Webcams allow view of campus on World Wide Web
The cameras raise slight
concerns about privacy
hut will remain online
By Tricia Schwennesen
Oregon Daily Emerald
People interested in the Univer
sity can get a bird’s-eye view of stu
dents and the campus — right from
the comfort of their own homes.
Anyone can see the University
by visiting several Web sites that
display real-time images from
cameras around campus.
The newest camera peers down
on the Lawrence Hall courtyard
from a third story window in
Allen Hall, relaying images on the
journalism school’s home page at
http:// jcomm.uoregon.edu.
Josh Hough, a senior journalism
major and Webmaster for the jour
nalism school home page, said
the Allen Hall camera is an exper
iment he plans to develop further,
The webcam has been operat
ing for about a month. This self
proclaimed webcam buff said he
got the idea from another Univer
sity webcam operated by Craig
Hickman, associate professor ol
fine and applied arts.
Hickman's camera, which has
been transmitting for nearly five
years, faces north over Franklin
Boulevard from a second story mez
zanine window in Lawrence Hall.
The Lawrence Hall camera
shoots one frame per minute in
color and is broadcast live on the
Internet at http:// camera2.uore
gon.edu/webcam/ webcam. h t m 1.
Hickman said he liked the idea
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of “real time.”
“It’s kind of like magic to see
some place in the world, right
now," Hickman said. "It’s just the
idea that you could see someplace
— maybe a non-special place. It
gives people the opportunity to
see something new.”
Every once in a while, the com
puter network crashes, leaving
the camera disabled. Hickman
said he once received a phone call
from a student’s parent in anoth
er state. The parent was actually
depending on the camera to show
a picture of the student as a sur
prise for his father’s birthday.
“All over the world, every few
minutes, someone from somewhere
is looking at it,” Hickman said. “One
of the things I wanted with my cam
era was a high-quality image. ”
Hough's camera in Allen hall
captures one frame per second —
which is almost full-motion video
compared to other webcams.
Movie videos run at 15 to 30
frames per second.
“You can’t do that on the Inter
net yet because there’s just not
enough speed,” Hough said.
According to an article in the
The Oregonian, webcam technol
ogy is developing more quickly
than online legal regulations or
even ethical concerns.
“I don’t really think there’s any
thing wrong with it unless people
are zooming in on women in their
dorms or something," said Selena
Brewington, a computer science
and information technology major.
Tim Gleason, dean of the journal
ism school, said the webcam is not
an invasion of students’ privacy.
“It’s simply a camera trained on
a public area,” Gleason said.
“They give you a look at the cam
pus — a real-time look at the Uni
versity of Oregon.”
Gleason said Hough’s camera is
not being used for surveillance,
and there are no means of storing
the images.
"It’s as if you walked by that
window right at that moment,”
Gleason said.
Hough said most of the people
he has talked to think the webcam
is neat. Only one person ex
pressed “some slight concern
about privacy,” he said.
“I don’t really agree with that,”
Hough said. “You can’t really see that
much — it's not like you can identify
anyone’s face as they walk by.”
Brewington, Hough and Hick
man all agree that the situation
would be different if webcam
quality was better.
Hickman said he reconsidered
his webcam when he moved of
fices from Lawrence Hall to a
ground-level office on the Mill
Race. But the webcam stayed be
hind in his old office.
"As long as I’ve been looking at
it, I’ve never been able to recog
nize anyone I knew,” Hickman
said.
If the camera was placed on the
ground level, identifying people
who passed by would be easier.
"I’m not sure it would be
wrong, it would just be different,”
Hickman said.
Brewington said he believes we
bcams are just a novelty for people
who like looking at other people.
“The resolution is bad, and you
can’t really tell who’s walking
by,” Brewington said.
Hough said unless he receives
some serious complaints, he will
continue with his webcam experi
ment.
Law
Continued from Page 1
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