Posted by chicagomedia.org on October 23, 2008 at 07:29:42:
Santa goes cyber
Web site will offer kids alternative to waiting in line to talk with St. Nick
You're a busy mom, and with the holidays approaching, the last thing you need is to have one more task on your plate. But in no time at all, Santa will be making the rounds at various shopping malls, where kids will queue up for hours sometimes waiting for the chance to get that Christmas wish list off their chest.
Naperville resident Mike Noonan, 34, is prepared to change all that this year by bringing Santa right to your living room - before he makes his usual delivery, of course.
Noonan, who also works as a DJ for radio station WLUP, said he had an epiphany of sorts about a year ago while he visited the Fox Valley Mall with his own kids, who were expecting to visit with Santa.
"We stood in line for a 90-minute wait, and my 2-year-old didn't want to go anymore and my 5-year-old was having an anxiety attack," Noonan recalled. "I thought then to myself - there's got to be a better way to do this, and I started writing a business plan a few months later in March in order to come up with an alternative."
Since then, Noonan's idea has blossomed into an enterprise he calls WebCamCo and a Web-based business www.visitsantaonline.com where kids will be able to register and log into a virtual chat room where they can visit with Santa in real time. If Web cam technology eludes users, they also can send text messages to Santa who will respond again in real time.
Noonan said he worked with a software company who developed the program material to make his Santa chat room a reality. In addition, he has worked extensively during the past few months to assemble an army of about 20 "Santas" found throughout the U.S. and Canada.
"I went to some message boards and chat room sites and found that a lot of these 'Santa' guys are pretty well connected, and there's a real brotherhood amongst them," Noonan said. "All of these people are veterans who have done this before and take the work very seriously. They're also very technologically savvy so they understand the concept of what we're trying to do here."
Noonan said having 300-pound jolly, fat men isn't the most important criteria for his "Santas" but that having their own real beards is a plus. He acknowledges parents could be wary of younger kids wandering into chat rooms and said efforts have been made to protect the integrity of the site as well as to reassure parents that a virtual Santa visit is a great experience.
"I have had background checks done on myself as well as all the other employees, and we encourage parents to log in with their children and visit with Santa together," Noonan said. "We also want to protect the people on our end that are doing this in their role. The fact people are paying $4.99 a minute suggests there shouldn't be older kids or adults logging in for no other reason than to bother the Santas."
Families who want to use the site will need minimal equipment germane to most suburban homes, including a PC, high-speed Internet connection, speakers and a Webcam if they wish to "see" Santa.
Noonan adds he is hoping to make his service helpful to a variety of families - not just those stricken with what he calls "mall-Santa fatigue." Other efforts include working with staff at Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago and Nellis Air Force Base near Las Vegas.
"How great would it be for our service men and women to be able to see a video of their child's online visit with Santa?" Noonan said. "We're hoping as time goes on to offer other family-oriented services like this."
(David Sharos, Naperville Sun)