Instant messenging has its roots in BBSes, military, AOL and IRC. Now you can use Hi Yahoo!, AIM, eBuddy, Meebo, Nimbuzz, or Fring on your Droid and Beejive, Yahoo!, AIM, Palringo, Skype, Fuze and more on your iPhone. Which brings us to … the theatre of the Internet… Very few men who have used the Internet for a long enough period of time can honestly say they have never pretended to be a woman while online. Why do they do this?

Curiosity? Like what is is like to be a woman? Maybe you think that women can get away with things that men can’t. Maybe you want to “be a woman” in a way that you know men want women to be … online? Do you really wish you were a woman? If yes, why? Do you want to see how people react to women as opposed to men? Do you do it to find out the secrets of other men or other women you know? And why would you do that?

Perhaps if you befriend another woman in a female facade, you will learn more about what women are like? Maybe you think they hide who, how, what, and why they are the way they are? And you may get one epiphany after another when pretending to be one? Is it roleplay? Research?

Do you want to cartoonize women and act in ways that are exaggeratedly like the stereotypes? Make everyone and yourself ROTFL… Are there bad motives? Good motives? What are they?

Being online and anonymous gives you the freedom to do, be, and say anything you want. Think about some of the things you’ve said to people online. Would you speak that way in real life? Maybe in your case the answer is yes, but many people use their newfound freedom to act in a manner that they wouldn’t dare in real life. Is this bad or good or in between?

One anonymous contributor to a Techistan survey on this topic said, “It’s not a new phenonemon. Long before the Internet came to be known to the general public, there were systems called BBSes, which rather acted like web forums that you find now on the Internet. The big difference being that a BBS was run on a computer by a hobbyist, and you had to call that computer directly from yours, and usualy only one person could be on a particular BBS at a time.

That was back in the 1980s, and I was rather active in that culture at the time. It became well known that there were some “female” personalities on the BBSes that were really men. I coined the term “Televestite” to describe such.

I would imagine that for man who is into such a thing, it’s probably a lot easier to hide behind the anonymity and safety of an Internet persona, and pretend to be a woman, than to dress up in womens’ clothing and go out in public that way.”

Another set of ideas from the Internet, “I also coined the term “televestite” on Compucations BBS in 1985. The sysop now runs a website in Big Bear. I used to use chat rooms on AOL and “men” (ßeta males) would very often piss off other men because they were hiding behind a monitor screen. There was a punk named “BchLivin27″ who in Summer of 1996 who, together with a bimbo named “Discobroad” were taunting me.

She since then left AOL and because I remembered his and her screen name, I assumed her screen name and let him think I was her. I tricked him into giving HIS phone number and address to me. I never acted on it.

The Germans in WW2 used female spies because male allies would easily have given up information to them, in fact much more easily than they would under torture. So, I used this same tactic against Brad because this “man” (a ßeta male pretending to be an alpha male)

Men on AOL chat rooms in the 1990′s were so desperate to be “with a woman” that they would tell a woman anything just to get her to talk back. I actually talked to a guy at an AOL function at Foxfire in Anaheim Hills who had used the same tactic against another ßeta male. He then broadcast his phone number in the chat room.

So to sum it up: Men might use televestitism as an interrogation tactic?”

A third, “I have no idea. To me, lying online is the same as lying face to face.”

Another says, “Looks and gender do matter. Being a hot female ENHANCES all your other qualities. Take Beyonce for example. She can dance, and she can sing. But would it be the same if she was a hairy old man? Those who say gender and looks don’t matter don’t realize they’re prejudice at all.

It’s a harsh reality, we as human beings are shallow.”

A final one says, “So, many men (or boys) pretend to be women (or girls) in order to have more people talk to them. They feel like they can open up; whereas, society, in general, makes me think they have to be solid and silent. That can be a little lonely. I mean, people do it online for the same reasons they do it offline.”

What do you think?

It’s a good idea to keep your clothes on and be 16 years old or more in age.  Chatroulette is a video, audio and chat program, started up in November 2009, that puts you on the spot to bring out the best in yourself and strangers. Or, you can leave the chat at any time, be left yourself, and start another or … wait for another to choose you. Whose idea was this? Andrey Ternovskiy, a 17-year-old high school student in Moscow!

Already referred to on a hit TV sitcom, Chatroulette was parodied in the South Park season 14 episode “You Have 0 Friends“.  By the end of the first quarter of 2010 the site had over 1 1/2 million visitors. Ternovskiy’s parents loaned him the first $10,000 (USD) that he has already paid back.  The site is now supported through advertising links to an Internet dating service.

Beware of being “nexted.” This means, the other person in the chat has decided to move on from you. Don’t get your feelings hurt. Just be a social butterfly and enjoy.

What’s so exciting about Chatroulette? The shock value, the paradigm shift you experience at every chat, the opportunity to expand your mind, talk with people all over the world, and the simplicity of the interface! Be brave. Try it! at http://www.chatroulette.com/.  But stay cool. Or maybe brave, too.

The technology behind it:
The website uses Adobe Flash to bring video among the users and also to access each user’s webcam. Flash’s peer-to-peer network capabilities (via Real Time Media Flow Protocol) allow practically all video and audio streams to travel directly between user computers, without using server bandwidth. However, certain combinations of routers will not allow user data program protocol traffic to flow between them, and then it is necessary to fall back to Real Time Messaging Protocol.

From the Creator of Think Pink

Some of Australia’s biggest brands are shifting their digital advertising spend to social media as Facebook becomes more popular than Google. But what are the benefits of simply being a social butterfly?

Last week, Facebook was named as the most visited website in the US with a 7.07 per cent share, while Google had a share of 7.03 per cent, according to figures from Hitwise.

With over 400 million members worldwide it’s no wonder that Facebook is now the top web destination, poised to steal online ad dollars away from Google and challenge its long-standing dominance.

Paid social network advertising is expected to reach $US2.5 billion in 2010, a 14 per cent increase from 2009, according to figures from marketing research firm eMarketer.

In fact, Jetstar announced this week that it was shifting 40 per cent of its $25 million above-the-line advertising budget into digital media, in particular social media, in a bid to reach larger audiences.

The discount airline had previously only spent 5 per cent of its ad budget online,  but after several successful campaigns on social media sites including YouTube and Twitter last year, Jetstar has decided that social media is a better investment as traditional advertising – such as television, print and radio – becomes increasingly expensive.

Jetstar Asia already has a presence on Facebook. It has more than 3,500 fans but isn’t proving to be as popular as other brands on the site just yet, which may have something to do with a lack of personality.

Meanwhile, Sunny Queen Farms’ egg brand recently clocked up more than 40,000 ‘Fans’ on Facebook after being on the site for just eight weeks – its popularity is most likely attributable to the personality the brand has shown through its smiley face character.

The brand used its ‘Sunny the Egg’ to front the page as its brand ambassador and has enjoyed phenomenal cult success. There’s an interesting story about Sunny’s rise to fame on YouTube too.

On the back of this, the brand now has a presence on Chatroulette – a site that pairs random strangers for webcam-based conversations. This is an egg we’re talking about remember, but, according to its creative agency BCM, 80,000 people have engaged with the character through the social site already.

Sunny Queen Farms’ success mirrors that of the UK’s Comparethemarket.com campaign, which featured a Russian meerkat and became an overnight success, drumming up more than 350,000 fans on Facebook almost immediately.

The comparison website was stuck in a rut doing the same boring and formulated television ads that its competitors were also airing in the same vein – cheap, annoying ads with characters that were not memorable such as pirates and elephants or, worse still, customers asking very obvious questions.

But Comparethemarket’s Russian meerkat, named Aleksandr Orlov, gave the brand something that could allow it to engage with consumers while also being fun. Aleksandr not only featured on the brand’s television ads, he soon had his on Facebook profile, YouTube channel, Twitter feeds and has this week launched an iPhone app.You can also buy your very own Aleksandr talking toy.

Facebook, and other social media sites, not only provide a platform in which brands can have a web presence, it is a channel in which brands can personalise themselves, give themselves a face and engage with consumers in a fun way.

While in the past brands may have been sceptical about social media’s worth, now there seems to be no limit as to what brands will do to enter the social movement.

With 400 million users worldwide, covering every demographic, Facebook is a smart destination for every business sector from financial services, food, cars and technology brands. Its potential, and the potential of brands that choose to get on board and do it properly – is endless.

Social butterflies seem to have the most effect on the largest number of people. Seems it works for organizations as well as individuals.

Credits:

Melinda Varley
Journalist, Commentary Desk
Business Spectator
_______________

D: Inside Australia? Call (03) 8624 3005. Outside Australia? Call +61 (03) 8624 3005
MVarley@eurekareport.com.au
www.BusinessSpectator.com.au

Bill Thompson is pleased to see the punk ethic alive and well online

Anyone with a few minutes to spare online might enjoy visitingChatroulette – the finest expression of punk mentality from the emerging internet generation that I’ve yet come across.

It’s not hard to play, as there are only three rules. You have to be aged 16 or over. You’re asked to “please stay clothed”. And you can alert the management by clicking F2 “if you don’t like what you see”.

Click ‘New Game’ to start a game, give the service access to to your camera and microphone and you begin a video conversation with a random stranger.

That’s it.

Chatroulette uses Adobe Flash to turn on the camera and microphone on a visitor’s computer and register their IP address with the site. It then connects that user with another, random IP address and opens up a connection between the two, so you can start to chat.

Causing a stir

Even though it’s getting millions of users, Chatroulette is very scalable because, like the original Napster, the data doesn’t actually go through the Chatroulette site itself.

Instead it uses Flash’s peer-to-peer streaming service to make a direct link between the two computers and only has to keep track of the IP addresses and “next” calls.

It is also causing an enormous fuss, largely because it is unmediated, requires no registration or verification and is open to every exhibitionist, deviant and random stranger online.

My son reckons he is getting a ratio of 14 naked men to one worthwhile conversation, which sounds about right for a service that is intended to do for video chat what Twitter has done for communication in 140 characters or less, and show us the real potential of the unfettered connectivity that the internet makes possible.

Of course it’s a scandal, and of course it is potentially corrupting and dangerous, though the random nature of the connection and the lack of any way to choose who you talk to mean that the chances of coming across someone in the same country never mind the same city or town are vanishingly small.

Yes, someone could use it to make contact by writing their email address or phone number on a card or calling it out as soon as a connection is made, but you’d have to be pretty stupid to think of this as a reliable way to make new friends or find victims.

Punk personified

The point about Chatroulette is that is has no point, that it strips away the wooden panelling from this finely modelled room we call the internet to reveal all the workings beneath and show that in the end it’s just a space for making connections between people.

It reminds me of the day in 1977 when I went into the sixth form common room at Southwood Comprehensive School in Corby and my mate Dougie Gordon played me his newly-arrived copy of God Save The Queen and everything I thought I knew about politics, music and revolution coalesced around the Sex Pistols into a punk sensibility that has stayed with me ever since.

Chatroulette is a pure expression of that punk spirit, delivered through the tools available to today’s teenagers rather than the electric guitar and seven-inch single of my childhood, and the anger with which it has been received by the establishment is a testament to its disruptive potential.

The kids have arrived online – Chatroulette creator Andrey Ternovskiy is the same age as the Mosaic browser – and they want to shape it in their image.

I hope they pull it off, though in another echo of punk history Ternovskiy is already being wooed by the majors to sign up and sell out, and the temptation to turn his rebellion into money must be intense. Rather like Jimmy, the punk-precursor hero of The Who’s Quadrophenia, he is under pressure to conform from his parents as his mother doesn’t like the way Chatroulette can be used.

Perhaps he will stay true to punk, like Joe Strummer of The Clash or Siouxsie Sioux. Perhaps he’ll sell out like Johnny Rotten and we’ll see Chatroulette used to advertise butter.

But whatever may happen to his site the impact will be felt as other kids realise that they can pick up a keyboard and become punk programmers, just as my generation picked up a guitar and learned three chords. Chatroulette’s launch was the day the net turned day-glo, and Poly Styrene and X Ray Spex would be so proud.

Bill Thompson is an independent journalist and regular commentator on the BBC World Service programme Digital Planet. He is currently working with the BBC on its archive project.

Source:http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8598871.stm