What are the main duties and responsibilities of your position?

I am in charge of everything except the financial aspects and the customer service aspects of the business. First I'll say that the reason I separated that from my role is that I feel that having to deal with those things takes away from my ability to function as an artist -- and while the job is a technical job, I believe it is only valuable when perceived as, and validated as, art in the purest sense of that word.

As far as the main site, I am responsible for the ongoing visual and structural development of the site (this includes both design and programming of the backend tools), as well as both developing new content (including writing articles, producing DVDs, organizing events and photoshoots, etc.) and processing content submissions (photos, videos, stories, articles, etc.) from the public for integration into the site.

As far as the community site, I am responsible both for development (creating the software that powers the site) and maintenance (keeping everything running and defending against attacks). In addition, I have the more nebulous (and less pleasant) role of defining the "laws" of the site and policing them. This puts me in the uncomfortable position of being the guy that decides where the line in the sand gets drawn -- a decision that will never make everyone happy.

What happens during a typical work day?

I usually start work at about 7 AM. I catch up on essential emails and other communications, and then usually put in about a 12 hour day, both on BME and on other projects. Either way, the day is normally spent in front of the computer. It's not terribly exciting to be honest.

What skills do you need to work in this field?

By "this field" I'm going to assume that you mean online niche publishing, not body modification. First and foremost, you need personal interest and experience in the field you're publishing on. Niche publishing in my opinion only works if you genuinely believe in it.

As far as technical skills, a good jack-of-all-trades is really what's needed. I'm a good web designer, but not the best. I'm a good writer, but not the best. I'm a good programmer, but not the best. (And so on). But there aren't many people that can do all of those things.

In addition to the obvious technical skills required, you have to have a pretty thick skin. As soon as a site gets heavy traffic, no matter how "good" or "right" it is, you'll start getting hate mail and abuse and attempts at fraud. There will always be angry customers, and there will always be hateful people who project their problems onto the easiest (ie. largest) target in their lives.

Why did you go into this line of work?

I'd never considered it a job. I probably still don't, even though as time goes by it's becoming my primary job, squeezing out my other business ventures. Basically I just found it happening -- I started the site as a hobby right when the Internet was snowballing and just happened to be at the right place at the right time. There were other bod mod sites as well, but for whatever reason they didn't last (I assume their owners lost interest).

At the time BME started becoming a full-fledged company of its own I was spending most of my time developing software engines for casinos and psychic lines. I'd never imagined that my personal website would become anything more than a hobby. As it turns out I think that ended up being a good thing though, because it gave me about four years to develop the site honestly without the constraints or motivations of a business model.

Did your personal interests affect your choice?

It was the ONLY factor in my choice, and has been the only factor in most of the decisions I make in life. I do (a) what I believe in, and (b) what I like. I'd advise everyone to do the same to the extent they are able. I'd rather fail chasing my dreams than succeed as a slave.

Would you consider changing careers? why or why not?

Sure, I might one day. As long as I know that at the end of the day I've made the world a little bit better place, I'm happy with my job. I can't see myself ever being happy in a job that's not built around improving people's lives, and if BME ever fell to such a place, I'd change it or leave it. That's what I care about -- the body modification aspect, while important, is not the key drive. The key drive is "doing good".

Do you remember all the different jobs you've had throughout your career?

I've never really had a real job -- I've been programming professionally since I was 16, and both my parents were entrepreneurs, so the importance of a job was never directly emphasized. Other than working for my own companies, I've just held odd jobs (baseball diamond liner, working as a machinist for a friend's jewelry company, etc.).

Has your career to date turned out as you had planned, or did you encounter any unexpected sidetracks, opportunities, or lucky breaks?

I'm sure it has had all of those, but I try not to think about those things. It's rare for me to make business decisions on the basis of business factors. I simply try and "do what's right" and hope that on some level the universe takes care of me in return. It's scary every once in a while, but so far it's proven to be a good plan.

Probably the biggest things I've had to deal with are the financial realities. To give one example, when I first started billing for access to the main site, I didn't have the ability to bill personally, so I used a third-party billing agency (commonly used by adult vendors). Because of the anti-adult stance of many mainstream banks, they were using a Caribbean bank to do their processing.

My payments started running late, and the billing agency told me they were having trouble getting the money from the Caribbean, but that I shouldn't worry. I trusted them at first, but as time went by and the amount of money being held back grew to be quite significant, I was calling daily to find out what the status was. Eventually they told me that the processing bank had "lost" a million and a half dollars, and that I'd never get my money.

Not only was I in a very deep financial hole, but I was also unable to even sell new memberships to climb out of that hole (which continued to deepen since I still had monthly bills for bandwidth and hosting well over five thousand dollars monthly). But, as with every time a serious problem has come up, I kept running the site by the principles I believed in, and the members rallied around the site and donated money during that time period to keep everything running. We then moved to doing processing in-house and it all turned out fine.

I don't know if I analyzed the story right, but to me the moral is that if you keep on target, and do what you believe in, things will turn out fine in the end, even if it might not seem at it at the time.

Did you have any formal schooling?

When I left highschool I had a 95+ percent average across the board and had glowing recommendations from the teachers and principal. I was offered scholarships to several schools and ultimately I took up York University's offer and spent a year in Toronto in their BFA (fine arts, visual) program. I dropped out at the end of that year to launch PsyberCity Inc.

We were quite successful with it and got excellent industry response. A couple years later I attended the University of Toronto in their Computer Sciences and Cognitive Sciences (ie. AI) program to touch up my programming skills. I left again after the first year. While I learned a lot in that year, the structured environment of school isn't easy for me to work in.

Any on the job training?

I define the protocols, and as such, I guess I train myself if that counts.

Could a young person starting out now qualify for your job with the same level of education you have?

Absolutely. There are still so many untapped markets out there. All it takes is someone with vision to grab ahold of them. If someone has a good head on their shoulders so they can pick up a broad range of skills, I don't see any reason why they couldn't do something similar.

Are you still learning from you job?

Yes, definitely.

Would you like more training if it were available? If so, what?

I love learning, but I'm not a "training" kind of guy. I like figuring stuff out on my own, hands on. Also, I think it's important to realize that in a job like this, that requires a wide skill set rather than a deep skill set, what's more important than learning something specific is constantly learning different things. That is, I'd probably serve the site better by teaching myself to speak Gaelic than teaching myself to be a world-class Java programmer.

In your opinion, where is the best place to get the type of training or education required for this occupation?

Honestly, it's hard for me to answer that because I'm not sure that I learn in a traditional fashion. I really enjoy learning on my own, figuring things out, and making them do useful stuff. In addition, the broad range of skills my job requires would be difficult to find in a traditional education.

Probably the only way to achieve the skill set that I have (which I couldn't do my work without) is through a combination of apprenticeship and self-education.

How does the idea "change is constant" apply to your career?

Well, I publish in a world that's very cutting edge, but to be honest, I stay a few years behind the technology trends. It is my belief that BME has been successful for political and ethical reason -- because of its philosophies -- rather than because it's got the coolest layout or anything like that. That philosophy has not changed significantly throughout BME's lifetime.

Are the hours of work the same as when you started?

They are much higher. Much higher. I work very long hours, and because of the both broad and specialized nature of the work, it is difficult for me to hire employees to help.

Is your workplace more or less safe than it used to be?

It's about the same, although the greatly increased demands on me can be very intellectually and emotionally stressful.

Have environmental issues affected your workplace?

While I started the business in the city, I've since moved out to a rural environment. I have no access to DSL, cable, or other cost-effective high speed internet access. All of my work, including this interview, is done by a two-way satellite link. So the only environmental issue that affects me is clouds (yes, that was a joke).

Have you seen any job losses due to new technology?

No, that's not really an issue.

Have you seen improvements in the workplace due to new technologies?

Most definitely. While the amount of work I do has probably increased by a hundredfold, my actual workload is increased probably by only three or four times. This is because a significant percentage of my time is dedicated to building tools to amplify the work I'm doing.

Are there more men or more women entering your field now than before? why or why not?

I don't know the numbers on that, but I can't think of any good reason why men or women would be better at it than the other.

Is your work affected by economic trends such as a recession?

I have noticed that as of late, when people cancel their paid memberships, they are far more likely to cite financial reasons than they were in the past. That said, I'm glad to say that recessions have not made a significant impact on any of my businesses.

Did you have role models that helped you develop as a person?

Not really, no. The few in-person role models I had turned out to be massive disappointments. I try and use principles as role models rather than specific goals. A couple years ago I sat down and wrote a set of "moral rules" that I felt accurately described what I was trying to achieve both with BME and with myself. To generalize, these principles are mostly build around the primary goal of helping people and making a positive change both in this community and in the world on a larger level.

That said, in my youth, my father was both my primary role model and teacher. As I mentioned earlier, he was a technology entrepreneur as well, but always emphasized the importance of public service and generosity over personal wealth. In my adult life my most significant role model is the writer and activist Scott Nearing.

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