Webcams

The Birth of Camp Envy: A Historical Snapshot

In 2009, for those who couldn’t make it to the Black Rock Desert, a new way to experience Burning Man emerged—virtually and remotely.

On September 5th, 2009, a pivotal archived video broadcast captured a key moment during Burn Week. This livestream was transmitted through the interactive Ustream website via the Burning Man Webcast, a groundbreaking effort to bring the playa closer to those off-playa. It marked the informal creation of Camp Envy, a community of actual participants remotely located around the world. The video content manager who provided this window to the playa, for several years up to 2012, was HyperJohn. To increase participation from Camp Envy, HyperJohn developed a Python script and apparatus which would allow people in the chat room to control the PTZ webcam through short commands. (I personally miss the ".cam foo" command.)

Wayback Machine Link to the original stream:
https://web.archive.org/web/20090826193726/http://www.ustream.tv:80/channel/burningman-live

The video offers an ambient, unfiltered view of the Man Burn, notably without music—only the natural soundscape of the crowd and the open microphone. One audio channel carries the broadcast from Burning Man Information Radio (BMIR), featuring insightful play-by-play narration from the late Tom LaPorte, then head of media relations for the Burning Man Project. Broadcasters Bobzilla and Kanizzle also contribute to the commentary.

The second audio channel offers a rare glimpse into the logistical operations of Black Rock City, featuring volunteer radio chatter from the Department of Public Works (DPW)—the team responsible for building and maintaining the city’s infrastructure. Their voices highlight the backstage effort that powers the event.

Though technically limited by signal strength, bandwidth, and line-of-sight challenges—resulting in reduced video resolution, dropouts, and lower framerate—this video remains the best available copy of the 2009 webcast. It stands as a historical artifact, shared here strictly for educational use. Commercial use is prohibited under copyright law.

Alongside the video, Ustream’s integrated chat window allowed viewers viewers to connect with each other, comment on the video content, or reply to the broadcasters in the video. It was a moment of self-awareness as everyone in the chat room were not at Burning Man and envied those who were. The name "Camp Envy" was adopted by all in the chat room and from that spontaneous moment, Camp Envy began a journey of spreading the Burner ethos beyond the dust, supporting those who desire connection in many forms worldwide, and inspiring countless others to eventually make the journey to the playa themselves.

Important milestones from that time include:

September 3, 2009 – The Camp Envy Facebook Group was created by Squirticus Minimus: https://www.facebook.com/groups/campenvy2009

September 7, 2009 – The domain CampEnvy.com was officially registered by SDmedia. 

Here is an early version of the Camp Envy website, as it appeared in 2010: https://web.archive.org/web/20100807060852/http://www.campenvy.com/