Anita Bora

We all want our moment of glory. Our two minutes of fame.

Earlier it was television, radio or print. Now we have another avenue - the Net, a medium that can be used as an outlet to express ourselves in a way not possible before. We can now show off creative skills, practice technical expertise, showcase our genius and use it as a platform for our otherwise ignored or hidden talents.

On the one hand, the Internet has created entrepreneurs like Sabeer Bhatia, founder of Hotmail, and Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com. It has created millionaires and businessmen who have taken small, but workable ideas and transformed them into money spinners.

On the other hand, it is also a medium for the common man, the last bencher in school, the 'nerd' who has always felt marginalised. A tool he can use effectively to reach out to people across the world. For these people, the Internet is a medium that can give vent to repressed souls, and allow them to do something that will bring them into the limelight.

So how do you go about propelling yourself to stardom? You could start by living in a glass house. Like Jennifer Ringley, based in Sacramento, USA. This woman has been living under the camera since she started the Jennicam Project in 1996. Through web cams placed at strategic locations in her home and an online journal she maintains, browsers are able to follow the life and times of Ringley. Nothing spectacular, but still unique. After all, how many of us can do it?

The site has two sections, one for guests and another for members. So if you are interested in getting closer to Ringley, you will have to pay US$15 for three months. What thrill browsers really derive from watching a woman doing something mundane most of time, and pay for it, could be the topic for another study. Meanwhile, Jennifer has found true love, and now lives in with her boyfriend Dex, still under the watchful eye of her web cams.

Besides seven cameras pointed at her life, Jennifer uses Mac machines to keep her website up and running. If you want to know how you too can start off an experiment like this, and what kind of equipment you would need, this interview she gave may help.

A slightly different take-off on this idea was the DotComGuy who made Internet history on January 1, 2000 with a 24hr-366 day uninterrupted multi-camera production webcast to the world. Mitch Maddox, a very average guy, decided to start an experiment, in an effort to prove that man can live on the Internet alone.

He officially changed his name to DotComGuy and broadcast over the Net a day-by-day account of his life, with web cams capturing his every waking and sleeping moment. He was transformed into an overnight celebrity. People logged in to his site daily, from all over the world, to find out what DCG planned to eat for breakfast, what he was ordering for lunch and what dessert he preferred for dinner. Every part of his life was sponsored and though he could have visitors at any time, he was not allowed to step out of his DotCompound! He emerged from his experiment, older and wiser, we hope, and now wants to be called only Guy, and hosts a website called DotComGuy.

Closer home, remember the guy who sells paan and became a national celebrity by taking his paan shop online? We're talking about Mucchad Paanwala, a.k.a. Jaishankar Tiwari, originally from Allahabad. The only reason you would glance twice at him is the large moustache he sports. Not only does this gentleman have an online business, he caters to customers from India and overseas via his website, Paan.com. It tells you everything about this great Indian habit, including the history, and what goes into making the perfect paan.

If you're not too keen on the paan idea, maybe chic handbags are more your style. An innovative concept, as Monica Lewinsky found out. After her quick rise to fame and descent thereafter, once she knew her days as a media darling were over, she was quick to cash in on something that would give a more lasting and permanent outlet to her creativity. Selling handbags on the Internet.

This is what she says on her website, The Real Monica, "Reawakening my creative senses has helped me cope during an almost unendurable time in my life. As I have learned from this extraordinary experience, I hope that you recognise the importance of being free spirited with your creativity."

For those of you who watch television shows and follow the news, does the name Darva Conger ring a bell? Amidst much publicity, this 35-year old ER nurse wed multi-millionaire Rick Rockwell on the American TV show, 'Who Wants to Marry a Millionaire.' The show shot her into instant fame as she was chosen as the lucky bride. Alas, happiness was short lived, as this lady found out that she did not really want to get married at all (and it was too late by then).

Other revelations like Rockwell had a restraining order against him, and also the apparent lack of chemistry between them, prompted her to ask or an "annulment" (note: not divorce). For her side of the story, here's an interview she gave People.com. Conger repeatedly says that she had no idea she would actually be required to marry the man. (Maybe she thought she was actually getting taped for the Oprah show?).

She then decided to make the most of her newfound publicity by posing for Playboy, and has now launched her own website, Darva's House. And no, it is not about how to trap a millionaire on prime time, but has sections on beauty, home, fitness, entertainment, etc. There's also a section where she talks about herself.

Some do it for fame and some for the money. Still others do it just for kicks. Like computer hackers. In the early 1990's, a man called Kimble established himself as a famous hacker. He broke into secure computer databases belonging to corporations like Citibank, Pentagon and NASA. He would leave his signature -- a data footprint of two skulls and crossbones, and the codename Kimble, after the hero of the film and TV series 'The Fugitive.'

The law finally caught up with him and, since he was a juvenile at the time of his offence, let him off with a relatively lenient two-year probation. This is what he has to say of his imprisonment: "When I was in jail, I had a lot of time to think about what I had been doing, and I realised that with the know-how I have, I could easily make money on the legal side."

In 1997, he launched a company called Data Protect, which is a leading consultant in the field of IT security. Today, 27 year old Kim Schmitz is the President and CEO of Kim Venture, a company that is founding and financing Internet businesses. He is now living life in the fast lane, claims to be worth at least $200 and aims to become a billionaire in the next decade -- not just any billionaire, but one of the world's 10 richest.

Proof that even crime pays if you know how to turn it around to your benefit.

So if you feel that you deserve better, and that you have been ignored long enough, we hope these stories have been inspirational. Remember, your idea has to be unique and novel, something that no one has probably attempted before. If your brilliant plan fits the bill, rest assured you have a place on the online walk of fame.

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