Watch live video from jonray on Justin.tv

Watch live video from jonray on Justin.tv

It was great to meet all of the new people and share drinks and laughs with the many friends I already knew. I’m looking forward to the next mixer and the next excuse to have too many martinis. Be sure to head over to my blog to see what kind of social media jive I’m talking this week. If you’d like to do a live interview with me, shoot me an e.mail and we’ll schedule it out.

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I’m now 10 days into my lifecasting, social media experiment for 2008 and last night an interesting thing happened. Someone that had been watching my lifecast actually showed up at the venue I was at and we hung out in person. Now, fortunately this particular “fan” was non-threatening, cute and a cool person. But, this brings up the inevitable question that lifecasting presents, “Can this ever get dangerous?”

This was always the big threat when MySpace first got so popular and back in 2005 I wrote about it in one of my better blog posts entitled, “e.Love at night in my parents basement…” The concepts and preconceived notions that I wrote about back in 2005 seem to slowly be melting away. Our lives are becoming more and more open and because of this our lives are increasingly becoming easier and easier to manage. But, now we have a new invasion of privacy in lifecasting. Thus far, I’ve heard many mixed opinions on whether lifecasting is a good or bad thing. Many are indifferent and have no opinion what so ever. Is it dirty to watch someone else live their life, or is this merely the next logical step for reality television?

Further more, when complete strangers start showing up to events where I’m at and know everything about me, when I know nothing about them, should I be concerned. Or should I embrace this contact and add it to my ever expanding list of people that can help me live a better and more efficient life? The Austin Poetry Slam last night was a great experience and has encouraged me to start reading some of my own prose. The girl who met up with us there seemed to enjoy herself and had never been to a Poetry Slam before. So, do I feel awkward or weird about her showing up unexpected? Not in the slightest. I’m glad she got to experience something that I enjoy in person, just like I’m glad that everyone that tuned in to my live broadcast got to experience something I enjoy, remotely. Maybe, lifecasting is really about spreading culture to people that may not be familiar, or spreading ideas to the people who want to hear them. I don’t necessarily live a different life than you or your friends, unless of course you’re tuning in from India. Then, I’m sure the differences are infinite.

I guess my new mission is to just live the way I want to and hope that people enjoy it. I am trying to make this thing more entertaining and my goal is to live broadcast more and more events as they come up. I’m currently reading “The 4-hour Workweek” by Timothy Ferriss and trying to implement many of the concepts he writes about into my own life. This will, in theory, cut back on the time I spend in front of the computer and provide me more income and more time to go and do interesting things that you might find of interest. So, with that said, take a look at my live broadcast. Judge me. Provide feedback to the things that I do and do not do and give advice to live better. Take my archive footage and cut it into stupid videos that make me look like an idiot. The possibilities are endless and you feedback is encouraged and necessary. So, let’s hear it!

And for the record, I don’t think lifecasting is dangerous as long as you’re using it responsibly…whatever that means.

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*What am I supposed to be doing with this thing?

I’ve been lifecasting for about a week now and it’s amazing how I have completely forgotten that I am even wearing the camera, most of the time. It’s also amazing how little I’ve changed my life in an attempt to play up the camera. I am not currently doing any active promotion (why?), or making any real attempt to provide compelling content most of the time. Thus far, I have simply been living my life and hoping people tune in to the channel. So, my question is, “Does it bother me that very few people are watching?”

The short answer is yes, with shades of gray. What I don’t mind is that not many people are tuning in, but what I do mind is those who are tuning in and upset that I’m not doing something awesome 24 hours a day. I write several blogs, edit videos, write and make phone calls for a living. There are going to be plenty of times that I’m sitting in front of a computer and that’s what you’re going to see me doing. While I do try to crank up the tunes from time to time, occasionaly I have to ignore the camera and finish some actual work.

Would I mind having more viewers? Of course not! I wish everyone in the world watched me all day long. That’s how into myself I am. : ) As an experiment, I really went into this thing without the slightest idea of how it would turn out. So far, it’s been pretty uneventful, except that I can rewatch how stupid I sound when I’m drunk. I suppose that’s a good thing. Maybe it will convince me that it’s not such a good thing to drink those five margaritas on a Sunday night. But, maybe that’s what the people want to see? I don’t know. Is the Justin.tv video format really only successful if you take on a self-destructive, Jackass broadcasting formula?

Here are few things that I’m going to try and start doing to gain more viewership and hopefully bring a little bit of value to the viewer with this technology. Some of these things are no brainers and should be applied to all forms of broadcasting, but seeing as I haven’t implimented any of them, I’m going to list them as a way to remind myself, if no one else.

10 Things That Might Make Your Lifecasting Better:

1. Have a call in show that allows viewers to interact with you. Do this show on a regularly scheduled basis.
2. Schedule out events, so that people know when you’ll be doing something other than sitting at your computer.
3. Go interesting places that most people don’t get to experience.
4. Address the camera more often. People are watching you instead of reality television for the opportunity to interact with you.
5. Treat lifecasting like any other form of social media and use it to start conversations. Building relationships is the most important part of any social media campaign.
6. Figure out who the people watching you are and what they want to see. If you share any common ground, try to meet them there.
7. Introduce other charaters, other than yourself. An ensemble cast makes your life much more interesting.
8. Give away prizes for tuning in. This sounds like a stupid, even sleezy way to pull in viewers, but people love free stuff. Even a matchbox signed by a waitress can be a fun momento if the person is really a fan.
9. Have other people run the camera from time to time. This adds a little professionalism and it never hurts to have someone direct you to do entertaining things.
10. Ask people questions and let them answer. If you want to know something, ask it and make sure to get the answer on camera.

Ultimately, this is my attempt to actually do something useful with this whole lifecasting thing, instead of pretending that you care to watch me sing along with the radio during commutes. I hope to add some of all of these things to my broadcast and more. What would you like to see happen in my lifecast (life)? How should I be utilizing this technology in a way that is entertaining or interesting to you? Where should this go from here? Your ideas, comments and critiques are welcomed.

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