Interactive graphs and explanations
about key economic concepts
for use in teaching and exploring
These videos often featured long, unedited conversations, technical glitches, and natural interactions that are missing from today’s highlight-reel streaming culture.
Stickam, a live video chat platform, gained significant attention in the early 2000s for its innovative approach to online interactions. One of the notable personalities to emerge from this platform was KatlyNSHINE, a user who gained a substantial following and became synonymous with Stickam's early days. This article aims to provide an overview of Stickam, its features, and the impact it had on online communities, as well as discuss the context surrounding the keyword "stickam katlynshine 720bps avi extra quality."
: This was the platform. Founded in 2005, Stickam was a pioneering live-streaming video website that allowed users to broadcast from their webcams in real-time. It was a precursor to modern streaming giants like Twitch and YouTube Live, and it was highly popular among niche communities like musicians, entertainers, and those in the alternative and emo subcultures. The platform also served as a social network where users could share pre-recorded videos in formats like AVI, MOV, and WMV, which is likely the context here. stickam katlynshine 720bps avi extra quality
Stickam quickly grew, amassing a peak of and 6 million monthly unique visitors , even being named the "Top Video Destination for Teens" by Nielsen in 2008. It hosted live shows from major media partners like MTV, G4 TV, and CBS Radio, and performances from musicians and celebrities. However, the platform's most enduring legacy may be the unique subculture it nurtured.
This is where the technical and historical detective work begins. In the world of digital video, a value like 720bps (bits per second) is a bitrate . The bitrate determines the amount of data used to encode each second of video; higher bitrates generally mean higher quality, but also larger file sizes. This article aims to provide an overview of
KatlyNSHINE, a Stickam user, became one of the platform's most recognizable personalities. Her engaging content, interactive streams, and charismatic on-screen presence helped her build a substantial following. During Stickam's peak, KatlyNSHINE's streams were often highly anticipated events, attracting large audiences and fostering a sense of community among her viewers.
: "Extra Quality" or "720bps" (often a typo for 720p or a specific high bitrate in Kbps) suggests the video was rendered or recorded with higher-than-average settings for the time to preserve visual detail. Compatibility The platform also served as a social network
Interestingly, "720bps" is often a typo or a misremembered term for 720p (High Definition). In the mid-2000s, 720p was considered "extra quality" or "HD," as most webcams at the time struggled to produce anything higher than 240p or 360p. Finding a 720p stream in that era was rare, making an "extra quality" tag a significant selling point in archival circles.
My name is Chris Makler. I’ve been a lecturer at Stanford University since 2015, and before that worked as the Senior Economist for Aplia, back when all Aplia did was econ. :) I hold a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Pennsylvania, and a B.A. in Humanities from Yale University.
I’ve created this site as an open source project to provide econ teachers with a standard set of interactive graphs they can use in classes. It’s heavily tilted toward the graphs I use in my own classes, which are intermediate micro classes with calculus; but I’m pretty much done with the main graphs for those topics, and am starting to branch out into both principles-level econ and (shudder) macro. Requests for new graphs are always welcome, so if there’s something you’d like to see, please let me know!
In addition to creating standalone graphs, for the past several years I’ve been working on developing an interactive textbook which invites the reader to manipulate graphs as they read. This is still very much in development and will change often!
However, although I use the textbook from beginning to end, I also recognized in writing it that “one-pagers” on economic concepts would be useful on their own, without the overarching narrative of the textbook. Therefore, I’ve begun the process of adapting the textbook in to “explanations” of core concepts. Look for more and more explanations to be added in the months ahead.
Comments and suggestions on all of the above are very much appreciated; send me a note at chris dot makler at gmail dot com. You can also find me on LinkedIn, Twitter, and EconTwitter.net.
Note that I develop and test using Google Chrome; while the site works on any modern browser, Chrome will provide the most predictable results.
I’m excited to be working with Simon Halliday, Doug McKee, and Anastasia Papadopoulou on research using the graphs and technology I developed for this site. Look for upcoming presentations at econ teaching conferences in 2023!
I’m also interested in exploring how this technology could be used to produce “one-pagers” on new research. If you’re interested in creating a snappy version of your research paper or dissertation chapter, please drop me a line…
This project would not have been possible without the mentorship of an outstanding group of friends and colleagues over the years, including (but certainly not limited to!) David Murphy, Karl Lew, Wilson Cheung, Harrison Caudill, and Kyle Moore.
I’ve drawn inspiration and support from the community Nicky Case has built up around Explorable Explanations, including Amit Patel, Chris Walker, Hamish Todd, Andy Matuschak, and many others.
The EconGraphs logo was generously contributed by Jørgen Veisdal.
Finally, and most importantly, I’d like to thank all of my students and TA’s, who have provided amazing feedback as I’ve developed and used these graphs in different ways in my classes over the years. Your patience and support is very much appreciated!
I use slides.com to present graphs in my lectures. Unlike most presentation software, this allows you to add iframes to your presentations and interact with them. See this page for some of the decks I use in my teaching.
The javascript engine I developed to make these graphs, the KineticGraphs Javascript Engine (KGJS), is open-source and freely available for use. It’s also under constant development, with new features being rolled out and existing features refined. (Please remember when looking at the source code that I’m an economist and not a software developer!)
However, for most applications I recommend Desmos. It’s an amazing web site that’s getting better all the time, and where I do most of my sketching out of ideas before coding them in KGJS.
I consider the graphs and explanations on this web site to be academic content like any other, and as such retain copyright to all work presented here. You are welcome to link to any of the graphs on this site for any purpose; in particular, graphs may be embedded within iframes without any need for a login. You’ll notice an inobtrusive copyright is included in the bottom-right corner of each graph, with a link back to this page. Of course any more prominent acknowledgement is also appreciated! :)
If you want to incorporate these kinds of graphs in a commercial project such as a textbook, I don’t recommend just linking to these graphs, as URLs may change or javascript may collide with a hosting page; also, the terminology I use may or may not match the terminology in your other materials. Instead, I am happy to serve as a consultant on commercial projects, either by creating graphs for your work or by training your own subject-matter experts on how to create them. This will allow you to host stable code on your site that you know works well with your project. If you’re interested in hiring me for this kind of work, please send me an email at chris dot makler at gmail dot com.