Justine Ezarik, one of the world’s few life casters is in town this weekend for the iPhone release at the Mall of America. Justine broadcasts her life on a 24/7 basis mostly by means of a Logetich webcam bolted to her hat wired to a small Sony Viao laptop, utilizing EVDO to connect to the Internet.
Justine and I first got to know each on the still-private-beta flirting-not-dating site I’m In Like With You. Without going too far into how the site works, she essentially was the highest bidder on my game where winner got sent a postcard in the mail from me. She responded with a silly video. 
Ed Kohler of Technology Evangelist knew that I knew her when he booked her flight to Minneapolis for this weekend’s iPhone craziness. Thanks to his planning, he arranged for us to meet up at the Guthrie Theater to toured around that side of town and then settle at Pracna on Main. We were then joined by some friends and more staff from Technology Evangelist. We ate and drank until after sunset and walked back on the Stone Arch Bridge.
I’ve always been interested in seeing the limits of self-publishing. I used to have a couple old webcams at home broadcasting all day and all night for a few years a long time ago. I used to moblog obsessively for about four years. Neither of these things compare to what Justine is doing. Everything she looks at and says, all day and all night, is viewed and heard by hundreds of people. There’s a chat channel next to the video and audio so other viewers can comment with each other and try to interact with Justine. Constantly. Some of these people are friends and regulars, but many visitors treat her like an animal at a zoo trying to make her do things for the camera. Some funny, some rude. Of course, the faux-cloak of anonymity allows people to be profane, insulting, or outright perverted. On the flip side, she gets a number of media appearances and goes to fun events. She meets a lot of people. And hell, she gets flown out to see the wonderful city of Minneapolis!
One of the many things we talked about the phenomenon of how when people watch video they expect to be entertained. We’re so used to television and film where the purpose of motion picture, in most respects, is some form of entertainment. Being a remote eye on someone using a computer for a couple hours, driving down the interstate or sleeping for hours doesn’t provide the same type of content most people are accustomed to. It’s actually one hundred percent real life, opposed to the “reality shows” on television. As a result, some people will focus on whatever is on the camera and develop context to it. Suddenly stories develop about the small things on her desk, or how that “guy she’s with” must be her boyfriend. Dramatic ideas as to what Justine will do next are created out of nothing; some viewers perceive the meaningless to be foreshadowing. An alternative (and many times more interesting) version of reality develops and then fades away.
It’s a crazy dynamic of voyeurism and interaction too. While she doesn’t see everything everyone says about what’s going on and certainly doesn’t hear what the majority of her viewers think, she does catch what’s happening in her chat periodically and has the opportunity to respond. Usually just fun and games, but sometimes it’s very helpful: When she was changing flights in Chicago after flying from Pittsburgh, the chat was monitoring not only where the planes were and what speed and altitude they were flying at, someone noticed the gate changed and she was sitting at the wrong one. Thanks to them, I may have not been able to meet her last night. A few of us had a couple funny jokes about what it’d be like to have our very own chat room with people giving us advice on our every move.
Justine is doing an amazing feat and I think few realize the kind of energy, dedication and strength it takes to maintain a life cast.
Check her out this afternoon at justin.tv/ijustine while she immerses herself in the iPhone madness at the Mall of America with Technology Evangelist. She flies back to Pittsburgh tomorrow.
Comments 4
This was one of the most surreal things in the world to watch. Justine with a camera on my friends, while my other friends chatted about the whole thing, while my friends on screen called me to tell me about being in the “show” that I was actually watching in real time. My mind sorta exploded.
Posted 29 Jun 2007 at 12:02 ¶Aw, that was a great write-up. Thanks for coming to hang out. It was nice meeting you.
Posted 29 Jun 2007 at 13:47 ¶It was awesome to hang with you guys. Rex was with us in “spirits”.
Posted 29 Jun 2007 at 16:19 ¶aww.
Posted 30 Jun 2007 at 15:17 ¶Post a Comment