ChatRoulette - Potential for other uses

Ben Folds playing a concert live on Chatroulette

ChatRoulette is a website that was established a year ago and allows one person anywhere in the world to be connected at random to another user so that they can see and talk to each other. Anyone (Well, there are a couple of rules. Like you must be over 16, and clothed) can use it so long as you have a keyboard and a web camera. A microphone and speakers for audio are optional.

Established in November 2009 by high school student Andrey Ternovskiy from Moscow, ChatRoulette has gone from 500 visitors shortly after it launched to 50,000 a month later. By the start of March 2010 it had an estimated 1.5 million users and an Alexa rank of 1864 near the end of March.

On the surface it's just another form of social networking coupled with the negative connotations of "seedy" and "pervy old men" that camera websites notoriously drag along with them. Although you are likely to come across legions of naked exhibitionists, mostly men (you have been warned), users are finding a number of increasingly elaborate and inventive uses for the service.

For instance, there are various Chatroulette drinking games appearing on the internet. Some rules include "Guess the age of a fellow Rouletter, every year you are away from the truth = a finger." and "Someone wants you to speak because they 'love your accent' - 2 fingers."

This is what anonymity does.

Ben Folds played a concert and had Chatroulette projected across the back of the stage. He improvised songs relating to what the person who appears on the screen is doing. Check it out here.

FCUK recently ran a competition on Chatroulette. The challenge was to "chat up" women on the website, described on the FCUK blog as "the most densely populated patch of guy terrain on the web." and "A hostile environment worthy of a Ross Kemp special." The winner, Paul Flynn, received £250 in FCUK vouchers.

People also play their own games within it such as holding a bit of paper to the camera with "Tilt your head to read this, I win" written on it, and a tally of how many people they've tricked.

Chatroulette is still in it's infancy, though it has grown a lot recently and you can expect to see plenty of other uses and developments within it. Personally, I can't see the benefit of "meeting" and chatting to a stranger on the net when you can get much more from meeting a person in the real world, who wont disappear when one of you decides you've had enough.

Here's an interview with Chatroulette creator Andrey Ternovskiy.

This week I read: Inconceivable - Ben Elton

Today I finished reading Ben Elton's book, "INCONCEIVABLE". I'd already read this book a good few years ago, probably when I was about eleven years old. I remember being on holiday and my mum reading it by the pool, and I decided I'd give it a go.

My younger self felt it was a funny read, so when I saw it in a book shop recently I was curious to see if it was as good as I fondly remembered it.

It's not a difficult read, it's easy going. Light, but written well. There are some great, funny parts and good one liners are abundant throughout. It was interesting to see the characters develop throughout the book, they drive the story.
It's written in a format of "diary entries" - the two main characters (husband and wife) take it in turns to write their diaries, opening up their feelings about their inability to conceive a child.

I felt that Lucy started as a strong character but sagged in the middle - Sam's perspective on events was usually funnier and Lucy's sometimes felt it was there just because that was the format being used, and to push the story on.

The ending is fantastic. Not that it's mind-blowingly unpredictable, but it quickly ramps up the emotions and I genuinely felt for the characters. A satisfying read that, particularly at the end, deals with some uncomfortable issues anyone who's been in a relationship will be familiar with. It wraps up happily, though, and who doesn't love a happy ending.
Next, I'm reading Flat Earth News: An Award-Winning Reporter Exposes Falsehood, Distortion and Propaganda in the Global Media by Nick Davies. I attended a lecture of his and he was fascinating, so I have high hopes for his book.

Gotta start somewhere

The first puff of the cigarette was exhaled from his clenched teeth as he groaned. Smoking didn’t look natural for him but he swore by it. The amount of fuss he made with each puff, you’d think he was smoking glass. He felt he was a thin line away from being a fake. He sat at his laptop puffing away waiting for lightning to slam some inspiration into his head but he hardly every wrote anything beyond a couple of paragraphs.

“Sure, the books on the way. It’s in the pipes baby. I’m collecting ideas for it at the moment. Lots of analogies, that’s what I’m working on.”

“How much have you written so far”

“Some. I’ve been working on it for about a year.”

A couple more drags on the cigarette. The cherry edges closer to the filter. Chuck it now, there’s plenty more in the pack, no need to smoke everything to your fingertips. Headrush. Faint gray images play in his head. How can he work in these conditions? Time for a nap.