There is something similarly strange and disembodied about viewing an intimate live scenario of people busily active, via an interactive web cam such as this. You can look anywhere you want, zoom in to a detailed close-up, yet the people in the office pay you no attention and may not even know that you are "there", or wherever it is you are . . .

Comments? Does the web cam make you feel enabled, or does it make you feel cut off?

Well, they have to know [that you are looking in].  I just had a good look round, there  were 3 people in the office (at what hour? 7:34pm, 8:34, 9:34?).  Two guys, slaving away thoughtfully at screens, and a women in  black leotards, with a beer bottle in hand, walking around and  gesturing theatrically.  Must be an interesting place to work...

If you turn all the way left, "you" face a window, and since it  was dark out, I could see "myself," i.e. the camera.  It isn't  boxed or anything.  So when it slews, which it must do a lot,  there has to be a bit of a whine or buzz, and a motion in the  corner of the eye.

So they know. Whenever the camera moves, somebody somewhere is looking.

Also, a lot of care has gone into making the office walls  "interesting."  There is *stuff* everywhere, and I bet one motive  for hanging/piling all that crap was to give the peepers something  to see, to establish themselves as free-spirited nerds to the world.

Hmmm again. Looking around some more, there are just a LOT of  people around there, and now it isn't the same ones at the same desks.

Could these be canned images?  Could this be a *simulation* of  a real-life camera?  How would you know?  How much time would you  have to spend to catch them in an inconsistency or repeat? (There's  no visible clock that I saw.) And who has that much life to waste?

>Does the web cam make you feel enabled, or does it make you feel cut off?

As you can tell, it makes me feel suspicious and manipulated.