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Online Porn - The Technology Testbed?
DaveAtFraud writes "USA Today is running a only slightly tongue-in-cheek article pointing out that the on-line porn industry has become the technology testbed for innovative content delivery. On-line delivery of 'adult' content has been wrestling with issues such as digital rights management, video on-demand billing, wireless services, and geo-location software since long before these became issues for 'mainstream' content providers. Maybe having an adult content provider listed on your geek resume isn't so bad after all."
Unlike viewers of corporate or media websites, these people won't complain if something doesn't work properly. No one's going to make a stink if their favorite porn website's flash animation isn't working properly, at least not publically.
Actually, forget BBS. Porn was a driving force in every single growing means of mass-communication. One of the first things printed in mass-form after the Bible was a series of pornographic images and texts; organized phone-sex programs drove pay-phone systems (i.e. 1-900 or 976 numbers); Playboy TV was one of the first premium channels, not to mention those pay-per-view channels.
Face it: sex is the driving force behind our [and every] species, so its no surprise that almost all of our cultural structures seem to largely depend on it somehow.
"Stumble before you crawl"
Yes, they are definitely ahead of the times compared to most others when it comes to technology, but they are also ahead of the times in the nextgen marketing/spam department.
Pop-ups? They did it first. Pop-unders? Did it first. The messenger exploit? Guess who.
God knows what else is brewing in the labs as we speak..
We have secretly replaced these Slashdot mods' sense of humor with a rusty nail. Let's see if they notice!!
If you want to test a particular platform for scalability, have a porn outfit try it out.
It only makes sense, considering how rooted in sex we human beings really are. I don't think it's anything to be ashamed of, and if as a race we could be more open with our sexuality, it wouldn't cause so many other problems.
- percieved anonymity
- convienence...content delivered on demand
- privacy of enjoying content in own home
I wonder how many people would pay a porn site to download content, but will not be willing to go to an "adult bookstore" to buy the same content?
Will people still visit porn sites if their employers knew what sites they visit?
Porn industry is quite responsive to new technology. Subscription models, streaming video, mobile content, all of these seem to make it in porn, but not the rest of the industry(not as easily).
ISPs also love hosting porn sites due to the highbandwidth, expensive accounts that these sites get. It's quite at how successful porn business is as compared to "decent" business models.
Actually, it's a question of statistics.
Let say that 10 million people come to see your free stuff. From past studies, you can approximate that 0.1% of viewers will take the "3 day trial membership", and 25% of these will forget to cancel in time there membership.
You end up having 10 000 people paying for a 3-day trial, and 2500 paying the full monthly charge. Now how much does it cost to produce the material?
These numbers are just from the top of my head, but you can guess that just bringing a lot of people to a site, even a free one, can be quite profitable.
I find it interesting that the article suggests that having experience in the online adult industry would be beneficial to one's resume. While technology may be driven by porn, I suspect that most subsequent employers would not be enlightened enough to see past the "porn" part of it...
This
I doubt I'd find it if I tried but I remember reading an article about a year or more ago from a big porn site operator taking about the advantages of using J2EE technologies in their high traffic sites. There were also comments about companies using them to fine tune their frameworks because of the real world load they had. I found this article when I wanted to find out more about competing technologies. I specifically wanted to find what the porn industry was using for their websites knowing how much traffic they get. So I stuck with jsp/servlet programming. If it's good enough for half naked women with fake boobs, it's good enough for me!
Unfortunately, people might not go to well for the slogan "Java & J2EE, we help you get sticky."
Porn has helped innovate many industries. It's a shame there's too much of a stigma associated with it and they don't get the recognition they deserve.
Open Source Java DAO Generator
It is a great market for testing many things because it is such a commoditized and competitive market. The material is all the same boring stuff, so they need to explore new ways to market it. Is there a porn version of Netflix yet? Who is going to be the first in wireless porn?
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Create a WAP server
I'd also like to note that a couple of DVD features, such as multiple angels, were pretty much implemented thanks to the porn industry.
Think that's BS?
How many movies have multiple angles that DON'T involve storyboards?
How many PORN movies have multiple angles? (not that I personally know or anything...)
Yeah, thought so.
Quote from article: "...online-porn experts say." Isn't every male an online-porn expert? How does one become an 'online-porn expert'?
Porn is that perfect equilibrium point on the chart that economic theorists dream about - the ultimate cash nexus, where the supply demand curves collide in ecstatic harmony.
Consider - there is enough technical info on the internet to perform nuclear fusion, harness solar energy to power your homes, run your car on biofuel from corn instead of gasoline, create immense wealth from freely available portfolio management techniques, crack the genetic code, break RSA crypto, find the next largest Mersenne prime, or maybe just find a new home, repair your microwave, hawk your old CDs.....or even build yourself an H-bomb & blow up this planet to bits.
Yet, what is the most sought after commodity on the net ? Porn !
Why is that ?
In "The Wealth of Nations", Adam Smith explains the "Diamond-Water paradox". The most useful, valuable, life-sustaining entity on the planet is water - yet, it has practically no price, since supply is free ( it rains ! ). The least useful frivilous commodity is the diamond, but it has enormous, immense value in the eyes of man.
So, Smith says, an economist must never attempt to tie value with price, since they don't have much of a relationship. Porn on the net is much more valuable than all the useful techie manuals & MIT courseware put together, because Porn is the ultimate diamond.
It's all in how you write your resume. "Commercial internet based multi-media provideer" sounds much better than "systems administrator for Sluts-R-Us.com."
I can get it for you wholesale.
Some mornings it's hardly worth chewing through the restraints to get out of bed.
Porn always leads the way. From film to video to DVD to the internet. The only thing that's new with the internet is that there are new things happening all the time, and if you pay attention to what the porn sites are doing you can see what the other commercial sites will be doing in 6 months. Whether you talk about annoying popup ads, search engine optimizing, streaming video or p2p, if it can be done it's being done with porn.
Bite the hand.
Pretty much, yeah. And what do you think drove the "woodcut industry" in the first place? Why, those same naughty woodcuts. What do you fueled the translation of the world's literature into European colloquial languages? Check out the unexpergated version of the Book of a Thousand Nights and a Night (The Arabian Nights to you and me), available at . . . .Project Gutenberg, in seventeen volumes. What do you suppose they were doing some of those nights?
Naughty Woodsman stories have always been the staple of the printing trade.
Naughty figurines go back as far as man made objects. What do you suppose drove the world porcelain trade, tea cups? The Victorian "gentleman" had a fine taste for delicate China dolls that had a "surprise" when you upended them.
Who woulda thunk that a species which reproduces sexually and without "season" would be eternally mindful of sex.
And woulda thunk that such would become pornography and "obscene"?
Gimme that old time religion.
Let us pray with Aphrodite
Let us play with Aphrodite
She wears that see through nighty
And that's good enough for me!
KFG
There's actually truth in this. They refused to lisence the Beta technology to Porn Producers. So they industry went to VHS. The rest is history.
My days of not taking you seriously are certainly coming to a middle...
1. Brilliant idea
2. Apply to porn industry
3. Profit!
An interesting theory, but incorrect. While people do seek out porn, there are so many competing adult companies that advertising is extremely important. Content and delivery methods are far less important than traffic. Most online adult companies spend the lions share of their budget on advertising.
I have different ideas about this.
First of all, porn isn't meant to be as realistic as possible. We watch porn being fully aware that this stuff isn't real. It's a way to experience fantasies... it kind of ends there. Porn does not replace real sex all together - it complements it.
Let's look at your points:
1. Androids - We already have Real Dolls. A reporter actually had sex with a real doll and documented his feelings in nerve.com. No, I won't post the link - go look it up there if you're interested. Bottom line - it's weird and freaky. If it moves and talks, it's going to be outright scary.
2. "True" Virtual Reality - Maybe, but it's not going to replace 2D porn in a hurry. I'd keep an eye on this one though.
3. Smell / Taste - I don't think so. Is there anyone else who finds the concept of smelling / tasting another unknown person (although a celebrity) gross? FYI, flavor and beauty may not be correlated.
4. Personal Video Players - We already have this stuff. What we don't have is a good quality, consumer grade "personal display", i.e. stuff like the Xybernaut (TV screen in your sunglasses). I believe that personal displays will bring about a revolution but porn would have little to do with it.
5. Stain proof clothing / Genetics - WTF?!
Looking at your point 1, 2 and 3 it appears that you're trying to get replace sex completely. That is not the main concept here. I think that the development in porn industry is going to be not technological. It'd more towards the "subject" of the content. Examples:
a. Customized porn: Some sites offer this. It's like you choose the theme, setting, models, dialogues, name of characters and the story. They act this out for you. Right now it's quite expensive and is only offered by sites that has really weird content (fetish / bondage). I guess this will pick up.
b. Similar to a, but more "community" oriented. Maybe some sort of an moderation style system where the best user-submitted story gets acted out. Or, photo shoot for models / themes with top votes from users. Scoop / Slashcode anyone?
c. Porn for couples: Eventually people get laid. Till date, porn is mostly a guy thing. Now what happens when you feel like watching porn with your S/O? You're not going to watch "4 on 1 DD sluts" with your girlfriend, right? It think the next trend is going to be porn for couples.
d. End of stereotyped porn as we know it. Girls won't keep their high heels on, all acts won't have oral sex, guys won't look like zombies grown in vats, and the movie won't end with money shots. There's too much content in this theme and nobody would be willing to pay for this anymore.