>Why are we doing this?
Our research group is interested in the use of technology for development. We are building a low-cost, low-power cell phone base station platform for deployment in underserved areas. Once you set up your own cell phone tower, you can do a lot of cool things, like run a chatroulette service.
In this particular project, we are studying how choice and context affect the quality of online interactions. We will be deploying this service in a small isolated cell phone network at an upcoming event where we expect to have several thousand users. We're hoping the Internet can help us test how our system performs under load before the real deployment so we can work out all the bugs.
Sounds like a psych study to me...
I am sure there is a wide swath of youth though who would think this is fun/funny... I just cannot say that they would have anything in common with myself.
You know what would be an interesting pivot on this though;
ServiceRoulette:
You need a service - and you have the system connect you randomly with that service over the phone. Afterwards - you rate your experience and the connected service gets a weighting.
This could be used for reservations, support, plumbers, whatever - where the people need a service and there are lots of options to choose from.
You seed the service with info from sites like Yelp weighting the connection based on proximity to the caller and the positive reviews on Yelp.
They basically put their service order in on a page and receive a call from the provider.
They could set a "ill pay X for Y service" sort of thing as well...
Anyway, jsut being randomly connected to a creep for voice chat just seems like a waste of energy...
Previous post...
I didn't try very hard to promote it so it never passed the tipping point for adoption; too many people called in and had no one to talk to.
Sadly, the inability to moderate the system has left the vast population disenchanted with the service. Branding yourself with Chatroulette will only bring along that baggage and negative opinion.
Not that I wouldn't have fun mining the transcripts.
fyi, there is an Omegle iphone app.
