Chatroulette is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’ll get… or see

Not sure whether it was the guy pointing a handgun, the large naked guy in the Mexican wrestling mask or the trio of half-drunk teen thugs that had me most shocked while “observing” ChatRoulette.com in-person for the first time. But really, if there’s anything I’ve learned after being on the Internet for 16 years, there is no shortage of  unsettling content available a click or two away. Not convinced? Something as simple as a Google Image search with the SafeSearch function turned off can provide hours of entertainment.

As anyone who has used the ChatRoulette can tell you, the possibility of seeing inappropriate content is extremely high, and even if nobody wants to admit it, that’s a huge part of the curiosity and appeal. I was fortunate enough to share the experience in a safe-ish way with 150 people at a party Friday night. Each time an instant of ‘inappropriateness’ flashed on the screen, the room erupted in a mix of groans, cheers, covered eyes and shouts of ‘Next, Next, Next!’

ChatRoulette.com, which launched back in November of last year, is the brainchild of Moscow teenager Andrey Ternovskiy. The site creates one-to-one connections between you and another randomly chosen webcam user anywhere in the world. ‘Random’ is the keyword here – one minute you may be talking football with a guy from Zimbabwe, the next you’ve dropped into a house party of screaming teenage girls in Nebraska. And you better hold up your end and be interesting or you’ll be ‘Nexted’ – the term used when the party on the other end of the chat gets bored and “clicks on.” 

It has been recently lampooned by Jon Stewart on a recent Daily Show (PG+ content). He showed clips of reporters engaged in a near feeding frenzy, holding up the site as the latest example of everything that is wrong and scary on the Internet. While I don’t deny that there are creeps on ChatRoulette waiting for their few seconds of exposure (pun totally intended), these ‘creeps’ exist on every interactive forum, virtual world and social networking site out there. But despite all the negatives, some media experts have put forth the possibility that the simple user-experience of ChatRoulette may push video conferencing into the mainstream such as this recent Advertising Age article.

I’d love to know what you think? Will Chatroulette grow into a mainstream service like Twitter, where users can randomly meet and develop friendships as they have on other Internet services, or is this just a short-lived craze? Don’t worry, you can get back to me after you’ve found and disconnected all the webcams in your kids’ rooms.

Canadian Opera Company busts stereotypes and goes digital – ITBusiness.ca Case Study

It’s always nice when your work gets recognized and Brian Jackson from IT World Canada did a great job producing this video to showcase the strategic approach to helping the Canadian Opera Company create a digital customer experience that reflects the creative quality and alignment with the COC.   And even more kudos have to go to our client Jeremy Elbourne, Director of Marketing for the COC, who has not only endured our preaching about the digital customer experience for the past three years but has clearly “drank the koolaid” on the importance of the Digital Experience to the opera audience as a whole - well done.

Check out the interview here

“Hurt Locker” Producer Blows His Chance to Attend the Oscars

Take this as a lesson folks; think twice before hitting send. No matter the subject or the audience, even the most heartfelt and well-intentioned emails can get you into trouble. And no, pleading ignorance won’t necessarily diffuse the situation.

Onto the email that turned an Oscar invitation into a ticking time bomb…

First-time Oscar-nominated producer Nicolas Chartier was uninvited to the Hollywood’s biggest night, by sending out an email. A few weeks ago Chartier sent an email to select Oscar voters in an effort to promote the relatively unknown ”Hurt Locker” and create some buzz against other nominees and box office giant “Avatar.” In the email, Chartier asked the recipients to vote for “Hurt Locker” as best picture and spread the word to all other voters to do the same. Little did Chartier know that his email would cause such a media explosion.

What in the email set the Academy off?

His email was seen as a blatant attempt to beg for Oscar votes and to some, as disparaging fellow best picture nominee “Avatar”.  Worst of all, even if Chartier didn’t know he was doing it at the time, the content of his email violated Academy rules.  Chartier has since written an apology… 

“My naivete, ignorance of the rules and plain stupidity as a first time nominee is not an excuse for this behavior and I strongly regret it…I should have taken the time to read the rules.”

As I said, think twice before hitting send. Once you do, you can’t take the email back and pleading ignorance won’t always help you;  it certainty didn’t help Nicolas Chartier because the Academy has officially uninvited him to this year’s Award ceremony.