[ih] Proof of the date of first use of term "webcam"

[Mark Miller]

Well, the linguistical history of hyphenated  versus unhyphenated
versus capitalized letters (mailman versus MailMan, for instance. No
"Manly Caps", they say), is something different from two words and a
compound word. As is noted in quote from the OED, "web cam" was not a
particular variant.

Just my two cents as a Linguistics student.

On Thu, 17 Mar 2005 12:25:02 -0800, Barrow, Zach
<zbarrow at systechnologies.com> wrote:
> Here is the definition from OED:
> 
> -------
> Brit. /wbkam/, U.S. /wbkæm/ Forms: 19- web cam, web-cam, webcam. Also with capital initial(s). [< WEB n. + cam- (in CAMERA n.).]
> 
> A video camera which is connected to a computer so that its output may be viewed on a network, esp. the Internet.
> A proprietary name in the United States.
> -------
> So, I think web cam, web-cam, or webcam, or any capitalized versions of such would be legitimate.
> 
> -Zach
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Lars Eggert [mailto:lars.eggert at netlab.nec.de]
> Sent: Thursday, March 17, 2005 10:37 AM
> To: Barrow, Zach
> Cc: internet-history at postel.org
> Subject: Re: [ih] Proof of the date of first use of term "webcam"
> 
> Barrow, Zach wrote:
> >
> > I have an interesting question.  It pertains to the first use of the word "webcam."  The OED has it as 1995, first used in an Arizona Republic article.  My friend is fairly certain that the term was in use before that, but is trying to find a source that can stand up to OED scrutiny to have the definition corrected.  We're both fairly certain it had to be after 1990 since that is about the time WWW came into usage.  Does anyone have or know of a reliable citation or some citable text where the term was used?  My friend posted his question at http://www.the-ethic.blogspot.com/
> 
> Google Groups has a usenet post about a webcam dated Sep 12 1994:
> 
> http://groups-beta.google.com/group/comp.infosystems.www.providers/browse_thread/thread/c38f97b59e131ca9/e4e64fdb4efbf879?q=webcam#e4e64fdb4efbf879
> 
>     ANNOUNCE: AIR FORCE SUPER LAB SERVER
>     Sep 12 1994, 10:02 am
> 
>     Rome Laboratory, the US Air Force Super Lab for Command, Control,
>     Communications and Intelligence (C3I) would like to announce its WWW
>     information service.
> 
>     A sample of the RL WWW's offerings include:
> 
>          * Interactive Air Force WWW map
>          * On-line Touts
>          * Technology Transfer Databases
>          * and of course the "Web Cam"
> 
>     The URL for the Rome Laboratory WWW is:
>                           http://www.rl.af.mil:8001/
> 
>     Thank you.
>         Scott
> 
> --
> Lars Eggert                                     NEC Network Laboratories
> 


-- 
Mark A. Miller               
mark at mirell.org
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