16: I FEEL SO LONELY // WE LIVE IN PUBLIC

Ephemera

I was recently asked if I’d include my scripts in the episode notes. I’m happy to do so! Read along at your leisure here:https://docs.google.com/document/d/1P1XOLvBoYXXlffn1Q0YSrN3zwO3uRmuBp39pgRWmulU/edit?usp=sharing

Molly Osberg writes for Fusion about the relationships between the first camgirls:

https://fusion.tv/story/385606/jennicam-first-female-lifecasters-camgirls/ I’ve been assured by Paul Brown, who ran a Jennicam fansite, that Jennicam updated every fifteen minutes, with the premium feed refreshing every two minutes. People have written that the site updated at a variety of speeds - every 15 seconds, every three minutes, every twenty minutes, and so on - but the general state of things was a new image every fifteen minutes. Mr. Brown writes in his email to me:“As I remember it, however, there were a few times here and there when the updates were more frequent. That was definitely a rare and short duration thing.”

Also, I state in the episode that Jennicam’s premium feed was $15/month, but it was actually $15/year. No wonder she went into debt. Alex Goldman, producer and co-host of the Reply All podcast, was obsessed with Jenni and spent a year tracking her down for a 2014 interview. You might be interested in hearing more from him on his connection to her website (unfortunately, his page of additional material he references has been lost to bit rot):https://gimletmedia.com/episode/5-the-jennicam/

A partial archive of JenniSHOW, Jenni's online video series from 1998 (remember, Jennicam worked in serialized photos): https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdXBHnkRzp7l9j4Ac7nhsxbpiIlseKd5o

Jenni’s 1998 Letterman interview:https://youtu.be/0AmIntaD5VE

The salacious WaPo article: https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/fl-xpm-2000-09-04-0009011003-story.html

Jenni’s “I FEEL SO LONELY” post-it sign: http://www.polyamory.org/~howard/Poetry/9701272308.jpg (ps check that /poetry/ directory. just wild)

Josh Harris’ “WE LIVE IN PUBLIC” sign: https://storiesfromtheinter.net/post/189691653275

Steven Kaplan, who was one of the pod people in Quiet, reflects on it here:https://post.thing.net/node/2800 (with photos!)

rent WE LIVE IN PUBLIC here (or if you know me IRL, come over and we’ll watch it):http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hnt23PA2zZ4

A profile of Justin.tv’s early days. It’s interesting to compare Justin Kan’s reaction to 24/7 surveillance to Jenny’s: https://www.fastcompany.com/1839300/many-pivots-justintv-how-livecam-show-became-home-video-gaming-superstars essay by Ana Voog, of “anacam”, about her early days Online and then walking away from it:https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/ywe9wv/anacam-anna-voog-livestream-web-cam-art

ANIL DASH: “Now we are all Jennicam.” https://twitter.com/anildash/status/492060636218544128

YT vid: “JenniCAM Invented Reality TV” (as discussed in the ep, that was MTV’s The Real World, but it’s a good video): https://youtu.be/4ii0gLK3meM

Closing music: Anais Mitchell - 1984

Additional audio resources provided by: https://freesound.org/people/ERH/