Our Organization

Conjecture is a privately held corporation that designs and develops consumer-oriented websites. Some of our properties provide content created by our own content-producers, such as writers and photographers; some of our other sites serve as a platform for our users to share their own knowledge, experiences and opinions.

Conjecture Corporation is a unique organization with team members scattered throughout the world. We have project managers, copy editors, writers, photographers, programmers and designers on three continents. By refusing to allow geography to impact our selection of contributors, we are free to choose the ideal candidate for any position.

Our Visitors

People visit our sites from all over the world, but the majority are from countries where English is the primary language. Approximately two thirds of our millions of visitors are from the United States.

Another 20% of our visitors come from United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and India. The remaining group comes from virtually every country in the world including some lesser-known places such as the Holy See, French Guiana, Burundi and Palau.

Our Process

To effectively run our organization and to mitigate the great distances separating the Conjecture diaspora, we employ an array of modern collaboration systems. We rely heavily on proprietary content management systems and tools, but we also use all of the following products/services:

Debian Linux server operating system, Apache and Lighttpd webservers, MySQL Cluster high-availability relational database, PHP hypertext preprocessor, jQuery JavaScript library, Amazon Web Services, specifically S3, Mechanical Turk and EC2, Google Apps collaborative documentation, Mantis and Trac bugtracking, Subversion versioning, Skype voice over IP, ICQ and Pidgin instant messaging, The Planet web hosting, Phing build system, Ultra Monkey high availability and load balancing software.

We typically develop our web properties from initial idea to launch and beyond; occasionally, we acquire existing websites that represent a good strategic fit with the rest of our network.

Our Name

A conjecture is a strongly believed, but unproven hunch. Traditional businesses forge their growth plans with detailed market analysis and well-researched forecasts. The internet is undergoing such rapid growth and change that traditional businesses are often ill-equiped to succeed. In many cases, there isn't sufficient time to perform detailed analysis; sometimes it is more prudent to generate good ideas, execute and hold on for the wild ride.

At Conjecture, we pride ourselves on our nimbleness and ability to adapt in an ecosystem constantly in flux. We thrive on flexibility and are delighted to build brand new projects based on our conjectures.

This is not to say that we don't rely on analytics and other empirical data. On the contrary -- we love statistics and employ a/b or multivariate testing whenever and wherever possible. In cases when there is no evidence or other data available, we are not hesitant to base a new project on a conjecture.

Our History

The first site that would eventually become a part of the Conjecture Network was launched in 2000. Since then, Conjecture has grown in virtually every respect.

We evolved from a one-man web publisher to a growing team scattered throughout the world. What started as a single site has grown into a continuously expanding network that currently reaches millions of unique visitors per month.

Our infrastructure progressed from a single shared server to a highly-available load-balanced cluster of servers. Our first site was a simple static site built with basic html, but now we create dynamic database-driven sites and use cutting-edge software.

We intend to accelerate these trends.

Our Team

Denis started the first site that would become part of the Conjecture network in 2000. He graduated with a philosophy degree from UC Berkeley and has been closely involved with the internet since 1995. In his spare time, Denis enjoys hiking, rugged foreign travel, classical piano, fine woodworking, philosophy, and elegant design.

Catherine started with Conjecture at the beginning of 2006. In addition to overseeing writers and editors at wiseGEEK, she manages the development of PregnancyETC, HomeInstitute, and CalorieGallery. She comes to Conjecture with a degree in political science from UC Berkeley and a law degree from Loyola. While her time is mostly filled with working for Conjecture, she can also be found trying to squeeze in trips whenever she can, usually to Europe, where most of her extended family lives.

Conjecture couldn't function without the tremendous contributions from our dozens of other team members; they include programmers, editors, writers, administrators, researchers, designers and photographers. Further information about more members of our team is coming soon.