Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Citizen-run neighbourhood CCTV networks
I was contacted this week with my work hat on by a new outfit called Jabbakam. Founder James Wickes set up the company to "put power in the hands of everyday people by combining internet camera technology with social networking."
Wickes differentiates his technology from CCTV. He calls it "CCTV for all" or CMTV and explains that this is "socially-organised video surveillance technology over the internet which is more efficient, more reliable and cheaper than traditional CCTV."
Developed following Wickes' personal experience of crime, his system is primarily aimed at the home/neighbourhood security market. However, Wickes points to other uses including monitoring wildlife, vulnerable pets, traffic, weather or remote scientific or industrial outposts.
The £60 camera together with a monthly fee of between £6 and £14 a month gives you motion sensitive equipment that will send you alerts if you want it to and allow you to share your footage as you wish. You can access and control it via mobile and connect to a growing network of Jabbakam customers who help each other out. Some are even starting to build local CMTV networks.
This is an interesting development with fairly self-evident upsides and downsides. Is it a scary spread of the CCTV nation into private hands or a reassuring additional layer of home and neighbourhood safety.
And what of the other uses of the cameras? A HoL SainsJamCam? A flytip watch channel?
The company have offered us two cameras for free to see what we could do with them. Anyone interested?
Website: www.jabbakam.com
Tags for Forum Posts: cctv
Replies to This Discussion
-
Permalink Reply by Hugh on
-
All you need is a vantage point and a computer. Streaming to the web should be cheap to free. If we can get that in place, we could do this with the offer of the cameras.
However, does anyone think there may be any ethical issues to think through?
-
Permalink Reply by John D on
-
I went to a lecture a few years ago by someone who had wired up his street in Enfield with cameras and had a monitoring position in his bedroom. He would report any crimes to the police. It sounded very good citizenish until he mentioned he sat up late at night so he could watch the young nurse get safely home
It was at this point that we all began to feel uncomfortable.
-
Permalink Reply by Antoinette on
-
Yes I do think there are ethical issues; and I think there are legal issues too. CCTV systems should be registered with the Information Commissioners Office by the "data controller", and if the cameras are in a public place (ie. not on private property where no registration is required) there should be signage warning people that they are being recorded and/or monitored. And then of course there is the protocol for what happens when somebody is seen doing something they shouldn't; do you call the Police? Intervene yourself? Record it happening but not prevent it from taking place????
-
-
I posted about this website few months ago - http://interneteyes.co.uk/
-
-
internet-curtain twitchers, all of ye. NIMBY and not in my front street either.
-
Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
-
"Developed following Wickes' personal experience of crime" - that says it all really. Bad idea. Bad, bad.
-
-
Nope. I think it's nasty. Red van man on Green Lanes has not been back since I posted about him. The truck problem is now on Wightman Rd.
The only bit of the passage that could possibly justify CCTV is where it spills out onto Turnpike Lane.
The peasant in me thinks that he'd like to do this but I do try not to be a peasant Hugh...
-
-
Don't let me do your thinking for you but I can tell you it will take a bit more thought than what you have put into it so far.
-
-
Actually you can always type "why is cctv bad" into Google and see what it says...
-
-
This is a very bad idea, see: http://www.itpro.co.uk/634201/cctv-service-internet-eyes-forced-int...
-
-
inkjet* thanks for bringing up the 'internet eyes' story. I've tried to get folk here (see my earlier above post) interested in this but i seem to be the only one interested in discussing this groundbreaking legal affair that affects us all here in UK (and includes everything to do with the title of this posting by Hugh)... .. .
© 2024 Created by Hugh.
Powered by
