BigCheese and Facebook

I've decided to maximize what Facebook has to offer in terms of organizing and promoting BigCheese. In addition to my Facebook Profile, there is now a BigCheese Facebook Page. Only very significant announcements on the BigCheese page will be duplicated here, so if you want the minutia of this project's progress sign up as a fan there.

I have to say that so far, I like Facebook. The interface is clean and the core features are super simple after just the briefest of interaction. A precious few of the applications I've encountered are very useful, however the overwhelming majority appear to be pure clutter.

[edit - I forgot the hyperlinks on my original posting]

Project Update: BigCheese

BigCheese is my project to create a unique fantasy football franchise. I've identified some initial important and large areas of work:

• Obtaining an historical statistics data store
• Defining the competitive algorithm
  
• Marketing strategies to accomplish the primary unique goal: external funding
• Recruiting seven highly motivated and intelligent original franchise owners

The Data
Fantasy sports' lifeblood are statistics. The nfl.com site has a dearth of consistent statistics available from the 2000 season or so. That data isn't entirely friendly to consume in any mechanical manner. I can only assume that is intentional, but it isn't an insurmountable problem. I've already undertaken absorbing the 2007 season's data, nearly halfway there. The coding to rip through the raw data is a little painstaking, but very reusable when I want to go back and do all the prior seasons with statistics available as well as all the future data. I'm definitely building a foundation of automation. The 2007 season data will provide a basis for analytical what-if scenarios in the next big area work.

The Competitive Algorithm
It is obvious to me already that elements of both team and individual statistics will be necessary to accommodate the franchise owner experience of a meaningful 53-man roster. My goal is to develop an algorithm that closely matches the history. For instance, I'll imagine a set of 32 fantasy franchise owners with rosters and game schedules identical to the 2007 season. I'll compare my algorithm against the statistics and tweak it until it matches the actual scoring and victory outcomes as closely as possible; this will involve some heavy duty analytical data processing.

Marketing Strategies
Creating a fantasy league that is externally funded is quite an obstacle. I've gotten a few ideas on this already. A few of them include:

• Web advertising revenue (i.e., Google Ads) - but why would people come?
  
• Get celebrity involvement (which would in turn increase traffic and web advertising revenue) - which sorts of celebrities?
  
• Corporate sponsorship / Franchise naming rights - for example actual franchises are geographically "sponsored" these days, what if bobshardware.com sponsored your team like it was a bowling team?
• Interest from an endowment? where will the endowment come from? A refundable deposit, perhaps?
  
• MLM (and this violates my drastically limit-the-supply concept) - what if juice from fees from feeder leagues fed their parents? There would still be one Master league?

Recruiting
I've arbitrarily (and tentatively) decided eight owners would comprise a decent group. I haven't lifted a finger on this and I won't until I've accomplished the first two work areas and have at least some crude interface. If you decide you are interested in becoming an original owner, please contact me (or comment on the blog). There won't be any financial costs to franchise owners in any way, ever (perhaps a refundable deposit?). However, the price will be active involvement, solid commitment to give me the feedback I need to get this project right - especially during a turbulent first season of change.

Two New Projects

Because just one project isn't enough

The time has come to stop playing around with the new .NET 3.5 features and put them to good use in real development projects. I have two projects in mind, MiTunes and BigCheese. Each represents software I've long desired and been unable to fulfill externally. Here's a little background on each project:

MiTunes
I require companion software for Apple's iTunes. Describing the built-in sharing features of iTunes as crippled is an understatement. I believe the crippled nature is intentional, so there's no sense in waiting around for Apple to improve iTunes in this area. Here are the proposed feature highlights:

• Expose entire iTunes library via web interface, for sharing content among my family
  
• Optionally expose "clipped" media, for sharing playlists with the public
• Operate as a self-sustained real-time Windows service
• Function in a very lightweight manner
  

There is software already in the marketplace that somewhat implements what I'm looking to do, but they fall short for various reasons. If I've overlooked any, please drop a comment with a link and I'd gladly take a look.

• Apple's iMix (iTunes Store)
  upside: free, Apple foots the bandwith bill entirely, easy to use, integrated seamlessly with iTunes, easy to publish references on blogs, etc
  downside: songs only, songs must exist in the iTunes Store, limited to 100 songs
• DotTunes
  upside: free version is usable, exposes iTunes library via adequate web interface
  downside: not open source, registration process is goofy, somewhat buggy, memory/processor hog, plugins to make it real-time and self-sustaining are expensive, DotTunes branding is pervasive and not removable, interface is not extendable
• KavaTunes
  upside: very impressive iTunes-like browser interface
  downside: not open source, not free, requires a Mac

BigCheese
Fantasy (NFL) football these days is awful. My first foray into fantasy football was in 1985, when you had to do everything with paper and pencil and you were lucky to scrape six guys together. It was wonderful. I've only played two fantasy football seasons since ubiquitous integration with web resources, and both experiences were absent of joy. With the web, there's simply an overwhelming inflation dynamic of available players and available league entry points. The quality of owner skill and commitment is at an all time low. Fantasy football could be so great if it were only implemented better. BigCheese will do it better.

The goal of BigCheese is to increase owner interest and commitment by

• Rich and interesting new revolutionary complexities and modeling of the real NFL
  
• Simple interfaces to affect those complexities in less than ten minutes a day
  
• Meaningful financial rewards
  

Rich and interesting revolutionary complexities will come from modeling the actual NFL owner perch as closely as feasibly possible. That means there's both year-round and year-to-year aspects. Rosters will be same size as real NFL teams; all positions matter. There will only EVER be a single BigCheese league, with a maximum of 32 owners. I imagine the league will start with 4-8 the first year. To some extent, where feasible, the league's engine of complexity will be obscured to discourage copy cat BigCheese leagues - but the value of the league will not be inherently protected through obscurity.

Simple interfaces to affect those complexities will come from a browser interface that reflects the ideals of Ten-Minutes-A-Day to participate in a league that is persistent from year to year.

Meaningful financial rewards will stem from the revolutionary goal of creating a league with external interest. This external interest will generate revenue for the owners through web space advertising (on the public website), league growth (franchise fees) and franchise sales (eventual franchise scarcity). For this reason, owner selectivity will be essential and enforced by all existing owners' self interest. However, the most unique aspect of BigCheese is that it will attempt to do something not seen in today's fantasy sports - generate third party interest. There will only be, ever, one BigCheese league. That league will only, ever, have a maximum 32 owners (unless the actual NFL expands). Franchise owners will switch hands, fold, etc. just like the real world of a startup sport leagues.

This goal cannot be understated: financial rewards for the owners will be primarily sourced externally. I plan on recruiting an initial seed of owners this summer.