Waxy.org is the sandbox of Andy Baio, an independent journalist and programmer living in Portland, Oregon. I created Upcoming.org and some other stuff too.

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Celebrity Moblogging

Posted Jul 2, 2003

Someone should make a moblogging site where users can post celebrity sighting photos from their phone or PDA, along with a brief description of where they're posting from.

The closest I could find was this NYC-specific SMS group, which seems to be focused on text messages instead of photoblogging.

July 9, 2003: Joe pointed me to TextAmerica, a site that allows anyone to create a mobile photoblog ("mophos" or "moblogs"), so I created a new one for Celeb Sightings. Anyone can post to it by e-mailing their photos to celeb.sighting@tamw.com from their mobile phone. Get to it, people!

August 12, 2003: Buzznet.com has a celebrity moblogging page that people are actively using. Lyle Lovett, Janet Jackson, Jay Leno, and Randy Newman are some of the current highlights.

11 Comments (Add Yours)

Jul 2, 2003
12:17 PM

M wrote:

Ooo! We could call it Stalker.com ... Paparazzi.org?

Seriously thought, as interesting as it might be, you'd find people in the area flocking to the sites to catch a glimpse, and I'd imagine most celebs get that all too often anyway.

Jul 2, 2003
4:00 PM

Joe wrote:

This is inevitable.

I believe it's in Snow Crash (now a 10 year old book) that there's this concept of "lobsters" - people outfitted with cameras and computers who simply upload everything they see to the net - walking webcams I suppose. Called lobsters because the gear they carry was bulky I suppose.

But with phonecams and a hiptop, I suppose you don't need much more than that. A keyboard, gps, a camera, a net connection. This is everything an instant netpaparazzi would ever need.

Report: Here's Cameron Diaz falling out of her top at House of Blues 2 minutes ago [photo][timestamp GMT]

So looking ahead, I'm sure we can look forward to a picture hitting the net, and instantly being farked all round, photoshopped, and blogged.

Information society? You're soaking in it!

Jul 2, 2003
6:03 PM

boogah wrote:

joe: if i remember correctly the term wasn't "lobsters" it was "gargoyles".

Jul 3, 2003
4:41 AM

superpower.us wrote:

Dammit, ever since i walked behind Mick Jagger in New York one afternoon last year I knew this was inevitable, but where is it? this will surely pop up as phonecams proliferate. Great post!

Jul 3, 2003
8:52 AM

Joe Crawford wrote:

More on this today: a post to interesting people.

Jul 3, 2003
7:49 PM

superpower.us wrote:

celesnapper (mentioned in today's NYTimes purports just this. http://www.prweb.com/releases/2002/10/prweb48536.php)

Jul 9, 2003
7:38 AM

Tim wrote:

Andy, I don't think that phones with cameras are common enough yet for that to happen.

Jul 9, 2003
7:50 AM

Andy Baio wrote:

Give it a year. This is a movement that isn't going away.

Jul 9, 2003
11:17 AM

Joe wrote:

And here's a company (based here in san diego apparently) called textamerica which provides this service.

This schtuff is way hot right now. Lots of people getting phonecams.

boingboing is often talking about this stuff as well.

Jul 11, 2003
12:47 PM

Jonah wrote:

Buzznet.com has similar stuff too, here's one of psuedo celeb, Angeline:

http://la.buzznet.com/cat/?img=8

Aug 12, 2003
1:32 PM

sean bonner wrote:

don't miss: http://sighted.textamerica.com

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Celebrity Moblogging

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