Mid-November, UK.

Every year from September to February of the following year is the season of high rain, coupled with the drop in temperature, the wet and cold environment, it is simply the magic attack of AOE, although the women on the road are still wearing short skirts and leggings, but the shivering reaction, but instinctively the word wet and cold intuitively presented. At Cardiff University's School of Computer and Information Engineering, the heating was not turned on due to non-teaching use, and the bald Kohl-Niedhan was wrapped in a coat and blowing his red nose as he stared at the monitor on the table with three other companions.

And under the operation of Dr. Dave Marshall, who is also bald, with sparse hair, and his hands are not disturbed by the temperature, the interface, which is extremely monotonous compared to later generations, is showing the latest modified features, "Cole, with Rob's help, we added HTML form functionality to the chaotic website, and after we discussed with the professor, they agreed that we would borrow the server space of the college, but while providing the World Wide Web, the professor asked us to name the database you wrote. Cardiff Internet Movie Database', I don't think the name should be the focus of our troubles, after all, we don't have the money to buy servers right now. ”

In addition to Cole Nedham, who has been collecting film information since he was thirteen, Dave Marshall, who operates there, and Rob Hartur and Robert Evans, who are staring at the screen left and right, are all PhDs students at Cardiff University.

"yes, I don't think the name matters." Cole Niederham nodded approvingly, "The most important thing we need to do right now is to make the site satisfy more fans, and after expanding the server, we will ......"

"We need to accept automated data submissions, instead of having admins flip through their emails every day, as we do now." Before Cole Niederham finished speaking, Rob Harttier, the head of Cardiff University's branch, said directly: "Manually flipping through the page, conducting on-site audits, and then letting the data personnel update the information, this kind of operation trajectory is too troublesome and time-consuming, and then we need to add an email extension function to the website, so that everyone can choose the location of the information verification, and then the background will automatically assign the verification information to the local auditor, so that we can reduce the manual operation ......."

Twenty years later, many people will say that the rapid development of technology has made people who are engaged in simple labor unemployed, but in fact, they were already trying to reduce their manpower in the early days of IMDb long before it was commercialized.

It's not that the cost is too high, because everyone is generating electricity for love, but the management is chaotic and there are too many processes.

Let's take updating the movie information as an example, from the user discovering that there is no such person in the database, to the final inclusion of the database, which has to go through: discovery and reporting, audit and investigation, information collection, authenticity confirmation, background entry, and front-end presentation, and these six links, at least six people have to do, according to the different territories of the movie, different materials, different languages, there are more people involved in collecting a movie information, not to mention that there are many guys who want to add new information to existing entries, For the review of new information, it requires a lot of manpower......

Yes, although these people really like these things, but generating electricity for love does not mean that they can continue to give selflessly, everyone has their own life, when the database is less traffic, they will be excited to communicate with those new emails every night, but as the number of people surges, and the constant influx of people, it becomes quite painful for them.

Because of this, while trying to find ways to rub the server, they also had to streamline the process.

If everything must be done personally, then Wolong Zhuge is their end.

"But in addition to writing algorithms for automatic data submission, we also have to consider the growth rate of personnel and the issue of funding."

Robert Evans, who was full of silver hair, pushed down his glasses on the bridge of his nose and said to Cole Nedhan: "Although we are using the school server now, it will soon be insufficient, according to my calculations, the growth rate of Internet users will reach two thousand three percent next year, although only a small part of them will notice us, but the surge in foot traffic is not something that can be achieved by the school server and the bandwidth donated by others, we ...... One day, I'll buy my own server. ”

"Yes, the school's servers won't last long." Rob Harttier couldn't agree more.

"After all, it's not our family." Dave Marshall also let go of the mouse and looked at Cole Nedham.

Yes, in addition to streamlining the process, there is no money, which is also a cruel fact in front of everyone.

But for Kohl-Nedham, this harsh reality is not a problem at all!

"It's okay, let's do it first, if I lack money, I'll go to financing." Cole Nedham tightened his coat and said, "Does Roland Allen, the hottest person in the database, know?" He gave me the invitation to the premiere in Washington, D.C., I talked to him and met Spielberg through him, and he was interested in our website, and if we were short of money, we could go to them. ”

After the premiere of "Jurassic Park", Cole Nedham and Mike Mohami went on a trip to Blizzard Entertainment.

After seeing the brand-new three-story building, with its empty offices and a bunch of people populating the development team, he believed that the Blizzard triumvirate was true - Roland Allen was really a guy who didn't care about financial statements.

And this is the result he wants, he likes movies, he is willing to gather information, but he doesn't know ......

This thing, can it be profitable.

Unlike those guys with strong entrepreneurial goals, Cole Nidham just likes one thing, and his biggest goal is not to make a profit in business at all, but to constantly improve his database and satisfy more people!

You can say that this kind of guy is a fool, but he is more like Forrest Gump, who has done one thing to the extreme!

Because of this, he is very cautious when looking for investment, because his primary goal is not to keep painting a big pie for Son like Jack Ma, but to hope that the investor's money can make his dream continue better.

This kind of approach, which is incomprehensible to all investors, has made him shut down countless times, but after in-depth communication with Mike Mohamie, he understands that Roland Allen is his best investor.

"You know what? Mike, one of our group, impressed Roland with a game. ”

"When their company only developed one game, Roland not only bought them wholly according to their offer, but also bought the game rights to Spider-Man according to their requirements, and purchased the genre license from Universal."

"This kind of unconditional support is what we need, so I'm ready to turn to him for help when there is a shortage of funds."

"Of course, this kind of request for help may make the site commercialized, but I don't think anyone will object to ......"

Someone is willing to give away money for nothing, and whoever opposes it is a fool!

After listening to Cole Nedhan's narration, the three people at the scene all laughed happily.

Who is Roland Allen?

This kind of idiotic question doesn't need to be asked at all!

And since there are channels to find the pick-up man, their next work will be simpler.

"Ok, that's the best, then I'll try to write out the automatic data submission and distribution early next year."

"The idea of limiting the flow can also be stopped, and we are not afraid of how many visits will come now."

"Of course, isn't the most important thing to invite Roland Allen to England first? We need to introduce him to all the features of the website and plan for the future in advance, so that he doesn't get pulled away by other guys......"

Since there is no objection to commercial operation, things are much easier.

In fact, Cole Niederham also wanted to invite Roland to come to the UK to have a look at the website while implementing automatic data classification.

While now they are the largest data site, what about the future?

As the number of netizens continues to increase, there may be other guys who do the same thing!

"Ok, then I'll send an email to the people in the group, as long as they agree, we'll set the invitation time at the beginning of next year, after all, we can't delay Roland's time, the pre-production of a movie is actually very troublesome."

The guy who has advanced authority in the database now,There are only a dozen people now.,And after communicating with them one by one,,The guy who opposes it is even more none-after all,Hobby and Cha Fan,Obviously, the latter is more important.,And if you can keep your hobby in the case of Cha Fan,That's naturally the best news.。

And after he sent the email to Mike Mohami and asked the other party to help deliver the invitation message, Roland, who heard the news, shook his head at the fax in his hand, "Want to ask me to invest money?" This is indeed good news, but the question is ......"

"It's not worth investing now!"

Yes, if IMDb were a company of the same type as Blizzard, Roland would have caught them, but the problem is that it's actually as complex as Wikipedia.

It's not that it can't be commercialized, but it's commercialized before it succeeds, and that's cerebral palsy!

You know, before IMDb was officially commercialized, they had a total of more than 100,000 movies entered into their database, and the cast and crew information of each movie was plotted......

Because it can't be developed!

How many people are needed to enter the data of more than 100,000 films?

Kol Nidhan has been working since he was thirteen years old, and he has only made more than 10,000 films in more than ten years!

And if you hire someone to do it, no company can afford to burn this money!

This is the same as the two horses fighting, Didi is fast, burning 100 million a day, and the two sides burning 8 billion!

This is not to be a portal, let alone a search engine, the cost is not the cost of research and development, nor to seize the market, but the salary of thousands of people who generate electricity for love!

Why doesn't Cole Nedham make a TV series now?

Isn't it because you can't do it at all?

IMDb's major change in the inclusion of TV series is actually the official website of the film company crawling with crawlers!

Only climb one title, let the copyright of the page be disseminated later, and let the netizens who fill the page hold it.

In this way, not only does the risk of infringement be reduced, but the development cost is also minimized!

To put it bluntly, IMDb is a data seller of traffic, but the problem is that it costs money to collect data and money to verify data!

Because of this, before the data is aggregated to a situation that can be realized, Roland is actually very reluctant to see the other party set up a company, he would rather act as a volunteer, wronged the big one, and donate some operating funds to them, so that they can develop better, rather than let them declare independence and then buy each other, because ......

It's too much money.

He can't afford to burn.

What's more, if they can be capitalized in the case of generating electricity with love, isn't that just a lot of money and nowhere to lose?

In this way, after staring at the contents of the fax and thinking twice, Roland took the initiative to make a phone call with Mohami.

"Help me get an email back to Cole and say I'd be happy to be a guest in England."

"When I'm done with the project at hand, I'll make time and let me know in advance."

"If they are short of funds now, I can put 200,000 yuan into their fundraising account for emergency ......"

From the very beginning, Roland was ready to buy ready-made, in IMDb will collect the public data about the same, and the number of visits has also passed the first growth peak in the start, although in this way, it will cost nearly half a billion, but no matter what, it is more cost-effective than finding someone to do it yourself, because the development model of Du Niang Encyclopedia is placed outside the wall, and it is impossible to do it at all.

And as a professional database, it is impossible to add it 'wantonly' like Du Niang Encyclopedia.

Of course, a trip to England is not a big deal for Roland.

He was going to take Elizabeth out to play, but now he just has a clear goal, starting from England and going around Northern Europe, let alone a month, even if he takes the other party to play for a year, the money spent can't keep up with the rise of stocks.

It's a sad story.

…………

At the same time that Roland answered, everything in the outside world was also running non-stop.

On November 30, "Schindler's List" was first screened in Washington, D.C., the next day, a media viewing was also held in New York, and on December 9, the crew returned to Los Angeles.

There is no way, even if Spielberg is crazy about the academy to vent his anger, but "Schindler's List" still has to follow the process of rushing to the Olympics, and the so-called process, to put it mildly, is to screen the publicity first, so that those who have the right to vote, can hold a pen, and can send news reports After watching it, according to their feedback, it will be moderately promoted.

As for what the list of Oscar judges is absolutely secret?

That big list is indeed absolutely confidential, but relative to the crowd, there are still some people.

As long as you have the heart to scan the news of the members of the academy every year, you can find a bunch of the names of your peers from above.

Although those peers only account for a certain number of votes in the final selection, doesn't winning them in advance mean that your competitors' winning positions will be smaller?

Don't think it's impossible!

In fact, those invited guests who participate in the Oscars every year, have the right to vote!

Otherwise, what would Weinstein do with business?

If he had really bought off the academy, there would have been no scandal!

After all, the Oscars are famous, and they are afraid of the Grammys!

If the New York Times published "Are the Grammys Still Trustworthy?" "That kind of coverage, and stars like Taylor Swift, Adele Adkins, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, Rihanna are gone, then the Oscars, it will come to an end, although they have been biased in later generations, but they are not as miserable as the Grammys.

As for now—

That's even more ridiculous!

A newcomer like Freckles wants to hit the nail on the head?

No matter how much money you have, you have to go home and dream!

Regardless of whether it is a front-line actor who started with commercial films, or an acting star who wants to save the country with an art film, as long as it is a newcomer, then you have to wait, wait, wait, those old-timers who have the right to vote will not let newcomers win awards, or if you want them to vote, you must at least get a nomination to brush up on style, right?

Of course, style is not a problem for Spielberg at all, since seven or eight years, he has been nominated for three Best Director and two Best Picture nominations, and "Schindler's List" is regarded by everyone as a winning film, so after the three-point screening, the world, which saw the direction of the wind, directly opened the regional rotation.

The so-called regional rotation is actually a place, a place that is slowly released.

The reason is very simple.

Control the direction of public opinion.

Screenings and rotations are actually cultivating the hunger of the market, and at the same time, they are also screening audiences.

All the Olympic movies have to ensure that the audience who goes to watch the movie is worthy of the movie, regardless of whether it is the investor or the winner himself, they don't want to hear the outside world say no to themselves, and in this case, those who have a low knowledge reserve and a low level of viewing, or those who think that art films are a group of people's self-entertainment, can't let them enter the film.

Yes, you read that right, this is actually exclusion of the masses.

They think that the guys who like business will only help at this time, so they will do everything they can to block these guys who can only have Boom, Boom, and Boom in their heads at the door of the theater until they are nominated.

Because after being nominated, there is no suspense about whether to win the award, and with the east wind of the nomination, the film company has a very good publicity gimmick, so it is particularly necessary to increase the box office and make profits.

In fact, this is the regular routine of capital.

Both prizes and money.

On the one hand, he dislikes the public and gets in the way, and on the other hand, he has to reap the box office.

Before the Internet was prevalent, this routine was tried and tested.

Of course, in the same situation as "Schindler's List", there is also "The Philadelphia Story".

After "Schindler's List" swept the media, "The Philadelphia Story" was screened in Century City, Los Angeles on December 14, and on December 16, the crew flew to New York to serve the guys living in the East of the United States.

This kind of behavior of flying around, just to curry favor with the voters, looked at Roland and pouted.

Still, he could understand.

Everyone is a player at the table, and no one can lift the table until the shady report is revealed, right?

And since you can't lift the table, it's naturally fun......