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OnlineCaroline
Smallkat investigates freeserves latest offering
What is it ?
on-line Caroline.
Web phenomenon or advertising gimmick?
I'm currently sitting at my desk watching a web cam, which has in it's sights a packaged chicken. In fact this chicken has been in front of the web cam most of the morning and the afternoon...
But anyway, on-line caroline is supposedly centered around Caroline, a twenty-something travel writer. Whilst work is quiet she had agreed to let www.xpt.com (the company that her boyfriend Simon works for) put a webcam in her house, and let her make "virtual" friends. Friends who will make decisions about her life for her.
Friends like me and you. In order to get into the site you need to register, and it also encourages you to give more information to "caroline" when you are logged onto the site ( age, location, marital status etc).
Dress Caroline up! Choose from 3 (yes 3) whole outfits for her to wear. Decide what she is going to have for dinner, and send her virtual gifts (roughly 5 to select from).
25/04/00
I received this email...:
Dear Small
I have taken the liberty of attaching a small picture file to this email, which
identifies the two senior XPT operatives who will be working on our behalf
during your time with Caroline.
At certain points in your relationship with Caroline (and with David, when he
returns) these two men will need to carry out certain tasks which, on the face
of it, may appear to you to be anti-social or even criminal. Do not be alarmed.
They are simply doing their job, ensuring that Caroline and David and you all
get what you want from this online relationship.
Keep Giving. Keep Getting.
Sincerely,
Sir Gerald Inomynte
President and CEO, XPT
What anti-social, or criminal tasks are they talking about?
Exactly what is XPT's "totalfulfilment".
And what will be so special about http://www.it3c.co.uk/ ?
This doesn't seem to me to be a personal venture, I know that it clearly does have commercial backing, but there seems to be something...more.
26/4/00
I'm watching Caroline on her "live" webcam at 8:30am. My suspicions are
aroused since she and her friend Simon appear to be sitting down to an evening meal, consisting of chicken, veggies and a bottle of wine.
I don't know about you, but that doesn't sound like your average breakfast. Since this site ask you to interact with Caroline by choosing
various options like her clothes, and what she is going to eat, I am guessing that it is probably pre-recorded and depending upon which option
you choose, you would get those images. Unfortunately, my browsing habits clearly do not match the ones they expect.
Todays "you decide": 3 options on what Caroline should do with Simon. I
think she should go to Paris with him, but apparently she's not keen on that.
More personal information is required from me (favourite food, drink etc).
Apparently the trousers I choose for her to wear on day one, are going to be worn tomorrow. I can hardly wait...
I send Caroline some Trill for her budgie, called Budgie. My how original.
I'm bored. This on-line friendship seems very one-sided. For the amount
of personal information I'm giving out, I'm currently getting very little in
return. There are better webcams out there that don't require such details.
29/04/00
Those strange men finally came into "Caroline's house. Wearing strange long white beards they took away the packages that
I had "sent" to her, as well as her Budgie. I'm not entirely sure where this is
leading.
Yesterday we met Sophie, Caroline's best friend - who has
apparently has some sort of affair with Caroline's boyfriend, David. Sophie
was shown to be quite heavily pregnant, although that didn't stop her from
consuming a fair bit of vodka.
And then....well no surprises
for guessing what happened. Sophie's water breaks, and there the show ends.
Sophie and Caroline move into another part of the house, and from there to
the hospital. Fortunately to keep my clued in on the events, Caroline emails
me to let me know what is going on.
In this email she has also left
the phone number and encourages me to leave her a message. I fleetingly
wonder if I should bother, after all this has patently shown itself to be a
scripted play. A little like a web version of "choose your own adventure",
only not so exciting and with weirdy beardy men in
black.
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