| Jennifer Ringley |
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| CATEGORIES ABOUT JENNICAM | |
| 1976 births | |
| ringley, jennifer kaye | |
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| dickinson college alumni | |
| ringley, jennifer | |
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JenniCam was a popular Website whose main feature was several Webcam s that allowed Internet users to observe the life of a young woman, '''Jennifer Ringley'''. In April of 1996 , during her junior year at Dickinson College , Ringley installed a webcam in her College Dorm room, and provided images from that cam on a Webpage . The webpage would automatically refresh every three minutes with the most recent picture from the camera. Anyone with Internet access could observe Ringley as she went about her daily life. JenniCam was one of the first web sites that continuously and voluntarily surveyed a private life. Her first webcam contained only black and white images of her in the dorm room, but this was exciting to many netcitizens since it was a new technology in 1996. Ringley states that the site was an attempt to document her life. She did not wish to filter the events that were shown on her camera, so sometimes she was shown Nude or engaging in Sexual Behavior with boyfriends such as longtime live-in boyfriend, Geoffrey (also known as Geoff). Jenni attracted a following both on and off the internet. Vegetarians particularly were interested in Jenni because she was a vegetarian, at one point. Jenni owned several ferrets and "Ferret Magazine" featured Jenni and one of her ferrets on the cover of their magazine. Years later, Jenni appeared topless and even nude in "Celebrity Sleuth," an adult magazine featuring B and C class celebrities. The nude photos were taken by an amateur photographer, while the topless photos were taken by her boyfriend Geoffrey. Jenni even appeared in an episode of the show Diagnosis Murder . Ringley maintained her webcam site for seven years. After she graduated from Dickinson, the site moved with her to Washington, D.C. and later to Sacramento, California . After leaving the college dorm, she moved to housing that consisted of more than one room, so she added webcams to cover the additional living space (four webcams captured images of her life). Eventually, she started to charge for access to her site. She added more pages to her website that included pictures of her cats and ferrets. Her site was doing well as she stayed home and claimed her profession to be a "web designer" for her site. In the beginning, viewers liked watching her at the computer or lying in the large comfy purple chair watching television. A new larger apartment, expensive furniture and several trips to Amsterdam were made with the money from the cam. Jenni said that the larger apartment was needed because she had six computers which she needed more room to house. She began to take trips to visit other cam girls, including Ana Voog of Anacam.com. She also travelled to Amsterdam with her accountant several times. She said that the trips to Amsterdam were business trips as well. These sudden changes caused some viewers to become resentful of Jenni. Although they wanted her to be home to be on cam, they were jealous that she loafed around her apartment by watching television or using the computer. On usenet - alt.fan.jennicam and Peeping Moe's Bulletin Boards, viewers complained and critized Ringley. They were surprised that she had so many paying members and wasn't doing anything but being aloof in her home. Jenni hired some friends to assist her with the webcam. Josh became a manager and would change the guest cam views, while Jodie became her accountant. At the height of her popularity, an estimated three to four million people watched JenniCam.org daily. Jenni eventually purchased the domain jennicam.com as well. Parody sites arose as Jennicam became more popular as well. One known one was jonnicam.com, the life of a cat who pooped in a litter box. The Sync (http://www.thesync.com) was one of the first places where video appeared on the Internet. Carla and her husband, Tom owned the Sync and hosted many shows including The Jennishow, a video show of Jenni talking about her apartment, pets or asking viewers what they thought about current trends (such as getting her tongue or nipple pierced). Forty-five Jennishows were taped. Viewers constantly looked for new videos because this was a new technology at the time as well. Criticism of Jenni began to mount on the Peeping Moe's Bulletin Boards for fans of cam girls. Fans and former fans commented on her lazy behavior, messy home, poor hygiene or the fact that she was gaining weight. Jenni began to work out in front of the cam, but continued to face the negative comments. A man named, "Thumper," who was in charge of the Peeping Moe's Jennicam bulletin board, tried to preserve civility. Sawguy and a few others also tried to protect Jenni because they felt close to her since they watched her daily. Thumper met Jenni when she went to meet Ana of Anacam. He was proud to say he was her friend. Both Thumper and Sawguy are now on livejournal as said names. After D.C., Jenni moved to Sacramento, California. She sold her furniture and gave her ferrets to another cam girl. Jenni's accountant, Jodi, and fellow cam girl, Courtney, helped Jenni move to California. Jenni was home less and less because she finally had to get a job. Ringley took a job as a social worker and through updates on her journal shared that she was enjoying her job and that her boss was satisfied with her performance. Aside from her net-celebrity status as one of the first cam girls, she also was known for a scandal in which she had sex with Dex, the fiance of her friend and new neighbor, Courtney. Courtney was devastasted to learn Dex's new affection for Jenni. Dex moved in immediately with Jenni. Jenni and Dex had each other's names tattoed on their ring fingers as a sign of their new bond. Of course, Jenni continued to show her life through images on JenniCam.org website. She also added streaming video and thousands of people watched and heard Jenni and Dex having sex. Eventually, Dex grew tired of negative comments from cam viewers about his sagging stomach. He asked Jenni not to have him appear on the cam. Jennifer appeared as a guest on The Late Show with David Letterman. At the end of the interview, and even after having been corrected once, Dave plugged the site as Jennicam.net instead of the correct Jennicam.com (Jenni owned both jennicam.com and jennicam.org). People visiting the previously non-existent Jennicam.net found a cheap porn site with the greeting "Thanks Dave". The site was closed permanently on December 31, 2003. At 12:00 a.m. January 1, 2004, the window to Jennifer Ringley's world was closed to the public as the image went black. Many viewers were disappointed that there was not one last goodbye image of Jenni. One possible reason Ringley shut down her site was that PayPal had dropped her as a customer because her website included full-frontal Nudity . Images of the former jennicam are available on Google image search. REFERENCES
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