Slashdot Mirror
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."
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?
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 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
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.
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.