The creators of online calendar Kiko, which had its $260,000 pay-day through an eBay auction, have decided to return: and this time it is with an idea that’s so different that there’s no threat of Google coming late in the game, beating them up, and getting them to sell out. It’s Justin.tv, and it’s the Truman Show of Web 2.0.
Funded by Paul Graham’s VC firm YCombinator, the site features the CEO, Justin, with a live webcam attached to him 24 hours a day. Users can watch his webcam on the site and interact with him as he progresses in his day to day life. As of this writing, the site’s been live for 2 days and 21 hours. Users can also chat to each other on the website and interact with Justin through his Twitter, MySpace and Facebook account. What’s more, Justin isn’t where this whole thing ends: their looking for people with interesting enough lives who’d be willing to have their own show on the Internet and a video pack attached to their ear 24 hours a day.
I definitely think this is an interesting idea and it’s sure to attract attention from Digg and the blogosphere — if not TV shows and news channels — but I’m wondering if this idea is a bit too far out or ‘too good to actually work.’ I can’t imagine someone watching one of these for more than 5 minutes until they get bored of figuring out what’s going on, but I’ll also mention that the way it’s structured (mini-chapters; see “Previously on Justin.tv”) and the amount of interestingness in Justin’s (and upcoming lifecasters) lives, it could be bigger than you think.
