Welcome to the 21st century (webcams)

[netmouse]

Last night I used a webcam for the first time. Well, I'd seen other people on webcams, but I'd never had one aimed at *me* before. The lovely eposia and matt_arnold and I bridged the gap a bit from Michigan to Texas, using her webcam and Matt's (with thanks to Laura for providing same), while also chatting on IM (I was over at Matt's house sharing that camera, if anyone's confused). I guess there was some server trouble or we might have used VOIP as well and had a real video call. The video feed was a little jumpy but on the whole I highly recommend the experience and it seems weird to me (as I thnk about it) that this is the first time I've tried it. All this technology has been around for a while and the cameras are now pretty cheap. And then I started to wonder how many other people have done this...

Have you tried webcam communication?

If so, how was it?

If not, why not?

Comments

[cherylmorgan.livejournal.com]

Steve and Giulia of Plokta have one set up in their living room. The main purpose is, of course, that it is Superfluous Technology, although Giulia did use it to keep an eye on the cat when she was visiting her family in Tasmania. I dropped in for a couple of days last summer when I was homeless and emailed Kevin so he could watch me. Then I settled down to read and promptly fell asleep.

VOIP, on the other hand, is wonderful. Kevin and I can chat away for hours for free even when he's in California and I'm in England. The next step is to get a Slingbox so we catch watch TV together and chat about the program.