Do you Camfrog yet? Don't worry, I hadn't heard of it until today, either. It's a multi-user video conferencing program that has been slowly making its way over to Mac OS X (the Mac version's at 1.3, PC's up to 3.9), and, having played with it for a few hours, it's absolutely insane. You can do a video chat with up to 1,000 people at once, along with text chats to keep it silent.
It's also exactly like entering an America Online chat room in 1995. For my impressions, click through.
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The Mac OS X interface for Camfrog is nicely done, a sort of nice blend of iChat and classic instant messaging iconography. It took about five seconds to set up a profile, and then it was time to start looking at a thousand of my closest friends. Now, granted, I didn't actually launch 1,000 windows, but I did bring up six screens, and the performance is surprisingly good -- it's like iChat AV with the locks off and in utter chaos. I could have kept going, and my old computer would have been fine.
Like a lot of new networks, it's absolute chaos to deal with -- too much information to ever grapple with. What's crazy about it is how much of a throwback this feels like -- nothing about it speaks to the ways that online interactions have changed over time. It's not about the technology, which is extremely refined and well-executed. It is in the people and the way they engage: Half-word communications, heavy emoticon use, requests for age/sex/location and lewd comments -- but this time with live video of people staring at their webcams. And it feels exactly the same, even though it ostensibly provides more immediacy.
Instead, it feels more alone than any communication network I've tried to tap into in years. I'm sure this is on me -- I haven't actually tried to find my people in this group -- the geeks, the Mac-heads, the like, and so it's probably more a reflection of my tourism than anything else.
But still, surprising to learn how little things change, isn't it?
Thanks, JH?
