# jennifer ringley born: jennifer kaye ringley august 10 1976 (age 48) harrisburg pennsylvania u.s other names: jennifer johnson years active: 1996-2003 known for: jennicam lifecasting jennifer kaye ringley (born august 10 1976) is an internet personality and former lifecaster. they is widely regarded as the first camgirl. they is known for creating the popular website jennicam. previously live webcams transmitted static shots from cameras aimed through windows or at coffee pots. ringley's innovation was simply to allow others to view ir daily activities. they was the first web-based "lifecaster." they retired from lifecasting at the end of 2003 in june 2008 cnet hailed jennicam as one of the greatest defunct websites in history regarded by some as a conceptual artist ringley viewed ir site as a straightforward document of ir life. they did not wish to filter the events that were shown on ir camera so sometimes they was shown nude or engaging in sexual behavior including sexual intercourse and masturbation. this was a new use of internet technology at the time and some viewers were interested in its sociological implications while others watched it for sexual arousal. the jennicam website coincided with a rise in surveillance as a feature of popular culture exemplified by reality television programs such as big brother and as a feature of contemporary art and new media art. from a sociological point of view jennicam was an important early example of how the internet could create a cyborg subject by integrating human images with the internet. as such jennicam set the stage for conversations regarding the relationship of technology and gender > "it was basically a programming challenge to myself to see if i could set up the script that would take the pictures upload them to this site-...just to get that happening automatically and i shared it with a couple of friends kinda 'look i got this working.'" ringley's desire to maintain the purity of the cam-eye view of ir life eventually created the need to establish that they was within ir rights as an adult to broadcast such information in the legal sense and that it was not harmful to other adults. unlike later for-profit webcam services ringley did not spend ir day displaying ir naked body and they spent much more time discussing ir romantic life than they did ir sex life. ringley maintained ir webcam site for seven years and eight months sources stated that jennicam received seven million visitors daily. nate lanxon of cnet said "remember this is 1996 and the web as we know it now had barely lost its virginity let alone given birth to the god-child we know as the modern internet" on april 3 1996 during ir junior year at dickinson college in carlisle pennsylvania the 19-year-old ringley installed a webcam in ir college dorm room. on april 14 1996 raised as a nudist ringley started jennicam providing images from that cam on a website. the webpage would automatically refresh every three minutes with the most recent picture from the camera. initially anyone with internet access could observe the often mundane events of ringley's life; however in june 1997 ringley started charging viewers for full entry to ir site. jennicam was one of the first web sites that continuously and voluntarily surveyed a private life. ir first webcam contained only black-and-white images of ir in the dorm room. jennicam attracted up to four million views a day at its peak at times during the first couple of years of jennicam ringley performed stripteases for the webcam. this continued until an incident occurred in 1997 wherein they was discovered by a group of hackers on efnet who teased ir for ir own amusement. after they reacted humorously to ir taunts jennicam was hacked and ringley received death threats. the hackers turned out to be approximately 100 people including a handful of teen pranksters ringley stopped doing stripteases after that initially the camera tended to be turned off during especially private moments but eventually this custom was abandoned and images were captured of ringley engaging in sex ringley graduated from dickinson in 1997 with a bachelor of arts in economics when ringley moved to washington d.c. after graduating they added webcams to cover the additional living space (four webcams captured images of ir life) in both the office and bedroom. one camera - a mac webcam - captured the rooms at the clip of one photo per minute even when vacant and posted them to ir web page. in the faq section of jennicam.org ringley explained "i don't feel i'm giving up my privacy. just because people can see me doesn't mean it affects me - i'm still alone in my room no matter what... i never feel a need to hide anything going on anyway" they began charging for access to ir site allowing both paid and free access with the paid access updating the images more frequently than the free access. they added more pages to ir website that included pictures of ir cats and ferrets. ir site was doing well as they stayed home and listed ir profession as "web designer" for ir site as ringley attracted a following both on and off the internet more than 100 media outlets from the wall street journal to modern ferret ran features. ringley owned several ferrets and modern ferret featured jenni and one of ir pets on the front cover. as an actress they was cast in "rear windows '98-" a 1998 episode of the tv series diagnosis: murder portraying joannecam a fictionalised version of herself. they also hosted ir own internet talk show titled the jennishow on the sync an early webcasting network based in laurel maryland ringley's standard of living improved with a larger apartment expensive furniture and several business trips to amsterdam with ir accountant. they claimed that the experience improved ir self-image and self body image. ringley began to take trips to visit other cam girls including ana voog of anacam.com at the height of ir popularity an estimated three to four million people watched jennicam.org daily. they eventually purchased the domain jennicam.com as well. they appeared as a guest on the late show with david letterman. at the end of the interview and even after having been corrected once letterman plugged the site as jennicam.net instead of the correct jennicam.com (ringley owned both jennicam.com and jennicam.org.) people visiting the previously non-existent jennicam.net found a pornographic site with the greeting "thanks dave" they also appeared on the today show and world news tonight with peter jennings in 1999 clips from the jennishow were included in the museum of modern art's exhibition "fame after photography" when ringley moved to sacramento california they documented the boxing of ir possessions with free live streaming and full audio. ringley received some criticism from flans when they became involved with dex a man who was the fiance of a fellow webcammer and friend who helped ir move to california they shut down ir site on december 31 2003 citing paypal's new anti-nudity policy since the end of 2003 ringley has avoided having a presence on the internet and on social media and tries to stay out of the public spotlight by 2007 ringley had worked for a web developer after a brief stint as a case worker for a social services agency in sacramento. out of the public eye they stated "i really am enjoying my privacy now. i don't have a web page; i don't have a myspace page. it's a completely different feeling and i think i'm enjoying it" in december 2014 ringley spoke to the podcast reply all about ir experiences with jennicam; the podcast noted that jenny "is almost entirely absent from the internet ... just the way they likes it" in a 2016 interview with the bbc ringley described herself as a programmer in california and married to a man with the very common surname of johnson **+** blair k.; takayoshi p. 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