So with a new, amazing, beautiful, slick version of WebTree coming out sometime next week, I took a short break from application development today to play with our Commons Cam site, and added a cool new feature.

It’s called a visual time stamp.  Any time someone makes a comment on the site, the system now automatically saves a copy of the webcam’s view.  That way you can see what the hell someone was commenting about, or you can comment when you see a particularly pretty view, or a particularly strange one.

So go ahead and visit the Commons Cam and let us know what you see.  And perhaps share it with some friends?

Enjoy!

Website, that is.

We’ve had our eye on the pedestrian mall for a while and have cleaned up the view before, but never like this.
Several days ago we re-launched a brand new Commons Cam. Aside from the obvious visual differences that go wayback, we wanted to do a little more than provide something fun for everyone to look at. Not that we didn’t improve the overall aesthetic (and there is still more to unveil in the next week!) but we wanted to add some interactivity to the experience as well.

First things first: User-generated content. We’ve opened up the Commons Cam for Shoutouts (comments)! All you need to do is register yourself on the site, check your email for the login info, and come back to the site to and leave your Shoutout! Provided that your comment doesn’t include profanity or any off-color remarks, it will show up instantly.

Rock the vote: We’ve added a weekly poll to the right of the webcam image, which we’ll keep focused on Ithaca/Commons/webcam related questions. You don’t even have to register to leave your opinion. But choose wisely: all archived/closed polls will be displayed under the “Polls” tab for everyone to reward or ridicule with a shoutout!

The Water is Warm: Join our Best of the Commons Cam Flickr Group and toss your photo into the pool. The new Commons Cam site automatically features the 16 latest images from this group under the “Gallery” tab.

DIY Time Lapse: This is just what it sounds like. If you have the latest free Flash player you can enjoy the Beta view! This nifty window will collect a new image every 15 seconds (just like the HTML page) and allows you to drag the slider all the way back (to the left) and let go to get a great time lapse! For further explanation, I’ve left a few notes on a screenshot here. I left the Beta view open for an hour last night and saw one of the Coolest Commons Snowstorm Sunsets I’ve seen in a while.

Those are certainly the highlights, but you’ve been reading this long enough. Go check out the new Commons Cam for yourself.

And leave a shoutout.

So of course we made a video out of it and posted the finished product on YouTube. Music (in order) is Brian Eno, CSS and then Herb Albert.

Here it is: