Closing of oldest working webcam ‘FogCam’ has been averted

The oldest working webcam on the internet, the FogCam, won’t go offline after all. The University of San Francisco, where the camera is located, has decided that it will still support the operation of the device and thus preserve a piece of internet history.

The University states that the extensive media attention was the deciding factor. The social media campaign #SaveTheFogCam may also have had its intended effect, although San Francisco State University does not admit it on its FogCam site.

In an interview with the San Francisco Gate, one of the founders of FogCam said that the University “only tolerates and doesn’t really approve of the live stream” and that they “had to find suitable locations themselves.” The New York Times even writes about ‘collisions’ with the board and threats of closure. Obviously the opposite is now the case.

The FogCam has been around since 1994 and has been posting a video frame to the Internet every 20 seconds ever since. The camera was intended as an experiment and the idea was to give a glimpse into everyday life on campus. Its name comes from the fact that it can be quite foggy on the California coast. It’s not the first livecam ever; that’s The Trojan Room Coffee Machine, but it went black in 2001. It is, however, the oldest working webcam.