Lifecasting - continued (Site Features)

Justin.tv Site Features Are Full of Treats

In yet another feature of Justin.tv, the video is archived on the site for each lifecaster, so go back and watch anything from the past using a built-in calendar and time feature. Another feature is segmented videos of the archives that anyone online can view and edit themselves and post as a segment call a viewer “highlight,” yet another form of interaction with viewers. Still another type of edited segment called an “Episode” is segmented and posted by the lifecaster. You can browse any of these and play them back at will.

Just to show you how interactive her chat room fans become, when she is on a flight to another city, someone in the chat room finds out her flight number and post a flight tracking site link others can use that graphically shows the progress of her flight across a map of the US, in real-time, allowing everyone to follower her trip progress while in route.

In another instance, while in her car with the webcam on her while driving, one of her fans identified the radio station she was listening to, phoned the station and had a song dedicated to her on the air at the same time. Yes, as soon as she gets out of her neighborhood, the chat room webcam comes out of her bag and onto the dashboard, streaming her picture and sound while she is driving.

The interactive aspects also manifest themselves in other ways. She periodically monitors Justin.tv, reading the chat and seeing how her web cam is working. Often times she participates in the chat to interact directly with them by typing responses to them. When that happens, questions and comments for her start pouring in at a ballistic rate that becomes like a high-tech humor fest. It puts my brain into overload trying to keep up with the text moving across the screen at supersonic speeds.

All of this takes interactivity to a new level and what makes this new type of blogging so interesting and entertaining with nonstop humor. It must be a group synergy kind of thing I think!

The number of viewers is displayed next to the video picture and I have seen it as low as 6 and as high as 30429. One time she was shown sleeping in her bed (she stays clothed while camera is on) with 302 viewers. In an observation that one chat member made, “604 eyeballs watching one girl sleep.” Why, who knows, but possible they are hopping to see something not likely to happen on camera.

Sure, there are the normal slugs in the chat room that try to ruin it with derogatory or viral remarks about her and those around her at times in violation of the rules of conduct. But just like a pro should, she will just ignore it and not give such demented behavior any reward. Also, some chat participants continually violate other rules established for the chat room, such as typing in caps or spamming the site. The chat room is supposed to be moderated, but they never seem to do anything about it, which is unfortunate because it dilutes the good practices most respectfully adhere to. They should be more aggressive with violators.

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