“Live Webcam” - time to reword as Livecasting ?

March 6th, 2008 · No Comments

Simply Google the following for hits and you get: webcam - 154M, “web cam” - 26,5M, ‘live web cam’ - 11M and “live cam” - 5.6M. The majority of results are NSFW (not safe for work). For the majority of Internet savvy folks the word webcam is synonymous with “adult webcam”. I applaud Justin of said Justin.tv for rewording the sweeping if not new broadcasting phenomenon as lifecasting/livecasting. Maybe we can go back and rename all the respectable and wholesome cams.

justintv

It doesn’t lend credibility to this nascent field of live video journalism when online dictionaries contribute to the bad press. To quote Answers.com when I do a query on web cam I get, “They provide videos of people going about their daily work as well as offering the online equivalent of the live “peep show.”

ustreamtv

I applaud Justin in finding a better word.

yahootv

I was initially skeptical that masses of young people broadcasting from their own bedrooms would keep screaming hormones in check. But evidently they are safe enough to to make Justin.tv and the others a presentable and worthy place to waste one’s time.

And with YouTube supposedly entering the arena sometime in 2008, the marketplace for ‘grow your own’ online video presence is getting crowded. How is a discerning live video consumer to choose?

And for you nostalgia fans, the first web cam ever, also known as the The Trojan Room Coffee Machine Cam was finally switched off at 0954 UTC on Wednesday 22nd August 2001. Now if those lazy academia want to see if there’s coffee, they will just have to break down the barriers to distance the old fashioned way.