There’s something strangely compelling about watching a stranger staring at his computer screen. I know, because I’m doing it right now. Stickam, which launches officially on February 15th (you can access the site today), is essentially a widget for your blog or website that allows you to display a live webcam and conduct video chats on the site itself. The guy I’m watching - Dave - is currently scratching his chin. Clearly, I need to get out more.
Stickam is a pretty interesting product. Peter Epstein (seemingly their PR guy) shot me an email about it a few days back - the press release(!) gives a bit more insight:
For the first time ever, consumers can add live videoconferencing to their Web sites, blogs and vlogs (video blogs) without having to download or install any software on their computer. Simply by cutting and pasting the Stickam(tm) JavaScript or HTML code into the appropriate area of the site of their choice, users can add full motion video, photos and music. The Stickam(tm) media player is also the first Web tool to combine video, photo, music and chat functions in one application.
Now clearly this isn’t the kind of company that tech bloggers can relate to. They have a PR guy. They sent me a press release. They call their users “consumers” for God’s sake! Nonetheless, there is a huge, huge disparity between the early-adopter elite and the MySpace crowd. This difference is marked not only by the technorati’s rejection of closed, centralized systems (a MySpace blog? I’ll install Wordpress on my home server, thank you very much!), but also a dislike of companies that fail to speak to bloggers on their own level, instead issuing stale press releases. Many of the mainstream sites also enjoy much higher traffic than their Web 2.0 counterparts. And it’s the mainstream, youth sector that I think Stickam is taking aim at - Xanga, LiveJournal, MySpace, Blogger and the like. I don’t expect to see the Scobleizer’s lovely mug staring back at me from his sidebar anytime soon.
In short: Stickam is pretty interesting and could gain traction with the emo kids. Meanwhile, all of us prosumer types will scratch our heads and politely ask “wtf”?
