Gawker
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internet famous
Why there's no money in being a Web celebrity
We like to watch people trying to be famous. And we're so desperate for a shred of authenticity that we'll watch just about anyone doing anything, as long as it's live and on the Internet. Hence the lifecasting phenomenon.
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By Owen ThomasComment by judge9999: They might have had something if they reinvented snuff films.... 1 Responses | Other threads
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Deathcasting
Suicide by webcam
Lifecasting, a kind of do-it-yourself reality TV broadcast on the Internet, has thousands of practitioners. Until last night, one of them was Abraham Biggs, a 19-year-old Florida resident, who used a webcam to broadcast his death, too. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by Shadowlayer: FUCK! how come nobody called police? This says a lot about what kind of people uses this service. Whats next? manhunt? 5 Responses | Other threads
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higher education
Yale begs student startups to stay — except this guy
The Yale Entrepreneurial Institute is a program whipped up by the school to connect student-founded startups with the local business environment. The program's director hopes YEI "leaves students and potential students with the impression that Yale is an incubator for student-run businesses, just like Stanford or MIT." This is the program's second summer. Last year, four of the six startups in the program left for literally greener pastures. Yale should be careful what it wishes for. At a school known for its tradition of naked parties, shouldn't authorities be glad the program wasn't around to keep the pants-shedding likes of Justin.tv cofounder and Yale alum Justin Kan on campus?
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By Paul BoutinComment by Shadowlayer: Yalies dont have the need to work... more » | Other threads
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gallery
Justin Kan, raw and undressed, in kerfuffle at TechCrunch afterparty
Can't get enough of this weekend's TechCrunch party? Valleywag's camera was on the scene as Justin.tv's Justin Kan shed his shirt and got into a heated altercation with OpenHulu creator and Ustream.tv employee Matt Schlicht over accusations of content poaching. More » -
party report
Lame as it ever was, TechCrunch party spawns much better afterparty
TechCrunch editor Michael Arrington is viciously critical of Web startups that make their users pay for their wares. But he's perfectly happy to charge party sponsors for booths. The return on investment was hard to find at TechCrunch's annual party held at August Capital's Sand Hill Road offices on Friday. The booths, in the midst of free booze, pretty people, and business cards to swap, went completely unnoticed. The party, TechCrunch's third annual event held with the VC firm, was unremarkable. But the afterparty was legendary. We got in and took photos of the whole thing. More »
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Comment by Rachel Marsden: This Arroganton guy would look much hotter with my knuckles planted in his face. more » | Other threads
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lifecasters
Justin.tv to let users launch their own home-shopping networks
At first we found lifecasting the most depressing thing around; now, the practice of living your life attached to a camera seems depressingly popular, Silicon Alley Insider reports. Justin.tv has reached 1 million registered users. The site still has no business model, but CEO Michael Seibel says the company is working on an online payments system that will let lifecasters hawk wares to their viewers. Cancel that bit about lifecasting being a downer: The prospect of letting a million QVCs bloom is far scarier. -
online video
Justin.tv plans to make you pay
Justin.tv CEO Michael Seibel detailed how the personal video-broadcasting startup plans to break the profit barrier. His scheme? Setting up a transaction system so that users can pay to view content. He pointed to live sports as an example of something people have been willing to pay for in the past. Justin.tv does make it easy for anyone with a webcam (or video cable) to pirate broadcasts of sporting events. More »
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By Jackson WestComment by troyallen: I wouldn't pay 1 cent to watch a channel on Justin.TV. Each day they get worst and worst. more » | Other threads
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flipmeat
Justin.tv's Emmett Shear makes Freudian slip about selling company
Kicking off a thread on Hacker News about how to sell a business, Emmett Shear, CTO of live-video startup Justin.tv, accidentally typed the name of his current employer instead of his previous company, Kiko Calendar, which was sold on eBay for $250,000. A sign the company is desperately looking for the exit? Who knows. But it certainly doesn't help to answer part of the original question about flipping a startup:How would you do it without causing problems (ie people thinking you're up for sale)?
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lifecasters
Justin.tv — one year old and still full of illegal content
Lifecasting site Justin.tv has come a long way since banning a broadcaster for one night of indecent exposure — that is, sexual acts. There may be less porn now, but other illegal content now graces Justin.tv's servers. Right now I'm watching a stream of Fox Sports Net West's broadcast of the San Diego Padres playing the Los Angeles Angels. Last night, more than 2,000 people watched the NBA's Los Angeles Lakers play. Given Major League Baseball's draconian online reporting rules — no more than seven photos from any game; audio and video clips can be a maximum of two minutes and can't be streamed live — we doubt the MLB is happy about this. More »
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Comment by troyallen: From what I heard, a lifecaster call E-TARD who just got kicked off of Justin TV and now is broadcasting... more » | Other threads
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online video
Ustream.tv and Justin.tv respond to YouTube's live streaming gauntlet
YouTube cofounder Steve Chen confirmed that YouTube is working on a live streaming product which would put it in competition with lifecasting startups like Ustream.tv and Justin.tv, as well as the "experimental" Yahoo Live service. We asked Justin.tv CEO Michael Seibel and Ustream.tv CEO Brad Hunstable how their companies felt about the move. More »
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Comment by andyfox1979: I'm not sure how anyone can spin GOOGLE entering your space as something positive. It doesn't come off as confident but... more » | Other threads
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steve chen
YouTube cofounder casually promises to wipe out Ustream, Justin.tv
In the clip above, Steve Chen tells us YouTube plans to add live streaming by the end of 2008. And, from her voiceover, that Pop17's Sarah Meyers would love a Philippe Dauman Jr. party.
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Comment by sggrf: This dude is a super-rich tool! Nothing will ever change that. more » | Other threads
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lifecasters
Yahoo's lifecasting service is Live! Sort of!
Yahoo's lifecasting service has "launched" — if you can call it that. As we reported, Yahoo Live allows users to stream live video for users to watch, similar to the services of startups Ustream.tv and Justin.tv. This marks the first time that a major company has gotten into the lifecasting space. At launch, the featured user was "JT the Bigga Figga," but sadly, Yahoo seems to be running out of server capacity and is streaming only intermittently. Yahoo's Bradley Horowitz announced in his Twitter feed that "live.yahoo.com is, well, live... Help us crush it with load." I guess he wasn't kidding. If it decides to work, watch Splunk the Pony streaming live, after the jump. It's by far the most interesting lifecast I've ever seen. More »
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Comment by RicanGeek: Splunk the Pony?!? It's amusing to consider that after +25yrs of live webcasting, content has evolved from a coffee pot... more » | Other threads
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exclusive
Yahoo soft-launches lifecasting service
Yahoo is launching a new video service called Yahoo Live. Initially available for Yahoo employees only, the service allows users to create their own "social broadcasting experience." Translation: Yahoo is the first major company to get into the lifecasting space currently occupied by startups like Ustream.tv and Justin.tv. Last week, we reported that Yahoo was looking to launch some splashy products to distract from its financial problems and layoff rumors. Yahoo Live seems to fit the bill. Catch the notice posted on Yahoo's intranet, Backyard, after the jump. More »
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Comment by andyfox1979: this will either be death or acquisition for the other lifecasting sites. Interesting to see what happens. Personally I think the... more » | Other threads
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valleywag calendar
Lunch with Justin.tv and party with TechStars
For those looking for lunch plans (or face time on the internet), Justin.tv is hosting and, yes, lifecasting a tech talk with Ethan Herdrick, cofounder of the Biographicon, a stealth startup. Later tonight there are two events going on in the Peninsula: SVASE is hosting a discussion on clean technology out in Palo Alto and TechStars — a company that helps startups get off the ground — is hosting a party at the Plug and Play Tech Center. More » -
valleywag calendar
Valleywag drinks, gets hitched
Nicholas Carlson's, Valleywag's geographically handicapped New York reporter, is getting married this Sunday to college sweetheart Anna Brew. Awwww! Aren't they adorable? And he's webcasting the event on Justin.tv. Ewwww. Isn't that horrible? One way or another, our last experiment with drunkblogging was so successful — the drunk part, anyway — that we're repeating it this afternoon at 4 p.m., at Moose's in North Beach. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by Tamar Weinberg: Nicholas, congrats to you and Anna :) more » | Other threads
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party report
For LiveJournal, Six Aparting is such sweet sorrow
Users of LiveJournal call it "defriending." As terrible as it sounds, defriending's not really that bad; it just means you're bored with someone and don't want to hear about their issues anymore. Or share yours with them. That, in essence, is what Six Apart, the San Francisco-based blog-software company, has decided to do with LiveJournal, the online community it acquired from Brad Fitzpatrick in 2005. Andrew Anker, Six Apart's vice president ofchopping the company into little bits for convenient and lucrative dispositioncorporate development, orchestrated the sale of LiveJournal to Sup, a Russian media company which already runs a localized version of the site. With the sale, Anker and the rest of Six Apart's team are letting LiveJournal know, as gently as they can, that they're just not interested in its problems. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by Jeremy: @Owen Thomas: I get a nice shout out, though, for my Pink shirts, right? more » | Other threads
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lifecasters
iJustine to run her own show
As reported a couple of weeks ago, Justine Ezarik, the blonde videoblogger better known as iJustine, has opened her own website, iJustine.tv. Neither of her potential suitors, Justin.tv and Ustream.tv , appear to have won her heart outright. Ezarik's maintaining channels on both lifecasting startups, and also posting videos using Viddler and Revver. The girl knows how to keep her options open. Her latest affair is with ChannelMe.tv, a little-known .tv domain registrar, video-streaming service, and advertising platform. Unsurprisingly, ChannelMe's site now features iJustine. More »
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By Tim FaulknerComment by Schlomo Rabinowitz: I think she was Mark Cuban's partner on Dancing With The Stars.... Or starring in People Under The Stairs... I... more » | Other threads
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lifecasters
iJustine dumping Justin.tv for single life?
Rumor is spreading that Justine Ezarik, the blonde videoblogger better known as iJustine, is leaving Justin.tv. Ezarik, who holds the dubious distinction of being the most popular lifecaster of the moment, is currently denying that she's leaving the self-broadcasting service where she made her name. Ustream.tv, where Justine first started videoblogging before she made it big on Justin.tv, has regained the affections of the vlog hottie, or so the story goes. As is often the case when two are competing for the attention of one woman, neither suitor ever really wins. More »
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By Tim FaulknerComment by Trackback: Quick Feed: Black Friday and Other Deals — Techie DivaColorful mini apple MP3 players — PopgadgetOur favorite celebrity gadget ads... more » | Other threads
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justin.tv
Lifecasting site bans lifecasting
We've been covering — so to speak — the exposed skin at lifecasting site Justin.tv not because we think the company should enter the porn business. Even if that's the site's best shot at actually making a buck. No, we're fascinated at how the startup is willing to cut off its core audience of self-involved youth, who want every moment of their lives on the Internet, titillating and stupefyingly boring alike. The company only received any attention at all because of the any-thing-goes, 24/7 habits of its founder Justin Kan. Now, the startup seems to have abandoned the spirit of "lifecasting" altogether. More »
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By Tim FaulknerComment by Jordan Golson: @Baberaham Lincoln: Yes, a camera that is watching a slice of pizza turn moldy. Oh no, conflict of interest! Come... more » | Other threads
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justin.tv
Last defense of nude-lesbian haters removed
Lifecasting site Justin.tv no longer has any reason to restrict nudity and sexual content on their broadcasts. This morning's news of a United States Court of Appeals ruling overturning the recordkeeping provisions of the Child Protection and Obscenity Enforcement Act of 1988, might have some effect on YouTube — but it's going to have a much bigger impact on lifecasters like Justin.tv. More »
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By Tim FaulknerComment by camas22: has that guy ever gotten laid with that lame camera hat? more » | Other threads
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justin.tv
Warning — topless girls making out
What to make of the latest episode of sexually explicit content, a drunken, topless lesbian make-out session, broadcast live on Justin.tv? We recall Jeff Goldblum's character in "Jurassic Park," mathematician Dr. Ian Malcolm, delivering the profound line, "Life will out." You cannot contain people's lives to PG-rated material on a site dedicated to "lifecasting." Warnings and threats of banning simply won't matter. In the wee hours of the night, DJ Structure enticed two lady friends into titillating his viewers with a reenactment from Girls Gone Wild — lesbian kissing, topless petting, and butt display. Justin.tv's policy of forbidding nudity and adult content could never prevent the arousing episode from going out live, and staying available for several hours, while Justin.tv's staff slept. More »
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By Tim FaulknerComment by andyfox1979: you nerds, this stuff is good. I bet you guys fap and then after are like "oh i'd rather watch... more » | Other threads
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modern and awkward
A Justin.tv "lifecaster," who sports a head-mounted camera wherever he goes, is a huge jerk to a very polite movie-theater manager who asks him to remove his camera when he enters the theatre. Then he gets worked up and defensive when people call him out for his rude behavior. Ah yes, this must be what Al Gore envisioned when he invented the Internet. [TechCrunch]
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Comment by pseudonym: I mean -- She sees a guy wearing a camera, why would she assume that he'd turn it off and... more » | Other threads
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scribd
Justin.tv not cool with porn, but startup pals are
Lifecasting site Justin.tv may be afraid of adult-only broadcasts. But some other startups also born from the Y Combinator startup factory are not so leery. Scribd, the self-ascribed "YouTube of documents," which allows any document to be stored and viewed on the Web, appears to be gaining traffic on the back of adult content. "Adult" is one of Scribd's most popular and largest document groups. In the company's words, "At Scribd, we are cool with adult content, and you should feel free to upload as much as you'd like." As a result, its traffic far exceeds Justin.tv — even though you'd think video would be more compelling than documents. More » -
justin.tv
No sex, please, we're skittish
Lifecasting website Justin.tv has introduced an adult-content warning and age-verification system to broadcaster channels that want to push the limits of what the New York Times called "a PG-13 version of lifecasting." The broadcast of Dealer, considered offensive by some, appears to be the first channel to get the warning label. We suspect that, like a porn film's "XXX" rating, it will soon be a badge of pride strangely, though, nudity and sex remain unacceptable on Justin.tv in any circumstance. Why? Legal concerns aren't the issue. More »
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By Tim FaulknerComment by emmett: When you sign up for Justin.tv, you have the option to check a box for "may contain inappropriate content." (You... more » | Other threads
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vloggers
Y Combinator's webcam can't touch MC Hammer
MC Hammer's rap career may have been over more than a decade ago, but to the startup kids at Y Combinator, he'll always be a superstar. First, he awkwardly pitched Weebly's MySpace profile editor SnapLayout to lifecaster Justine Ezarik, better known as iJustine of Justin.tv. Now, Hammer has made an iminlikewithyou profile. The washed-out rapper hopes to extend his attempts to revive his career beyond being a hanger-on of startups by fighting Vanilla Ice. Only problem — he needs someone with a videocamera, and he's trolling the iminlikewithyou community for volunteers. So what does that tell us about the state of Hammer's career? More »
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By Tim FaulknerComment by Whocares: Julia Allison also has an actual job of some sorts.. I'm still pondering how Justine manages to pay her bills.. more » | Other threads
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justin.tv
Nude webcams okay when looking for money, not when you get it
Justin Kan, the original lifecaster behind Justin.tv, hyped his company on the prospects of seeing him naked or, better yet, in flagranti delicto. But if that was the draw of the site for you, forget it. Over the weekend, Justin.tv banned a would-be lifecaster after a single day of risqué broadcasting, and has since revised its community guidelines. Kan knew that appealing to the sensational side of lifecasting would draw interest, but now that the startup is attracting investors, sensationalism also brings potential controversy. And nothing chases away money like controversy. But what about the adherents to lifecasting? Won't they, too, be chased away if "lifecasting" is redefined as only including the parts of your life that would make it past network-TV censors? More »
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By Tim FaulknerComment by Troyallan: I am sorry but Justin.TV is just full of pervert and pedos. Every channel with a girl is constantly being... more » | Other threads
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lifecasters
Broadcast your miserable life with Justin.tv
On the Internet, everyone is famous to about 15 people. In case you happen to be an anomaly, Justin.tv wants to ensure you have your own shot at microcelebrity. Since YouTube quickly turned into a dumping ground for loser-generated content, creating another video destination that hosts unedited, streaming video of oh-so-important mundane lives seems like a brilliant idea. The fact that Justin Kan continues to raise funding despite his 30 seconds of Internet superstardom drying up is a sure sign of the pending Web 2.0 apocalypse. More »
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Comment by Figaro: They're still around?! Damn. Silicon Valley has surely lost its touch. more » | Other threads
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business milestones
Hot Chick Tipping Point
NICK DOUGLAS — Hot chicks can sell beer that tastes like water and foul-smelling body spray, and even a domain registrar. The male mind is easily sold. But the Hot Chick Tipping Point goes beyond advertising; it could be the one thing a business needs for wild success. More »
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By Nick DouglasComment by frankgilroy: Ya know, I plopped my butt down in front of my laptop yesterday and watched Justine for a little bit.... more » | Other threads
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justin.tv
Landlord evicts startupper, allegedly bans his friends
NICK DOUGLAS — Running a 24/7 business can mean fighting for your home. "Lifecaster" Justin Kan, and the team that runs his streaming web show Justin.tv from his apartment, got an eviction notice from San Francisco landlord Trinity Management Services. Someone's posted a web page about the drama alleging that Trinity has blocked people from moving into its Crystal Towers property because the applicants knew Justin. If that's true, the fight could escalate, since several startups funded by the Y Combinator firm live in Crystal Towers. A source tells me Trinity cited noise complaints. The company may not be happy with Justin's frequent recording of their public spaces, and they may have been on edge ever since March, when an outside prankster triggered a police raid. (Photo: Lane Hartwell)
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By Nick DouglasComment by deliriousnyc: I'm not exactly familiar with CA rental laws, but I would bet Justin can find a lawyer and drag it... more » | Other threads
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justin.tv
Just look busy, okay?
A big part of this company is looking like you're working. If you're not working, at least look like you're doing something. (Justin Kan, star of the streaming Justin.tv show, to his producer Lindsay. Justin's last project was Kiko, a web calendar that was quickly outgunned by 30 Boxes and Google Calendar before Justin's team sold the business on eBay for under $300k. — NICK DOUGLAS)
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justin.tv
How webcam sex nearly saved the world
NICK DOUGLAS — Last night, just as thousands of fans desperately desired, Justin.tv protagonist Justin Kan got laid. At least, we all assume that's what happened when the 24/7 camboy ended a second date (with a girl known to viewers as "J") by taking off his hat-mounted camera, turning off its microphone, joining J in her room, and turning off the lights. Why did this much-anticipated moment manifest as such a letdown? And why is it such a blow to the hope of humankind? More »
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By Nick DouglasComment by pillsandpez: Oh God. Now you're talking about him having sex? Wasn't it enough that he was freaking naked with the Cool... more » | Other threads
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hype-off
Twitter versus Justin.tv
NICK DOUGLAS — OMG it's all the rage, I can't stop checking, I might miss something I used to dismiss as mundane! It's Twitter! And it's Justin.tv! I can't decide which is hype-ier, the one-line blogging service or the 24/7 camboy, and neither can the media both old and new. Round one, FIGHT! More »
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By Nick DouglasComment by Trackback: Ok, Facebook. But what’s the next hottest company? A year ago, we asked readers which company they thought was the... more » | Other threads
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justin.tv
Lifecaster amazed by stupidity of Today Show
NICK DOUGLAS — Justin Kan of Justin.tv makes good 24/7 video, but a two-minute Today Show appearance? Not so much. The San Franciscan "lifecaster," who streams live from a camera attached to his head, woke up at 3 to talk with Today co-host Ann Curry. After the interview, Justin went home, where he complained about Today's poor preparation (he contrasted it to the competent folks at G4TV) and Curry's "irritating" questions. But hey, that awkward interview brought several thousand simultaneous viewers (who overwhelmed the poorly scaled Justin.tv feed). More »
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By Nick DouglasComment by waynelambright: Are you guys kidding me? Justin.tv is some fun stuff. Consider the huge audience that Justin is marketing... more » | Other threads
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justin.tv
He's just a camboy. So why can't I stop watching?
NICK DOUGLAS — When I first heard that young San Franciscan Justin Kan started broadcasting his life on video 24 hours a day at Justin.tv, I thought, "so what?" Like many others, I just assumed someone had already been doing this. I was half-right; camgirls and bugged homes date back to the 90s. But by strapping the camera to Justin's head, the creators kicked this show up a notch. Still, what's so compelling about a 20-something guy in San Francisco? Why are 353 people watching Justin talk to his friends right now in his living room? After watching the show, reading the buzz, and talking to Justin in person, I've got a good idea why. More »
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By Nick DouglasComment by radiodaze: I'm a reporter with National Public Radio and I'm doing a story about Justin TV. I was hoping to... more » | Other threads
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