July 20, 2010 by Jen
Imagine an internet site with hardly any rules, direct chat and video access to millions of people all over the web, and no guidelines, governance or policies. Sounds like anarchy, right? Welcome to Chatroulette. It’s available right now, and it’s becoming the greatest craze to sweep the web in a very long time.
Chatroulette is a simple idea, with a simple set-up and interface. A user launches the site (www.chatroulette.com), and the interface connects with their video and microphone. From there, the user is immediately hooked up with another user online, from anywhere in the world. And then they chat.
Hailed as the new punk movement for the online generation, Chatroulette only has three rules. Users must remain fully clothed at all times, must be over sixteen, and must alert the site administrators if they see something which makes them uncomfortable, by pressing the F2 button. And that’s it. Beyond that, it’s a no-holds-barred kind of place where anything goes.
Utilizing Adobe Flash software to run, Chatroulette is a very simple, low-key programme, which enables a wide simultaneous uptake from users. It connects chatters through a unified IP address, meaning that traffic does not have to travel through the Chatroulette hosting site.
Developed by Andrey Ternovskiy, Chatroulette’s primary appeal isits sheer, unadulterated pointlessness. You can’t make friends through the service, nor sell anything, nor forge lasting relationships. It is simply designed to connect people, briefly, and then disconnect them. Ternovskiy is already getting requests from the big-hitting internet moguls asking for him to sell the product to enable it to be further developed.
It remains to be seen whether Ternovskiy will sell out, or remain true to his rather rebellious roots and keep Chatroulette as a low-impact, high-scandal site. Regardless of the future of the site, it seems that the social media has evolved to a new level of interaction and ungoverned communication.
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