pt 3

Personal Issues?

''You'd be surprised how many personal issues can crop up,'' he says, laughing.
''Sometimes the debates can get a bit heated and I might have to step in. There are rules on the site about the kind of
content that can go up, for example we don't allow racist or super violent or 'adult' content at all - there are a lot of other
sites doing that.
''Sometimes there will be debate about whether a clip breaks the rules. Ultimately I get the final call on that but the
high-level users have the power to ban other users if someone is blatantly breaking the rules.''

He said the site was a meritocracy where high-level users who contributed popular content could acquire site moderation privileges. ''There's about 50 to 60 people with full site privileges and they are all power-users,'' he said.

''People who are posting a lot of videos that are getting good reviews can get a higher rank on the site.''
Surprisingly, USA-born Mr Houston didn't take the traditional path to his role as a geek grandmaster.

''When I went to university, computers didn't seem to be the big thing so I actually did a degree in international
relations,'' he said.

''I wanted to be a diplomat or work in the foreign service. But in '95, '96 I went to Osaka and got a job managing an
internet cafe and I kind of got into it that way.''

''While I was in Japan, I met my wife, who is an Aussie,'' he said. ''We eventually moved back to Australia because she wanted to be near her family. At some point a got a bit frustrated with the corporate life. When I turned 36 I decided I didn't want to be in a cube for the rest of my life, tied to a mortgage, insurance and little things in suburbia.''

So in a bold move, the couple sold the family home and took their daughter Sophia, then seven years old, and son
Sage, then four, on a round-the-world trip.
''We went back-packing and obviously we couldn't do long treks because of the kids so we did little walks,'' he said.
''I showed my kids where I grew up in Alaska and we also went to Canada, Spain, Ireland - where we visited some of my wife's relatives - and Japan. On their return, Mr Houston couldn't face going back to the corporate world.
''I decided to do some consultancy work for Brainmates, which is a new media product management company, rather than working full-time,'' he said.

''That gave me time to work on other ideas.''