Periscope Experiments 001
The live-stream is going mainstream. A billion channels and nothing to watch?
This morning I made coffee in front of a live audience. Thirty-three people picked up my signal on their long-range super-computers and tuned into my riviting first Periscope broadcast: Making Coffee.
“Hey,” wrote @g63 from Dubai, as I dumped the first scoop of grounds into the IKEA Bodem. “Hello from albania,” sent @hasanirigels. As I poured the water, he asked (via text) what kind of coffee I was using. “Starbucks beans, I think.” When I showed off my ‘Not Made In China’ cup, I was asked where I was ‘at’, because I hadn’t turned on geolocation, not wanting a bunch of strangers to know exactly where I lived. “Toronto. Canada,” I answered. “That’s awesome,” replied @jsblake930. Then the audience started directing the show. “Show Ur handsome face Pls,” requested @hongcwk. I said I didn’t have my face on, and he gave me an “LOL.” Throughout the broadcast, people came and went, some tapping the screen to send me an animated cascade of floating hearts. I got 61 of these ‘loves’ before I cut off my transmission, somewhat awkwardly because I couldn’t find the stop button.
Stray Observations
- Periscope is ridiculously easy to use.
- People like to say, “Hey” to break the ice.
- People like to tell you where they are watching from.
- People want to control the broadcast (tell you what to do).
- People will watch anything.
- Trolls are everywhere.
If you aren’t familiar with Periscope, it’s basically Skype or FaceTime. Except it’s not at all Skype or FaceTime. Instead of one-to-one (or one-to-few) video chat, it’s a live one-to-everyone broadcast. The real-time, fleeting aspect of it makes the broadcast much more urgent. If you want to participate, you have to watch now. And you’ll only have re-play access for 24-hours.
What if you could see through the eyes of a protester in Ukraine? Or watch the sunrise from a hot air balloon in Cappadocia? It may sound crazy, but we wanted to build the closest thing to teleportation. While there are many ways to discover events and places, we realized there is no better way to experience a place right now than through live video. A picture may be worth a thousand words, but live video can take you someplace and show you around. — Periscope
This is an entirely different mindset than traditional chat applications, and it’s almost surprising that this is just catching on now. But like most trends, it is a confluence of technology and cultural preparedness. Remember when watching a short video on the internet was impossibly slow? Now people are streaming HD movies from Netflix. Remember when it seemed ludicrous to share what you were having for breakfast? Now people are pinning, tweeting, instagramming and facebooking everything.
Remember We Live In Public? In 1993, Josh Harris founded Pseudo, a live audio and video webcasting website. In 2000, Harris created a bunker in New York with 24-hr surveillance cameras wired to the internet. One-hundred people volunteered to live there and be perpetually watched, until the ‘art project’ was shut down by the NYPD. Harris then wired his loft with cameras, and broadcast his personal life until his girlfriend left him and he suffered an emotional breakdown.
Harris, and then other live-streaming life-bloggers like Justin.tv and iJustine, laid the cultural foundation and societal preparedness for live broadcasting. Cheaper more powerful processors, faster wireless access, and smaller cameras — all available in every modern smartphone — have created the ubiquity.
Periscope (recently acquired by Twitter for an unconfirmed $120 million) calls their product “a visual pulse of what’s happening right now.” It launched yesterday (March 26, 2015).
Meerkat, Periscope’s competition, has been around for a few weeks now, gaining momentum from its widespread use at SxSW, Houston’s annual film, music, and interactive festival. I have it on my phone, but haven’t tried it yet.
Today I watched a short Periscope video by David Armano, where he talked about his son being called ‘ratboy’ by the audience yesterday. One commenter suggested that Periscope is like public school, and Meerkat is like private school. It’s still far too early to tell, but one thing is clear: the live-stream is going mainstream.
[UPDATE: I just watched David Armano live-scold his 12-year-old son for trolling the above broadcast with the comment, “boring!”]
Things I’ve Seen on Periscope
- Crowded night-life on a Vietnam street.
- David Armano hiking with his family somewhere (I’m not stalking David, we just worked at the same company years ago).
- A young woman fielding questions while members of her audience told her she was ugly and asked her to take off her shirt.
- A man watching TV and grinning persistently into the camera.
- A man filming his girlfriend studying and giggling to himself while she asked him what he was doing.
- A lot of different people broadcasting themselves watching Family Guy.
- A channel called “I don’t want to live” which I did not click on and desperately tried to forget as soon as I saw it.
- A channel called “I am having sex right now” which I also did not click on (but was kind of curious).
- A surge in questions asking, “What’s in your fridge?” or “Show us your fridge!”
- People in robot costumes dancing in Tokyo.
- Leo Laporte embarrassing kids in the backseat of his car by singing along to Uptown Funk on the radio.
- mcbess drawing a floating head on his laptop until his screensaver came on with the message ‘sexual
- John Hodgman fixing his hair and answering questions like “Would you rather have a fish for a hand or a cloud for a foot?”
- My friend Scott Weisbrod walking around the San Antonio airport.
- Chris Hadfield in a recording studio mixing space music.
- My wife taking Sadie the Blue Frenchie to the vet.
Notice any common themes? Neither do I. It’s like powering through a billion channels with the clicker. Forget what’s on tv? Try what’s on the internet? The answer: everything.
Stray Thoughts
Our laws have not kept up with this technology. So many things are going to be (and have been) streamed without people’s permission or knowledge. What happens at the scene of an accident? At a party with underage kids? With a ‘sex tape’? With spying? With suicides? With public shaming? With abuse? Basically anyone could be broadcasting anything anywhere at any time.
I have positive thoughts too. The implications for education, entertainment, social justice, politics, and news are huge. And we’re truly only a few weeks into this mess.
Stay tuned…
