jasonsalas's posterous

Making people think. Making people laugh. Pissing people off.

Poll Positions - could the BCS benefit from machine learning?

While preparing for the first Saturday of college football for the 2011 season, I took a dinner break from studying charts, rosters, matchups and the pre-season Top 25 polls to watch one of my favorite shows, Modern Marvels on History Channel. It just so happened that the episode I caught profiled the technology used to manage crops. And remarkably, in a vignette about how grapes are picked en masse, the producers strongly emphasized a major advantage used in such work to achieve optimal systemic results: the harmonious synergy of man and machine.

About 20 minutes hence, the episode having concluded and a delicious berry salad already beginning to digest in my belly, my thoughts returned to all things pigskin, wondering if the Bowl Championship Series, which utilizes the average of two human polls and a computer poll, might actually generate more reliable, reproducible results if it were run exclusively on machine learning. Let me break it down for you.

The major source of contention in the BCS era has always been the unfair differences derived between the inexplicable insight of human intuition against indisputable mathematics. To date, computers with static intelligence haven't been able to comprehend to implied merits of a team valiantly mounting a comeback, hitting a game-winning field goal at the end of a contest, earning a 7-6 victory; we likewise can't standardize a way for human pollsters to uniformly appreciate a Top 10 team getting blown out by an unranked, out-of-conference, FCS team at home in the opening week of the season.

(Cough, cough, Michigan.)

This is the bane of the BCS's existence…and has been since its implementation. The noble pursuit of having the true #1 and #2 teams meet for the title to avoid the problems of the bowl system has generally worked, but is wrought with controversy over who truly is deserving of the top spots. I say we take our appeal to a higher court. 

Instead of testing ad hoc methods that are sketchy at best and relying on equally imperfect guesstimation, let's allow learned resources to structure a system that interprets all polling data from 1998 to 2010, look for patterns in predefined major categories, and develop an ability to accurately predict the country's best teams. As grape-picker systems show us, we can marry careful subjective design with automated objective execution, so no one can complain about overfitting in either direction and creating data spoilage.

We've got thirteen years of information on which such a program can chew, changelogs documenting the various modifications and alterations to formulas like strength of schedule and margin of victory, and a history of wonky math deducing multidimensional inputs like home wins versus victories on the road. 

Such a system would be wisely informed, staunchly unaffected by tradition, peer pressure, or the lure of financial gains (and losses) by corporate partners and/or conference affiliation.

Moreover, our NCAA overlords might consider in earnest employing data mining techniques as a means of pinpointing instances of that most cruel and unusual punishment - human bias. Similar work is seen in biology circles to identify anomalies to detect disease. Which, considering the application, would be poetically sublime.

I mean, really. Consider the base argument: innovation has allowed us to develop efficient, effective systems to pick grapes…why not college football's national champion?

If Nielsen won't show me any love, I'll make my own

Inspired by the fascinating work of Deb Roy and Bluefin Labs, I'm undertaking what might be considered a pretty mammoth machine learning project...at a pretty minimal scale. Let me explain.

Working in the television business on Guam has its polarity...one of the major examples of both simultaneously is a line I often use, that we're "not a market upon whom Nielsen's holy light shines". While this obviously doesn't include my hometown of 155,000 residents and our output broadcasting efforts in essential industry-standard market research, this does make for some interesting opportunities. We don't have Sweeps Weeks, aren't rated among the broadcast hotspots, don't get a lot of attention and get hit with the small town label. It's honestly frustrating to not be able to work with such metrics. But, we're free to come up with clever ideas, not having to worry about Big Brother's perpetually peering eye.

Back to Bluefin, I've admired their work for some time with machine learning and data mining, and after reading Roy's whitepaper describing his project to track/visualize TV ratings via social media in realtime, I thought about creating a similar system to measure the effectiveness of programming within the microview of the local market. I won't have to build-out a massive infrastructure to support big data, but the same artificial intelligence concepts apply, albeit at much smaller scale. And then there's also the problem of participation.

Much of my work as a developer over the last 17 years has been in social engineering integration - getting people to become aware of, embrace, and use various digital platforms. Now in the era of ubiquitous social media, Guam's presence has gotten better - but not optimal. A big task lay ahead of me in getting people to come around to the concept of tweeting, updating their Facebook statuses and engaging in social conversations during TV shows. That kind of thing exists to date, but not at levels that would be considered statistically significant upon which to base a data source.

So I'm building-out the requisite elements - a stream of feedback from social silos, supportive network, sentiment analysis algorithms, proper visualizations - this will be a keen way to provide perspective and gauge how people feel about local programming.

Nielsen be damned...I'm doing this myself.

Is a Digg Effect redux in the cards?

Ah, the burden of popularity. During Digg's circa 2007 heyday I was fascinated by the Digg Effect (aka, being Slashdotted, Farked, etc.). It was remarkable to see content gain so much viral attention and have sites be rendered inoperable due to data transfer that exceeded the normal allotment from their hosts, or have web servers fall over completely under duress. It was the little guys getting 15 minutes of fame in the limelight from major platforms and not being able to live up to the pressure. It was an interesting problem to have. 

I'm now wondering what the impact of stories bubbling-up in Google+ might be. The uptake in traffic to domains and URLs outside silos not driven exclusively by Google, but no doubt influenced heavily by it.

In these early days of the new platform, the first wave of Google+ users, which I'm fortunate to be among, has really embraced the sharing concept, with the asymmetric nature of social connections between members really providing for some interesting ways to discover and pass along information. I've witnessed in the last few days articles, links and web resources get a phenomenal amount of buzz incredibly quickly by being shared by several high-profile members with sizable followings in their circles, who then pass it along for the exponential growth. Can hosts outside Google handle such load, in addition to the promotion they're getting simultaneously from other platforms?

The lesson we in the web architecture community learned from Digg's impact on popularity is how to better crash-proof our stuff. Newer caching mechanisms and were developed at the site and edge level and servers became more robust, newer techniques for load-sharing were developer, and third-party hosting plans took extreme traffic swells into consideration. The major social services themselves offer near-unbreakable infrastructure, letting you to store your stuff with them directly.

But I still have to wonder if we're going to return to the heady days or witness some new metamorphosis of people worrying about, struggling to keep up with, fighting to avoid - and even bragging about - being taken down due to increasing demand.

subscribing to content (aka, "circles in reverse")

so here's an idea i've been mulling for the past couple of days: since the range of my content is fairly finite - sports, tech, business, music, lame comedy or miscellany - i'd like to provide the user, not me as creator, the ability to add me to their social network but subscribe to subsets of my stuff. i'd essentially like to provide the concept of Circles-in-reverse. 

if you're a sports nut but not a computer geek, you could elect to see only the material i generate that suits your interests and not be bothered by other stuff. i shoot out as many posts as i can handle, and you don't worry about a noisy stream. upon creating content, i'd file/tag/categorize/whatever my posts according to the feed to which they belong. then, you can receive as few or as many of my sub-feeds as you wish.

to date, of course, we're relegated to creating multiple Twitter accounts to generate multiple feeds. i've always hated this approach, because it kills the rapid-response nature that i'm after as a broadcaster.

architecturally, the trick is how to implement such functionality so as not to undo the Circles concept for social connections, or not add confusion to it.

i'd love to hear your thoughts at any level about this. :)

FOR GUAM: How to Register with Netflix if you are seeing the "Not Available in Your Country" Screen

This hack for getting Netflix streaming to work on Guam - which has been problematic with at least one local ISP that use, at least in part, non-US-domestic IP addresses - was developed by Josie Moyer. I'm humbly replicating it here if you're unable to get it off her Facebook note.

Great job, Josie! :)

---------

So you've heard and seen all the posts from your Guam friends saying they're finally able to stream Netflix movies from Guam. This is so great! You decide you want to partake in the fun so you go to Netflix to register for an account only to find this message: 

 

 

 

What a bummer. I have a couple of theories to explain why many of us are seeing this and it seems to be limited to only NEW USERS who are signing up for the first time. If you already have a Netflix account you shouldn't have a problem logging in with your EXISTING account. First theory (and the most likely to be the case) is your computer's IP address is probably not a United States IP and Netflix knows it and won't let you in because of it. An IP address is basically a unique number that every computer is assigned when it connects to the internet. Some computers always have the same IP, other IPs change whenever the computer goes online. If your ISP assigned you an IP that originates from, say, Japan or Korea, Netflix is going to deny access. But don't be sad. There's a way to get your Netflix account. It's easy and I successfully tested it myself earlier tonight.

 

1. Go to http://freeproxyserver.ca/. A proxy server is kind of like a computer that sits between your computer and the internet. He's a middle man. He can hide your IP address and make it look like your computer is located in another continent, like somewhere in middle America. You might use a proxy server if you were in China and wanted to access blocked sites like Facebook and Twitter. Or you might use a whole network of proxy servers to make a ransom call or to transfer ransom money and make it difficult to be traced. haha. ha.

 

 

 

We're going to use http://freeproxyserver.ca/ to sign up for Netflix. Scroll down and enter netflix.com where you see myspace.com. Click browse. It will take you to the Netflix site where (hopefully) you won't see the "Not Available in your country" message. If you dont, great! All you have to do is register for your account.

 

 

 

 

 

Once you're registered, LOG OUT of your newly created Netflix account and quit your browser.

 

2. Relaunch your browser and go to Netflix.com. You're probably going to see the "Unavailable in your country" message again. Ignore it because it's a lie! Click "Member Sign In" at the top right. You should be able to log in and stream now. 

 

 

 

Remember, you really only have to do this if you are signing up for a Netflix account for the first time. If you already have a Netflix account you should still be able to log in even if you see the "Not Available" message. We now return to our regularly scheduled program. Happy streaming.

7 Questions for Are You Watching This?!

Are You Watching This?! is the brainchild of Mark Phillip, a native of New York that wound up in Austin following a stint at MIT. The multiplatform service harvests data about live sports events and relays scores, headlines - but most importantly, interest - in the games to its growing network of users. It leverages the power of constant input from devoted followers and real-time visualizations to feed the insatiable appetite of the online sports fan.

Here's 7 Questions for Mark.
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1. The first inquiry’s the most obvious - circa 2000, you’re a transplanted New Yorker living deep in the heart of Texas, jonesing for information about your beloved hometown teams. How did you conceive the idea for what became the platform?

I love (and hate) to tell this story: I moved to Austin in the summer of 2000, and the "GUN SHOW! THIS WEEKEND!" banner down the street instantly had me questioning if I made the right decision.  I quickly grew to love Austin, but had a few bouts of homesickness. That fall, the Jets and Dolphins were playing on Monday Night Football. I bought some food, some beverages, and decided to make a night of it.

My "night" didn't last long.

By halftime it was a blowout, and by the 3rd quarter I was asleep.  I woke up the next morning to find that not only did the Jets come back, but it ended up being one of the most epic comebacks in the history of the NFL.  Anytime a game has its own Wikipedia page, you know it must have been good.

I'll never, ever stop getting razzed by friends about missing that Instant Classic, and it was the first time I ever considered the idea.

Gt

2. Are You Watching This?! is one of a new generation of innovative services - Thuuz, FanVibe - that gauges the pulse of the sports-loving community, most of which express such trends graphically. But your app has a twist - RUWT!?'s Game Tracker feature visualizes the collective interest in games in real-time via a slick Flash UI. Care to provide a 50,000-foot overview at the backend architecture that powers this and the metrics used to generate Game Tracker’s charting?

At the core of the site is RUWTbot, our game-watching, patent-pending engine that’s constantly monitoring games around the globe.  There’s a wealth of data that is pulled in, but the goal has always been to reduce the amount of noise in our users’ lives, not increase it.  That’s why we allow filtering for alerts not just on the sports you like, but also on if it’s on a channel you can watch or not.  We live busy lives, and can’t spend all day, every day tracking games - even though we’d like to.

There are exceptions though, like during March Madness, or one of those great sports weekends where we look forward to spending all day on the couch, and that’s when the Game Tracker is perfect.

As we get updates from our sports data provider, we run our calculations, timestamp the data, and store it in our database, all within one-tenth of a second.  Instead of just firing notifications when games break through to new levels, we plot each timestamp along a cubic Bezier curve to let power fans track every game in progress.

3. There’s an interesting social symbiosis to Are You Watching This?! in requiring constant community input to generate the very interest it ultimately curates to denote game excitement. Explain how you structure your system around such open data.

User opinion is key to the accuracy of our ratings.  It’s the blend between cold, objective algorithms and passionate, subjective fan opinion that sets us apart from our competitors.  If you rely too much on algorithms you lose out on the nuance in sports like LeBron returning to Cleveland or Favre returning to Green Bay.  If you rely too much on user opinion, Yankees and Lakers games will always bubble to the top.  

The engine has become so mature, and is so good at learning from past games to identify future rivalries, that most of my work on the engine is ensuring that the objective/subjective mix is just right.

4. Further, the amount of downstream wire information (scores, headlines) gives the site a level of value during times when games aren’t being played. Is the “old school” technique of harvesting such static information proving challenging with your next-gen approach?

I’ve gotten over the fact that it’s 2011 and I don’t have a flying car, but it’s amazing to me that ESPN.com still won’t give start  times in my local time zone.  At the core, I’m just building the sports site I have always wished existed.  Innovation in the sports space is important, but old school data is much of the reason why sites like ESPN and Yahoo! get 10M+ uniques every month.

I’ll never come close to matching the amount of content generated by Bristol, but I hope users see RUWT?! as a great complement.

5. My own R&D work has focused on trying to apply machine learning theory to derive meaning from social posts in order to group content not just on occurrence, but on context. So I greatly appreciate how you’re able to dynamically separate conversations by sport and by game. This must prove a huge challenge with so many things going on concurrently.

When monitoring backend activity on the site, I’ve had friends joke that it looks like I’m scanning The Matrix with all the data steadily streaming in.  Most people assume that March Madness, with its awesome wealth of games in a short period of time weighs on the site, but it’s actually one of the easiest processing periods. 1 in 4 days of the year has 100 sporting events, and since RUWT?! started in 2006, I’ve seen days with as many as 500.  

Keeping all the data flowing into its proper spots has been a really enjoyable computer science challenge for me.

6. You’ve impressively extended your platform’s value across the mobile landscape...where do you fall in the “native mobile OS vs. HTML5” argument?

On this never-ending debate, I’m firmly in the middle.  There are some apps that only make sense as native or HTML5-based, but RUWT?!, like most, is best as a blend between the two.

Our three mobile apps are HTML5-based, and I’ve built native wrappers for each allowing them to be installed from the iPhone, Android, and Palm app stores.  When I need to make an update, I don’t have to fire up three different SDKs or wait for approval, I can just make my update and know that it’s instantly available across all platforms.

This strategy not only makes updates easier, it also accelerates how quickly new apps can be launched on new platforms.  Our iPhone, Android, Palm, and Google TV apps, our Chrome Extension, Chrome Web App, Firefox Add-on, and our Desktop App *all* share code.

7. With social sports applications on the rise, how do you continue to evolve your platform and make it distinct? What new areas of development are you exploring that will ensure stickiness for your site?

The Holy Grail for the technology has always been the Living Room.  To steal from Mark Cuban, sports in the most DVR-resistant genre on TV, and as set-top boxes from MSOs and satellite companies become more robust and over-the-top boxes like Google TV start to get their footing, I expect we’ll see a ton of innovation in this space.

At Are You Watching This?! we’ll be leading the way.

*** 
Thanks Mark! Keep up the truly amazing work. :)

OTHER INTERVIEWS IN THIS SERIES

·                           7 Questions for Glympse 

·                           7 Questions for Pink Visual 

·                           7 Questions for Superfeedr 

·                           7 Questions for Collecta 

·                           7 Questions for Tweetbookz 

·                           7 Questions for Tourneytopia  

·                           7 Questions for Jeff Lindsay on Web Hooks 

·                           7 Questions for Notifixious 

7 Questions for Glympse

Glympse is a revolutionary service that lets users send "ETA updates" to any mobile phone or e-mail address, letting recipients track friends and family members in realtime. Users run a native mobile app for iOS, Android, Windows Mobile and Blackberry (the latter in beta), set a point on a map for where they're going, indicate how long it'll take them to get there, and then send the notification. It's a very simple, clever delivery of a slick concept that makes perfect sense. It's been my favorite app for the last couple of months and I use it all the time.

Here's 7 Questions with Glympse co-founder and CEO Bryan Trussel.
Cell-phone-tracking

1. Glympse’s redeeming quality as I see it is that it essentially took all the popular aspects of location-based services and threw them in reverse, coming up with a really simple solution - drawing Google Maps lines to track a trip in realtime instead of plotting a course to a destination. What’s the story on how you came up with the idea?

Back before the iPhone 3G, we were playing around with new scenarios that might be created if people had GPSs in their phones. One angle was to be help people “geo-tag” photos that they took with their low cost existing digital cameras. We would write a program for your smartphone that kept track of your location. Then when you took a picture with your digital camera (not your phone), and uploaded your photo’s, we’d automatically match the time stamps up, and all of your photo’s would get location information with no work on your part. We wrote up a quick proof of concept to track a mobile phone in realtime. 

When we were testing by running around outside with realtime updates on the PC inside, we had an ‘Aha!’ moment and saw something much cooler than Geotagging. Realtime location sharing of a mobile phone to any other device. And the concept of Glympse was born...


2. Glympse seems to be one of a crop of new apps that are leveraging a pretty radical concept: services not requiring everyone using them to be members and/or have the app installed without vendor lock-in. Was this a conscious design decision, or did it just sort of happen as a means of increasing your userbase?

Very conscious decision. It’s very hard to build a private social network. Critical mass is a major problem, and even if you are lucky enough to be able to hit critical mass, unless you’re Facebook, there is always someone bigger than you. For us, we wanted low friction, easy location sharing to happen virally. That meant you needed to be able to share location beyond your network with folks who didn’t have the application. The proliferation of app-stores, and our use of the mobile web browser made us a very cross platform, cross carrier solution.


3. Currently I can’t access Glympses across devices, with ETA notifications living only on the device that created them. Any plans to make it a 100% cloud service?

We are moving more and more to a cloud service, with more and more features (including ETA) being available across non Glympse enabled phones. But with today’s technology, there is still quite a bit you need to have direct access to on a phone for a great user experience.


4. When I describe Glympse to people they try to lump it in with Foursquare, then when I talk about it more, they think it’s a Google Latitude knockoff. What have some of the challenges been for you from a technological, usability and branding standpoint?

When talking about Glympse, often times we’ll get initially lumped in with Foursquare and Latitude. But when people use our software, they immediately see the difference. We’re pretty different in our branding, and use case. Foursquare is about public check-ins, letting everyone know where you are/were for a point in time. Latitude now has check-ins also, but is really about a private, limited network. Glympse is about simplicity and letting anyone you want know where your realtime location is for a set period of time. 

You’re really never in a situation where you are saying “Should I use Foursquare, or should I use Glympse?” Foursquare is serendipity, Glympse is utility.


5. What creative ways have people shared with you about how they’re using Glympse for work, personal life and play? Pizza delivery would seem the most obvious candidate.

The Glympse use case is very long tail both personal and business.  Families, friends, sales calls, jogging, carpools, limo drivers, food trucks, road trips. And yes, pizza delivery is an oft-requested feature…


6. I noticed in the app’s masthead/startup screen it lists that you have more than one patent pending. Can you shed some light on what custom innovation you’ve engineered?

There are a bunch of areas we have innovated intellectual property. Sharing realtime location for a specific amount of time is a key aspect of what Glympse pioneered. There are several other areas which aren’t yet public which we’ve innovated on also concerning location sharing, battery usage, and social network integration.


7. What’s the marketing strategy and monetization plan for the platform? What new features will we see? Are you thinking about taking a dip at the augmented reality end of the pool?

Right now, we’re concentrating on driving awareness, working with partners to integrate Glympse, and enhancing the user experience while maintaining our reputation as being the easiest way to share your location.  Augmented reality is something we’ve looked at, but isn’t on the immediate roadmap.

Thanks, Bryan! And best of luck! :)

Other 7 Question interviews:

7 Questions for Pink Visual

Pink2
Pink Visual is an award-winning adult entertainment studio best known for its work as a leading research & development innovator. Among its achievements are work in the augmented reality space, live interactive webcasts, affiliate programs, mobile applications, and pioneering work using various media formats and delivery methods.  
 
The Van Nuys company’s latest creation is PVLocker.com, the world’s first cloud-based adult media hosting service. Its goal is to provide paying customers with server space housing purchased images and videos and providing multiplatform accessibility, a concept new to the porn industry.
 
President Allison Vivas leads Pink Visual’s strategic direction and joined me for her 7 Questions.
1. Porn is unequivocally the litmus test for any application of technology these days before it goes mainstream, but the Blue Industry’s admittedly tardy to the party when applying cloud computing. How did Pink Visual conceptualize PVLocker, what’s the plan for it, and do you see this being an industry-wide model that your contemporaries will adopt?

Our executive team here noted the increased discussion of ‘cloud computing’ that really kicked up in the web hosting sector starting back in 2008, and while we didn’t jump right into development on anything cloud related at the time, we began discussing how cloud-based distribution might fit into our strategy. We saw that there was a certain appeal to the idea of cloud computing among consumers, even though the average consumer might not be able to define or identify what the “cloud” really means.
 
Over time, our conversations about cloud computing began to overlap with our anti-piracy campaign discussions and our analysis of the data we gathered in assessing the impact of content piracy. When we saw staggering statistics showing that a single scene of ours has had over 30 million views across tube sites alone, we had to wonder “what if we could get these consumers to just pay $1 per scene,” or something small like that, because they obviously like the content, but are hesitant to purchase. That conversation in turn evolved into examining why customers are hesitant to purchase, which included inquiring directly with end-users on forums that are associated with content piracy, and in the general end-user population.
 
Many of the comments we received indicated that adult entertainment consumers are not fond of recurring billing, hidden charges, receiving spam, popup advertising, etc., all of which are things they associated with the act of purchasing adult content online. Some users also expressed that the monthly charges were high when at times they might really only be interested in a handful of scenes, and that it would be more cost effective to purchase scenes ala carte, if that were only an option.

Still others commented that for them, having to store their content on their own computer was not desirable, and at the same time, they didn’t want to continue to pay for a subscription to maintain access to content that they might not watch often enough to justify the cost of the subscription.

We took all of that feedback, the desire to not have content stored locally, the desire to have a positive purchasing experience at a reasonable price, and added to it by providing superior quality and multi-platform video playback -- mobile, tablet, desktop, and internet TV(coming soon) – to give us an advantage over some of the tube sites.

 
We also will be rolling out a feature which takes advantage more of the cloud concept, where consumers can store their own previously purchased video content in their PVlocker.  There they will be able to access it from multiple devices, making it more convenient than having it on their PC.

Our plan right now is to test, brand and educate with the product.  There will be time necessary to allow customers to trust the adult purchasing process again, and to compare our trustworthy and advertising-free site experience to what they have been used to.  Ultimately, we think this is where word of mouth and a positive reputation will help build the product.

In terms of content, we also plan to incorporate other studios’ content into the business model and provide the variety that consumers enjoy.

2. More than ever porn is powered by infinite niche generated for insatiable demand. What are some of the unique opportunities (and challenges) of working with adult content versus traditional entertainment commodities?

I think the most unique challenge is the closed-mindedness of mainstream partners to understand that we are a business, and we are fulfilling our consumer's rights to enjoy adult entertainment.  Ultimately, their resistance to doing business with adult companies means that we have limited opportunities in crucial areas, from banking and investment, to things like partnerships with iTunes, Apple, Netflix, etc who routinely partner with producers of non-adult content.  

So, we are limited in distribution methods and also in ways we can get the word out to adults about our products.  For example, even a ‘soft’ ad on late night TV would not fly if your company is primarily known for producing and distributing hardcore porn.

3. As a female executive, what are some of the strategic challenges of running a company that the world beyond the San Fernando Valley views with judgmental eyes? 

I don't see any challenges as a female executive in the industry or running the company that male executives in the industry don’t face, really.  On the contrary, I find that being a woman allows me to be more dynamic in playing dual roles, if anything. For example, we surprised our staff with iPad 2's as gifts a couple weeks ago and included a little note signed by the "iPad Fairy." I'm not sure how many male executives would have felt comfortable doing that.

As a whole, the biggest challenge for any adult company is to dismantle the misconceptions about our industry and to take the opportunity to stand up to those who spread false information or make flawed assumptions.  I personally think that male executives have more of a challenge there than females since we don't fall into the typical adult executive stereotype.

4. Pink Visual’s claim to fame is driving new technology and doing lots of proof-of-concept work. Describe your team’s philosophy in working with risque material over new platforms. Also break down the distribution formats, by popularity, of your product lines (i.e., what digital format(s) sell the most).

Our use of technology is really driven by our staff.  We have always been a team of individuals who are intrigued by technology, software and the way both drive the evolution of the market.  The fact that we get to work with technology within the adult arena is a bonus, because we ultimately end up attracting fun and open-minded individuals who share many traits in common, yet remain distinctly unique individuals.  

It's those bonds and the freewheeling atmosphere here that encourage a development process where we’re always looking to improve and optimize our products.  We dabbled in mainstream endeavors before, and although those efforts achieved positive results, the level of passion and creativity around those products just wasn’t as high.

Due to the huge focus we have put on mobile over the last three years, we have around a 50/50 split between with mobile and PC sales, currently.  Tablets compose about 10% of our mobile sales.  Overall, we've looked to streamline our production, so across mobile, PC, tablets, etc our main format if H.264/MPEG-4.

5. The generation of “*tube sites” (free streaming video sites often exhibiting stolen content) have taken a huge chunk of revenue from content producers, and yet arguably has driven more eyeballs to their work than ever before. How do you continue to run a business under such a conundrum, and what distinction do you bake into your products to still make them attractive to paying consumers?

I think this plays back into my first answer and why we decided to do PVLocker.com and making that affordable, convenient, and a better experience overall than frequenting tube sites.  We are also reverse engineering the tube concept. Where the tubes give out content for free and advertise paid products in the dating, live cams and “male enhancement" products, we charge for our content, but provide other value-added experiences free to our consumers – like free live shows, free mobile apps, and the opportunity to play video games against porn stars online at no added charge.  

We also keep our content quality standards high and work to educate the consumers about the risks of being on sites that have user-generated content, which as has been widely reported, often include malware, trojans and other forms of exploits.

6. Pink Visual is also known for its strong commitment to corporate citizenship. Describe your initiatives to this end.

As I mentioned, our company attracts a lot of open-minded individuals, who also happen to be empathetic, compassionate people who care about humanity, in general. While our primary focus as a company is necessarily on business and generating revenue, there’s also a level of understanding about a greater responsibility to the world at large, well outside our core business and customer base. 

This understanding contributes to our belief that when society and individuals around us are happier, cared for, and secure, that comes around full circle, and results in a benefit to us as a company and as individuals. The decisions as to which organizations and initiatives we support are driven by our staff.

Generally speaking, this manifests itself in us being a ‘green’ company wherever we can be, from recycling and saving electricity to installing new environmentally-friendly windows throughout the office.  I personally drive a hybrid and have solar panels on my home.  We have supported environmental causes like Trees for the Future and The Environmental Defense Fund.  Most recently we all donated our Thanksgiving bonus fund to a local soup kitchen.  

We also have an ongoing company matching plan for all funds raised for non-profits by members of the Pink Visual staff.
 
7. What major trends will the adult industry see within the next two years in terms of content delivery, and what role will Pink Visual play in that landscape?

I believe consumers’ expectations for value will continue to rise, with the desire for higher quality video, and faster mobile content delivery.  This is something we already position ourselves for, by already having the higher quality formats ready to go at any time, and we constantly work with and test various Content Delivery Networks to ensure we're providing a good experience to our customers.  

Given that we believe in mobile so strongly, much of the evolution in delivery will be dependent on the new devices and their support systems for things like better fast-forward capabilities and carrier connections.

Stream Allison’s keynote address at Xbix ‘11.

Hey, ESPN! Show Al Scates some love!

One thing that really irked me as a sportswriter - but more importantly as a sports fan - is how ESPN neglected to mention UCLA volleyball guru Al Scates in its list of the Top Coaches of All-Time. Naturally such a list would be obliged to include Vince Lombardi, Red Auerbach, Dean Smith, Bear Bryant, Mike Kryzewski, John Wooden, Scotty Bowman, Phil Jackson, Bill Walsh, Joe Torre, Don Shula and others. (And I was also pleasantly surprised to see Anson Dorrance and Dan Gable receive recognition, showing that non-mainstream sports got consideration, too.)

But insultingly left out was The Great Scates, who with all due respect to Wooden, is a Westwood wizard in his own right.

This season will be his 49th year on the job - for tenure alone, he's approaching Eddie Robinson and Joe Paterno status. But his success with the Bruins is unprecedented - over 1,200 career victories while winning nearly 85% of his games. His teams have appeared in 25 national championship games, winning 19 titles for UCLA. His winning percentage is among the highest in college sports - period. Hell, the man coached Karch Kiraly. He's a living legend. And that Coach Scates isn't on the list is pure blasphemy.

Now I'm a realist, so I accept that in an American sports world so enamored about all things football, basketball, baseball and hockey (in that order), and even extended to include golf, auto racing, tennis, horseracing, and - maybe - soccer, volleyball isn't most people's cup of tea. Even beach volleyball, overwhelmingly the fan favorite when compared to its indoor counterpart, hasn't risen above its status as athletic fetish - appealing only to a certain breed of person. Making the sport more appealing to the masses is something marketing and volleyball officials are and have been addressing for a decade with meager success.

But to ignore the contributions and achievements of a true giant in the sport is just irresponsible, making the list incomplete and of less value. Do the right thing: give the man his due credit. 

He's certainly earned it.