IF THE controversial television game show Big Brother has got you interested in webcams, then why not visit some more people who have put themselves in the picture.

Webcams can also let you experience places you have always wanted to visit with everywhere from Jerusalem's famous Wailing Wall to the Times Square in New York featured online.

One of the best sites for foreign locations is www.camcity.com which also offers a good starting point if you want to buy a webcam for your own use.

And you can forget those fuzzy black and white CCTV images - most webcams are now colour, have the ability to zoom in and some even offer a musical accompaniment to enhance your experience.

If something closer to home appeals to you, then log into the growing network of cameras in Britain which can give you views ranging from city traffic jams to scenic Loch Ness at www.spy.org.uk

There are also plenty of people in the North-East who want you to look in on their lives and organisations who have chosen to feature some of the more mundane parts of life.

At www.Derwentside.org, Internet users can log on to watch the exciting comings and goings of a car park in Consett, County Durham.

This camera is cruelly billed as "It's so dull it's almost interesting". PS. It's even more boring at night on at least one directory but the car park webcam is perhaps moderately more exciting than another of Derwentside's treats - a view of the council's reception area.

And at the Harrogate offices of www.ads-uk.co.uk/webcam.htm, visitors can watch people work.

This could make one employee a star as the camera is placed right behind his desk (although I have yet to catch him working).

Other North-East cameras include the building work at St James' and the Tyne Bridge (www.bbc.co.uk/england/looknorthnecumbria/webcam.shtml) and the university in Sunderland (www.sunderland.ac.uk/camera.html).

Of course, if you haven't yet got caught up in the webcam craze you might want to take a visit to the Big Brother house (www.channel4/bigbrother) and find out what everyone is talking about.

If you have a webcam set up in the region, let me know by e-mail to Sarah Andrews.

Previous columns can be found online at www.thisisthenortheast.co.uk/leisure/cyber.html