The Charity Challenger is born!

I should probably give a little background on who I am, before I explain what I'm doing.

My name is Norah, and I am the Justin.tv Charity Challenger. I'm also a sociology/anthropology student and the girlfriend of chief designer for Justin.tv, a web start up based in San Francisco where anyone can broadcast live video to the Internet 24/7. If you ever watched the officecam channel, or saw a girl fall out of a chair on Justin's stream many months ago, then you've probably seen me. Most of the time I stay in the background, though I've made my appearances off and on. I've Firecasted with Justin at the old office, broadcasted LoveFest with Phil and Jacob, and accepted an Broadcaster Highlight award for a lifecaster on air.

That's the Justin.tv Norah that my two or three fans know and love. None of that really matters for this channel, however. I have essentially no skills that will aide me in this broadcast attempt. I can only barely stay standing on ice skates, I'm terrified of heights, I'm epically clumsy (I fell out of a chair, remember?), I can't sing or dance, I'm not rich, I have a fearful temper, a low tolerance for failure, I use far too many commas, and probably the most important issue is I'm terrified of cameras. Being around all these cameras has slowly acclimated me to their existence, but I don't intend to be comfortable being seen. As a child in a school play I traumatized myself by stuttering instead of giving my line and being harassed by the school music teacher for the next two years (he wasn't very nice). I spent four year as a teenager taking drama classes to get over my fear, and ended up bursting into tears during a final project because the audience cheered for me.

So, what exactly am I doing? This requires a little more background. A new feature recently rolled out on Justin.tv called Challenges, and for the first time I truly felt excited at the prospect of broadcasting. I created some Challenges for other people to do, and I waited. And waited. And waited... until I realized that most people didn't even see the potential in using that feature! Spying on chat rooms, I saw the viewers complain about lifecasters "not doing anything", and yet few of them created challenges for broadcaster to attempt! I kept that thought in the back of my mind as I talked to JTV broadcaster Dealer aka Alan about how his fans bought him toys to keep them entertained. Normally, every year I do something to give back to those less fortunate during the holiday season. Its just something that I've always done on my own without a big production about it, usually involving a website and a credit card. Last year Jacob and I were in a financial bind, and I was unable to even give my family presents, let alone donate to charity. This year we've been very lucky, and though we are not wealthy, we now have the ability to bring more attention a good cause then we ever have before. Thus, crammed in the back of the JTV Honda Civic listening to Alan brag about his DDR skills, I came up with Charity Challenger; I complete clean, safe challenges created and voted on by viewers and promote a charity of the day. I'll have the link to the charity website available on the page as well as a paypal button, from which all proceeds will be given to that charity.

My greatest asset in all of this is Jacob. I've never met anyone else who will honestly tell me when I look bad on camera, and who knows how to fix it. He is a genius and an artist, and I have my complete faith in his ability to provide constructive criticism... well, mostly complete faith. We bicker every once in a while, but I'll put this to paper and say he is probably always right. His help in this experiment is absolutely essential; as the designer of Justin.tv , he has beautified my channel page and can operate all the software with ease. As a film major, he is adept at shooting events properly and knows how to make even someone like me look good on camera. I should also thank the guys of Justin.tv, as they are lending all the equipment I will be using (which, knowing my ability to break bones and electronics with ease, may prove to be a costly decision on their part) and though they don't know it yet, their involvement will prove to be essential.

I'm very nervous about the success of this project. My hopes are that we will make a fair amount of money for some good causes, encourage use of Challenges for future entertainment value, and someone will take my place who is more entertaining and comfortable with being on camera. To be safe though, I'm donating money to all the charities I promote, just in case. ;)