Lifecasting comes naturally to today’s youths, who are used to living their lives in public, posting details of every hookup and breakup on their Facebook or MySpace pages. Anyone with a laptop, webcam and Internet connection can do it. As with any new medium, people are trying to figure out the rules of etiquette. The budding phenomenon raises questions about the privacy of people who may not want to appear in the live streams, as well as copyright implications of, for example, broadcasting music that’s playing in the background. But companies such as Los Angeles-based Ustream, which powers Gnant’s webcast, and Justin.tv in San Francisco are racing to become the dominant purveyor of such live, unfiltered programs. In the last year, the technology behind live streaming has become so cheap that start-ups such as Mogulus, MyStreams and Veodia can afford to give it away in hopes that they can make money through the mainstays of TV’s reality shows: advertising and product placement.
Excerpt from Welcome to their world — all of it, from the Los Angeles Times (free password req’d)
A short overview of Lifecasting is available from the UK Times Online.
Previously from WNM: Mommy blogest
1 Comment
May 14, 2008 at 11:40 pm
There’s no doubt in my mind that this is a blooming issue, and it probably won’t stop. People now have the ability to “broadcast yourself” in full range.
Some are annoyed to hell by this, for many reasons – mainly the annoyance issue of people pointlessness on the internet. Sure, I don’t give a rat’s if Tommy broke up with his girl, or how many people in “Network X” feel strongly about going “green”. These things simply don’t matter to ME, but they matter to someone out there. Someone wants, and sadly needs this information.
I choose who I associate with, initially based on their conduct. If you act a fool, or don’t vibe with me, I’ll say peace and move on. People front and advertise all the time in the real world, and thus I can ignore them just the same in the digital.