Response to Brandon
by Streak
posted with permission from Streak
I just ran across your article at
http://cism.bus.utexas.edu/issues/issue406/comment30.html and would like
to comment on it if you don't mind :)
"(At this stage, the only way to find reflectors is to look at a list on a
web page, and most of those reflectors will not work.)"
Actually, my reflector scanner has been operating since September, 1996.
It scans a list of reflectors (which anyone can add new ones to) and then
updates the list accordingly. It detects active reflectors, allows you to
save the list to a format that a number of CU-SeeMe versions can directly
import. It also allows you to scan a few reflectors to show who's on them
as well as perform IP lookups on the people on them and InterNIC searches
on their domains. The reflector scanner is also used by reflector
operators to manage their reflectors. Check it out if you want.. It's at
http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/cgi-bin/cgiwrap/streak/scan
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"Many of the reflectors, of course, are pornographic, and you have to pay
to get in. (The reflectors will send you a message to go to their home
page on the web, and make sure you have a credit card handy.)"
Not true..Out of the 180 or so active reflectors in my scanner only about
20-30 or so of them are adult. Even fewer (about 10 or so) charge money
for anything but ALL of the reflectors in my scanner offer a conference
for the public. As far as being directed to a web page, yeah..That's
true. But not necessarily for credit card info. A lot of them have rules
on the web page for the reflector. I've been running a reflector at the
University since late 1993/early 1994. I've had a URL there for awhile
and I don't charge anything. I think I removed it recently due to space
limitations on the MOTD.
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"When you finally get on an operational, free reflector, your screen
will start to display several windows showing the faces (in full-motion
video, although very jerky and slow) of all of the people on the reflector
that have cameras."
It's only jerky and slow because most people these days use CU-SeeMe on a
modem. Limited bandwidth means slower connections. If you had gotten on
about three years before you posted that article (It appears to be dated
March 28, 1997), you would have seen a much different CU-SeeMe. Virtually
everyone back then were on T1s and T3s so video was MUCH smoother.
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"Of course, as I was pondering ways that a properly managed and marketed
reflector site might make an interesting business,"
It's already being done..But for the most part, it's in the adult industry
where people will pay by the minute to see women in various states of
undress. You have to consider the fact that it costs money for bandwidth.
Educational institutes such as the University would never want to turn
CU-SeeMe into a business because it doesn't get paid. Businesses are
already using CU-SeeMe (and the MeetingPoint Conferencing Server available
from White Pine with CU-SeeMe) to offer tech support and other services
such as streaming vid to its customers.
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"a window popped open on my screen, and the user had aimed the camera at
something other than his face. (Sorry, don't know how else to get my
point across.) After visiting a few more reflector sites, I learned that,
at each of them, it was only a matter of time before something like that
happened."
Of course it's only a matter of time...The same way it's only a matter of
time before admins discover pornography on their computers from the users.
But you can always close the person's vid and they go away in that aspect.
There's also been a drive towards getting refmons...people who watch and
control access to the reflector and are there a lot. My reflector has a
few people that I trust. Others are in similar situations to try and
minimize the situation you found.
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"Now, I'm not convinced that the technology has any really valuable use,
other than business teleconferencing (ie. using CU-SeeMe as a kind of
visual conference call.)"
I have to disagree...I've been with CU-SeeMe almost since it started.
I've watched it change and evolve into something no one could ever
imagine. There's people like me who love using it to videoconference with
friends on my reflector and make contacts outside the country and in other
continents. The "valuable use" it has is to extend friendships and make
new friendships possible. It's sort of an extension to text-based
conferencing like all the talkers, muds. mushes, IRC, etc. Instead of
just text, we now have live vid of people. It broadens the entire aspect
of meeting people online. It allows them to interact in ways no one could
have imagined even just 10 years ago.
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"I really can't think of a way that the problem of the public reflectors
can be solved."
Read above...There are programs out there now (my reflector scanner and
Refmarshal) that allow reflector operators to let others monitor and
control their reflector more easily. People DON'T have to put up with
nudity on public G-rated reflectors if they don't have to. Also, most
public reflectors tend to stay empty. Everyone flocks to 20-30 reflectors
out there while the rest stay empty. There ARE ways to solve the plight
of the public reflector. I've watched the "adult" activity come and go.
It's easy for the crowd on a reflector to persuade the adult activity to
cease as well. So, in short...it IS being taken care of at least on a
handful of reflectors (the more popular reflectors).
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"And, maybe the same problem exists (although, thankfully, not visually)
with web communities in an all-text environment: you just don't have any
idea who you are talking to until it is too late."
You can bet it exists...It's just a matter of delayed notification. Net
communication with strangers means you only tell people what you want to
tell them. The same is true for both CU-SeeMe (and videoconferencing
products in general) as well as text-based mediums. In fact, you might
argue that it could potentially happen a lot more in text-based
environments because it's easier to "hide" behind an identity.
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Anyway...just wanted to comment...since I found your page while searching
the UT Austin pages. :)
--
August 1998
