The Web Master

Dan-O-Cam allows students to take a look into professor Dan Smith's office, although there's not much

By ERIKA LINDQUIST

World famous for his office Web cam, counseling professor Dan Smith doesn’t mind being watched as he goes about his daily school business.

Smith put up his Web cam, titled Dan-O-Cam, in his office nine years ago for anyone around the world to view. It’s been running almost 24 hours a day, seven days a week ever since.

The Web cam, looking like an eye attached to the window, fixes its relentless stare on his desk chair.

“Watching me in my office is like watching paint dry,” Smith said. “As you can see, there is not much to watch. All I do is just sit here.”

Smith is only in his office a few hours a day — if that even. For the most part, the Web cam is not videotaping anything but an empty chair. He doesn’t have a Web cam at home because it’s “too personal,” he said.

In 1996, “there were hardly any Web pages,” Smith said. Smith’s Dan-O-Cam page was one of the first Web sites on campus, and it can easily be found by typing “Dan-O-Cam” into just about any search engine.

Smith has received e-mails from people all over the world, including students in Europe. He recently got an e-mail from a German girl asking him to “do something, like wave” into the camera, he said.

“I get something interesting on the Web cam at least on a monthly basis,” he said.

So what inspired Smith to do this?

“I did it for fun,” he said.

Smith’s Web cam has also come in handy for other purposes. One time, he looked on his Web cam from home and saw that his office door was open.

“I was able to call the [campus] police to lock the door,” he said.

If students want to know when Smith is in his office, he tells them to look him up on the Web site. Billy Durham, 20, an English and history major, said he would rather just stop by Smith’s office to see if he is in.

“I don’t have time to go to a computer lab,” Durham said. “It would be quicker just to stop by.”
“Occasionally, students come in and don’t like it,” Smith said. He will turn off the Web cam for students who feel uncomfortable.

“If it’s class-related, I don’t see much of a problem with it,” Durham said. “But I don’t think I would be comfortable talking to him if I was being broadcast over the Internet.”

Smith also posts all of his students’ work and assignments for classes on his web site. Three counseling classes, self-help info, and some “fun pix” of Smith with O.J. Simpson, Jay Leno and his daughter in China can also be found on his site.

“I’m not a computer geek,” he said. But Smith likes the technical aspect of computers. He has designed a few pages, such as the Clovis West high school band Web page and the faculty Web page for the counseling department.

Even though Smith set up his Web cam for fun, he said, “It does seem a bit narcissistic to put a camera on oneself, like there is something to watch.”