economy in Eve is so robust that CCP has hired a real life market analysis to write up market reports for the players. This is the most elaborate economy in any video game.
Seven Principles:
Reality Construction/Trade-offs – Because Eve is a total immersion game there is little that needs to be said about the reality construction. However, there is more to it than just the reality the is constructed for the game. There arte other realities that are a product of the mechanics of the game and not intended for the atmosphere. One is that the game is incredibly unforgiving and anyone can take advantage of you. Eve is famous for being a game that destroys real life friendships. Players plot against each other and steal to attain assets and it is encouraged by the players base because it’s just a part of what makes Eve Eve.
Production Techniques – CCP is a small company in Iceland that produces Eve Online and only eve online. All their time is put into perfecting the game and creating new content to keep it fresh and exiting. There is always an expansion in the works that keeps players interested. Also, CCP tries to be very transparent in their development so that the players can have input on new features to the game. Every year the company hold elections in the game and the players that the get the most votes gets to go to Iceland and have meetings with the developers to decide what direction the game will go in. This is something very unique in the production of any MMO.
Persuasive Techniques:
Flattery – Eve players like to consider themselves a more advanced player than those that play other games. CCP caters to this by stroking their egos indirectly through to forums and through press releases. If anyone mentions the name of the leading MMO, World of Warcraft, in the forums, the players go on a frenzy and will bash that person into the ground.
Bribery – One of the main tactics that CCP employs to gain new players is by offering various bonuses. Either they extend the trial membership time, or give a month subscription free. Sometimes they give current players free months if they recruit new paying players.
Group Dynamics – Most of the recent ads for Eve Online focus on how a player can become par tof the world and work with others to attain goals. While the real way the game is played makes it a little hard to do, it is something that each players desires. That sense of belonging and community is strong even in video games.
Yes, it’s time for Google Reader. Fifth Meditation on Media
If you love to read blogs, then Google Reader is your best friend. Not only will it collect all the new posts from the blogs you visit, but it will also organize them just about any way you want. This is one of the ways that you can get the information on the web to work for you!
When paired up with Google Alerts, you can expand your Reader into new blogs that have content that you are interested in. By setting up a Google Alert search term, you are essentially telling Google to e-mail you about all the new stuff related to that search each morning. If something new does come up, you will be notified. IF the Alert was not there, you may never have found that information. It would have been lost to the great web void. But, now that the new information is coming to you each morning you are able to subscribe to it and follow it in Google Reader. Great!
There is no way you can sift through the entire internet, so let Google do it for you. In case I have lost you, here is an informative video on what the hell RSS feeds are and what they mean for you:
Okay, so now you should be setting up your own Google Reader if you don’t have one already.
As with the other mediums I have covered previously, let’s take a look at how Google Reader and Google Alerts affect us as individuals and a society.
Triune Brain:
Bringing blogs and news together to one location is something your neo-cortex will thank you for. Or maybe it will be informational overload. Whichever it is, your neo-cortex is the part of your brain that is most active while you are using Google Reader. The Limbic and reptilian brain can also enjoy what Google reader can do for them, but that is more dependent on the video and image content of the blogs you have collected.
Eight Shifts:
Google reader and Google Alerts is something of a technological shift. Technology in encoding has allowed RSS feeds to exist and easily transport data onto any other medium. Google Reader has taken that format and given you a solid way to collect it into one stream of information. The main advantage of this is a huge savings in time.
Seven Principles:
Value Messages – I think that Google is communicating a value message to us with many of its helpful tools like Google Reader. We don’t need to be crushed under the weight of information on the web anymore. We now have to tools to whip the web into submission so that we can cut out the clutter and pull on the strands of information that we are truly interested in. Google has given us the tools to make the information work for us.
Individual Meaning – Having a personalized experience with Google Reader means that each person will take something different from it. I am not an avid blog reader, so Google Reader was never something I thought I really needed, but I do use it for getting news. Having the tools to organize my information threads helps me compare articles on the same events, something that I find interesting. Others can use Google Reader in many different ways and each can find their own value in it.
Persuasive Techniques:
Simple Solutions – The text blurb you get when you search for Google Reader is: “Read them in one place with Google Reader, where keeping up with your favorite websites is as easy as checking your email.” Google is providing a simple solution to your routine information gathering. They have created a tool that saves you time and effort.
Symbolism – The RSS feed system as a whole employs an easy to recognize system of symbols, the orange squares with the three arcs inside it. Whenever you see this symbol you know that you can subscribe to the site. If you have not tried Google Reader, or any other RSS feed reader, you need to. And if you like how it works then you should take the next step and set yourself some Google Alerts. Don’t waist your own time searching the web, make Google do it for you.
“Welcome to the world of Chatroulette!” The Fourth Meditation on Media
Taking its name from the risky game of Russian roulette, an online webcam chatting service called Chattroulette trades out the bullets and revolver for the friendlier webcam and computer. The idea is simple: you go to the webpage and get connected with random strangers for conversations. The conversations can be good, they could be bad, or you just might see something you never wanted to see, but that’s all part of the game.
Stated in November, 2009 by 17-year-old student Andrey Ternovskiy of Moscow, Chatroulette has grown to become a site that has an average of 35 thousand users on it any given time. It took Andrey just over two days to make the website.
If you already knew about Chatroulette then you may already be aware of the problems that come with it. Obscenities and pornographic material is not allowed on the site but it does not stop some. Fortunately, obscene and objectionable material has been cut down considerably since the addition of a reporting system that blocks user who gain get flagged three times for offences. Still, the site should be considered NSFW! If, even after the warning, you still want to check the site out, then go right ahead through this link.
There are many interesting people to meet on Chatroulette and many people use the site itself for many creative endeavors. An example here shows a performer who is using Chatroulette during a concert:
Triune Brain:
Although I have never actually participated in any Chatroulette sessions myself, it is easy to see how it can engage all layers of the human brain. Any online experience with others can have unpredictable outcomes and that means there’s potentially something in there for every part of the brain. The Neo cortex will be filled with intrigue as you await your next random webcam chat-mate. Your limbic brain will be thoroughly engaged as you chat away with your new friend and your reptilian brain will be on high alert; who knows what kind of creeps those random people could be?
Eight Shifts:
Chatroulette is an example of a personal shift. People get linked up with other random people who all access the website. It’s all about participation. We are talking to others personally rather than consuming a mass produced piece of media.
We are also experiencing an aesthetics shift with Chatroulette. Now we don’t need to walk down the street to have conversations with complete strangers. People are coming together and engaging just for the simple purpose of meeting someone new and interesting.
There is a little bit of a cultural shift here as well. We are shifting from being cloaked behind out computer screen to revealing ourselves to others over the webcam. What you say over Chatroulette is tied to your face. We are almost reclaiming some of the graces of talking to people in person.
Seven Principles:
Reality Construction/Trade-Offs – Chatroulette is a great place for meeting new people but it is also a place for people to try to get a reaction out of others in the most obscene ways. It is a trade off: we jump into the online space and we get a random encounter, but we have to take the good with the bad. There is no real filter. While great experiments in human interaction can occur, like in the video above, there can also be great examples of those that would try and disgust everyone they encounter.
Ownership – So far, Chatroulete has no advertising. It is still owned by Andrey Ternovskiy and so it has no commercial agenda. IT is truly straight to its purpose and that alone.
Individual Meaning – The Chatroulette experience is unique every time. There is no way two people can have the same chat partners and so everyone’s experience is different. Some day you may encounter someone who sings you improvisational music, or you may not. The value of Chatroulette is found in those one of a kind conversations that just doesn’t happen for everyone.
Persuasive Techniques:
Hyperbole – While Chatroulette itself doesn’t advertise or really say anything, other people might build it up to something great. While it is a very interesting experiment in bringing people together, every persons experience with it will be different.
Bandwagon – There are quite a few people on Chatroulette with an average of 35 thousand people on at any given time. This can make some wonder what’s going on and whether or not they should be involved too.
Timing – On Chatroulette you can tumble through many chat partners before even a minute has passed if they all choose to skip over you. In a sense the timing of your conversations can tell you a lot about the people who you attempt to chat with or about yourself.
In the end I don’t think I will ever try Chatroulette personally. I don’t really feel the need to talk to stringers and I can do without seeing the obscene things that I am told exists out there. It has however sparked my interest into new an innovative ways to connect to other people. In what ways can Chatroulette be used as the medium to another experiment or what other ways can people be connected with strangers?
Stated in November, 2009 by 17-year-old student Andrey Ternovskiy of Moscow, Chatroulette has grown to become a site that has an average of 35 thousand users on it any given time. It took Andrey just over two days to make the website.
There are many interesting people to meet on Chatroulette and many people use the site itself for many creative endeavors. An example here shows a performer who is using Chatroulette during a concert:
Triune Brain:
Although I have never actually participated in any Chatroulette sessions myself, it is easy to see how it can engage all layers of the human brain. Any online experience with others can have unpredictable outcomes and that means there’s potentially something in there for every part of the brain. The Neo cortex will be filled with intrigue as you await your next random webcam chat-mate. Your limbic brain will be thoroughly engaged as you chat away with your new friend and your reptilian brain will be on high alert; who knows what kind of creeps those random people could be?
Eight Shifts:
Chatroulette is an example of a personal shift. People get linked up with other random people who all access the website. It’s all about participation. We are talking to others personally rather than consuming a mass produced piece of media.
We are also experiencing an aesthetics shift with Chatroulette. Now we don’t need to walk down the street to have conversations with complete strangers. People are coming together and engaging just for the simple purpose of meeting someone new and interesting.
There is a little bit of a cultural shift here as well. We are shifting from being cloaked behind out computer screen to revealing ourselves to others over the webcam. What you say over Chatroulette is tied to your face. We are almost reclaiming some of the graces of talking to people in person.
Seven Principles:
Reality Construction/Trade-Offs – Chatroulette is a great place for meeting new people but it is also a place for people to try to get a reaction out of others in the most obscene ways. It is a trade off: we jump into the online space and we get a random encounter, but we have to take the good with the bad. There is no real filter. While great experiments in human interaction can occur, like in the video above, there can also be great examples of those that would try and disgust everyone they encounter.
Ownership – So far, Chatroulete has no advertising. It is still owned by Andrey Ternovskiy and so it has no commercial agenda. IT is truly straight to its purpose and that alone.
Individual Meaning – The Chatroulette experience is unique every time. There is no way two people can have the same chat partners and so everyone’s experience is different. Some day you may encounter someone who sings you improvisational music, or you may not. The value of Chatroulette is found in those one of a kind conversations that just doesn’t happen for everyone.
Persuasive Techniques:
Hyperbole – While Chatroulette itself doesn’t advertise or really say anything, other people might build it up to something great. While it is a very interesting experiment in bringing people together, every persons experience with it will be different.
Bandwagon – There are quite a few people on Chatroulette with an average of 35 thousand people on at any given time. This can make some wonder what’s going on and whether or not they should be involved too.
In the end I don’t think I will ever try Chatroulette personally. I don’t really feel the need to talk to stringers and I can do without seeing the obscene things that I am told exists out there. It has however sparked my interest into new an innovative ways to connect to other people. In what ways can Chatroulette be used as the medium to another experiment or what other ways can people be connected with strangers?
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