A group of IMCers (Carly Kouba, Ann Kuo, Yulia Kurdina, Sunny Oh, Lakshmi Rengarajan and Zack Smith) started “5 Girls and a Guy” as their social media project, lifecasting their lives as IMC students. Inevitably, many other classmates got involved as some clamored for their 15 seconds of fame, while others religiously avoided the webcam. Though the project was started in the name of fun, it’s interesting to think about the potential that lifecasting may have. Archived episodes are still at their Web site, though the team has taken a break. We’d love to hear more of your thoughts on this, and if we have enough support, maybe we can convince the team to continue lifecasting! In the meantime, here are a few words from Ann Kuo…
1. How did you discover lifecasting?
“Our classmate Zack actually introduced this concept to the rest of the group. A couple years ago a guy named Justin Kan started wearing a webcam on his head and streaming footage from it 24/7. He coined the term “lifecasting,” a pun off broadcasting your life. Justin wasn’t the first person to do this, however –JenniCam might ring a bell to early voyeurs of the 1990s — but Justin did take this concept to another level, both in the 24/7 streaming and in developing a lifecasting Web site which we used, JustinTV.com.”
2. Tell me about a funny experience while doing this project.
“You never know who your audience will be. We broadcasted a few times from class. Because there is a chat feature on our site, sometimes the viewers will engage in conversation about what they see. We had some very amusing feedback about the purpose of marketing, the attractiveness of people in our class, and so on. Strangely enough, we had some of our highest numbers of viewers during class time. Can you imagine the ramifications this might have for professional development?
On a personal level, I found it amusing when some of my friends logged in the night I was supposed to sleep on camera. Very curious friends! It was 4 a.m. in the morning and they were waiting for me to go to sleep. I had just thrown a party and was cleaning up the apartment, but they were waiting patiently, even at that hour… One of my friends in Seattle kept asking, “Are you going to sleep soon?” because that meant HE would be getting to sleep soon.”
3. What potential do you think lifecasting has in terms of marketing/advertising IMC?
“Strong potential. On the corporate side, there’s opportunity for recruiting people through broadcasting “days in the life,” promoting the brand experience and even cultural exchange. You can archive important conversations for retrieval anytime– of course, that can also be a liability if someone else finds your brainstorm about a billion-dollar idea 
. For marketing our own program, Admissions could feature episodes showing life in Evanston and of course, student life — committee work, social events, guest speakers and company presentations.”
……….Rachelle Goh
