Interview With Aimee Weber
Tonight I had the extreme privelege of interviewing ( for a whole hour!)
One of the most talented and prominant figures in the SL community (not to mention rather foxy :P)
Aimee Weber
[16:37] DJ Jenns: Aimee, thank you very much for giving me some of your time, I know your a very busy young lady! Could you please give a brief description about how long you've been here and what you do?
[16:38] Aimee Weber: I have been in Second Life since January of 2004. I am the founder of Aimee Weber Studios, a content creation company for Second Life, and that is my full time job :D
[16:39] DJ Jenns: Full-time job, just to clear up any confusion, is that SL or RL
[16:39] Aimee Weber: RL
[16:40] DJ Jenns: Thank you, if we could talk about that for a moment. When you came into SL did you ever imagine you could make an RL full time job out of it, otherwise at what time did you make it a full-time job
[16:41] Aimee Weber: Not at ALL. It was entirely for fun and games when I started out. I mostly used Second Life to socialize and create fashions for my own personal use.
[16:41] Aimee Weber: It wasn't until people kept asking me for copies of my fashions, and even offering to pay for them did I realize the potential of SL
[16:43] DJ Jenns: And along those lines, from my brief time on here (November 2005). It is clear to see that you are a very well respected member of the SL community. Why do you think this is ?
[16:49] Aimee Weber: Well, "well respected" heheh I am not 100% sure that's accurate.
[16:49] Aimee Weber: I am certainly high profile, like a politician or movie actor...
[16:49] Aimee Weber: but also like a politician, I can be a dart board for a lot of people.
[16:50] Aimee Weber: But
[16:50] Aimee Weber: assumeing what you say is true...
[16:50] Aimee Weber: I think what respect I may have comes from longevity and consistency
[16:51] Aimee Weber: people know my positions. i defend them well
[16:51] Aimee Weber: i speak from experience
[16:51] Aimee Weber: so if you aren't a mortal enemy of mine, then you may respect where i come from on issues :D
[16:52] DJ Jenns: Now on a personal point of view, you along with a few other established people in SL, such as pretty much everyone involved in your blog "SLOG" http://secondslog.blogspot.com - seem to be very much in the public eye like you previously mentioned.
[16:52] DJ Jenns: Does this ever present any problems for yourself?
[16:54] Aimee Weber: Well, you have to get used to it.
[16:54] Aimee Weber: As a private entity you can pretty much say what you like, whenever you like
[16:55] Aimee Weber: but if i am at a public event, i have to watch what I say, and anticipate how things I say could be interpreted in a bad way
[16:55] Aimee Weber: or there will be a blog the next day blasting me for my insensitivity over some issue
[16:56] DJ Jenns: Which ties in nicely to my next question, How do you feel about Linden Lab's recent announcement about the forum's closing ?
[16:57] Aimee Weber: Well, I have mixed feelings. On one hand I had a lot of experiences on those forums. I would almost consider them a "phase" of my life. Good times, bad times, laughs, and panic attacks. So I can hardly be indifferent.
[16:57] Aimee Weber: At the same time, I understand that Linden Lab wants to write the software, and leave the community to US.
[16:58] Aimee Weber: So have a "state run" forum, so to speak, violates that plan.
[16:58] Aimee Weber: So it was inevitable. So short answer is, I feel meloncholy over their closing, but I understand that it's the way things have to go.
[17:00] DJ Jenns: Ok moving on. Second Life, over here in the UK has started recieving a great deal of media coverage and publicity. How is publicity over in the US and do you share the feeling that SL is starting to "snowball"
[17:01] Aimee Weber: Publicity has been pretty good. When I started in SL, any time a magazine did a story about SL, everybody was talking about it. Now we are on television news and magazines, and newspapers all the time.
[17:01] Aimee Weber: Nobody keeps up with it anymore, it's just a regular thing.
[17:01] Aimee Weber: Yesterday I was on the phone with the Wall Street Journal :D
[17:02] Aimee Weber: And I think I am going to be in the next Wired magazine, but I am not 100% sure.
[17:02] DJ Jenns: that is very impressive
[17:02] Aimee Weber: :D
[17:03] DJ Jenns: How have your RL friends and relations taken to the idea of your online success
[17:04] Aimee Weber: It's really very strange, they mostly don't understand, but they know it's cool and are proud of me. What's even stranger is that they refer to AIMEE as if she were some friend of mine.
[17:04] Aimee Weber: My family will see me when I visit and ask "how is aimee doing?"
[17:04] Aimee Weber: lol
[17:04] DJ Jenns: lolol
[17:04] Aimee Weber: now
[17:04] Aimee Weber: that's different than clients
[17:04] Aimee Weber: naturally i give my clients my RL name for contracts, etc...
[17:05] Aimee Weber: but they go ahead and mostly call me Aimee. Which is pretty funny for RL encounters
[17:05] Aimee Weber: I just got used to the name now since I have identified myself with it for so long
[17:05] DJ Jenns: So have you met anyone that you have only spokent to in SL in real life ?
[17:06] Aimee Weber: I just met Hamlet Au about 2 weeks ago.
[17:06] Aimee Weber: let me show you photo...
[17:06] DJ Jenns: ahhh Hamlet, I got the privelage of sending him his last ever abuse report xD
[17:06] Aimee Weber: :O
[17:06] Aimee Weber: LOL ARed him? why?
[17:07] DJ Jenns: no no i didnt ar him
[17:07] DJ Jenns: here
[17:07] DJ Jenns: http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2006/03/sunset_on_big_e.html
[17:08] DJ Jenns: My old id was Ardentua Nabob ( I left in april and cancelled my account - costs $9.95 to reactivate lol)
[17:09] Aimee Weber: aaaah ok
[17:09] DJ Jenns: Right back to the questions :-)
[17:10] DJ Jenns: So, Aimee Weber. - Approximatly what percentage of Aimee Weber is accurate to the female controlling her
[17:12] Aimee Weber: Hrmmm
[17:12] Aimee Weber: Personality, 100%
[17:12] Aimee Weber: My SL kind of looks like me
[17:12] Aimee Weber: My avatar is a bit thinner :D
[17:15] DJ Jenns: ok. If you could get your avatar to look 100% like you....actually scrub that because you can. Is Aimee what you would like to look like or do you enjoy the difference ?
[17:16] Aimee Weber: lol yeah I think so :D
[17:16] Aimee Weber: And I used to be into the NYC club scene
[17:16] Aimee Weber: the whole club kid thing. It was fun to play dress up
[17:16] DJ Jenns: oh really ? cyber kid ?
[17:16] Aimee Weber: well clubs like the Limelight and Mother
[17:17] Aimee Weber: so we would all dress up funky. A little goth but no so much like that.
[17:17] Aimee Weber: So I dress like that all the time in SL
[17:17] DJ Jenns: Your really good at this ! drifting right into my questions...
[17:17] Aimee Weber: but naturally I couldn't go to the grocery store in lingerie and a tutu
[17:17] Aimee Weber: heheh :D
[17:17] DJ Jenns: You could but naturally I'd have to fly over to see !
[17:18] DJ Jenns: lol
[17:18] Aimee Weber: lol
[17:19] DJ Jenns: okies, now in your time at Second Life, and this is a stupidly difficult question... but what is your most memorable experience
[17:20] Aimee Weber: Oof.
[17:21] Aimee Weber: I think we may be getting back to Mr. Neva
[17:21] Aimee Weber: lol
[17:21] Aimee Weber: Actually no...
[17:21] Aimee Weber: There was a weekend in March...
[17:22] Aimee Weber: I had been working with two RL companies that month, the Exploratorium Museum in San Francisco, and Stylehive
[17:22] Aimee Weber: both had their grand events on the same weekend.
[17:22] Aimee Weber: And I was doing them all.
[17:22] Aimee Weber: Stylehive was having a fashion show with gina pell
[17:23] Aimee Weber: and i was hosting
[17:23] Aimee Weber: so i didn't get much sleep before that... i stayed up all that night doing the fashion show and quelling some drama that followed...
[17:23] Aimee Weber: then i rolled right into the exploratorium simulcast
[17:24] Aimee Weber: which was in Side, Turkey, so for easter standard time, it was like 5am
[17:24] Aimee Weber: the New Media Consortium pulled access to their sim at the last second because of some privacy issues
[17:24] Aimee Weber: so i frantically redecorated midnight city, my sim, to host one of the simulcast events
[17:25] Aimee Weber: after all the chaos... the event went without a hitch, right at 5am
[17:25] DJ Jenns: My god...the words burned and out come to mind
[17:25] Aimee Weber: i then took a nap, and went to my RL job
[17:25] Aimee Weber: i think i went maybe 4 days with no real sleep
[17:25] Aimee Weber: LOL
[17:25] Aimee Weber: but looking back, that was such a great weekend
[17:25] Aimee Weber: I got really close to the exploratorium guys and they are great friends to this day
[17:26] DJ Jenns: Ok I can't possibly let you go without getting an explanation about that wonderful character
[17:26] Aimee Weber: :O what character?
[17:26] DJ Jenns: Ms. Prokofy Nova
[17:26] Aimee Weber: ah HA
[17:26] DJ Jenns: right now before you say a word
[17:27] DJ Jenns: again, I must state in my 10 months I've been here, I only know her from her blog and her....interesting forum posts
[17:27] DJ Jenns: Your experiences with her ?
[17:27] Aimee Weber: Ooof.
[17:27] Aimee Weber: want you to unload the history?
[17:27] DJ Jenns: All of them :p
[17:27] Aimee Weber: lol
[17:28] Aimee Weber: Not sure I have the emotional fortitude. But I am not going to bad-mouth Prokofy. Suffice it to say we are on opposite side of nearly every single issue.
[17:29] Aimee Weber: And prok's debating techniques can be rough if you aren't ready for it.
[17:29] DJ Jenns: The thing i see with the people she has issues with, is she always seems to pour personal emotional into it while others are debating unbiasedly
[17:29] Aimee Weber: That, and when she doesn't have an argument, she will
[17:30] Aimee Weber: lie about you...or if not directly lie, she will form a lie as a question
[17:30] Aimee Weber: "Is aimee in fact a man?"
[17:30] Aimee Weber: "is aimee philip rosedale's bloodkin?"
[17:30] Aimee Weber: "is aimee jeff linden?"
[17:30] Aimee Weber: "is aimee a studio"
[17:30] Aimee Weber: lol
[17:30] DJ Jenns: Does aimee have a penis ?@
[17:31] Aimee Weber: that's what she does.
[17:31] DJ Jenns: no
[17:31] DJ Jenns: that was a question
[17:31] DJ Jenns: :p
[17:31] DJ Jenns: lolol
[17:31] Aimee Weber: LOL
[17:31] Aimee Weber: no!
[17:31] DJ Jenns: drat !
[17:31] DJ Jenns: can you point me in the direction of that sort of thing
[17:31] DJ Jenns: lol
[17:31] Aimee Weber: that would be a great story. but i'm a chickie
[17:31] DJ Jenns: okies joking aside
[17:32] DJ Jenns: The security breach issue this week, do you believe it ?
[17:33] Aimee Weber: 1 sec...
[17:34] Aimee Weber: ok back
[17:34] Aimee Weber: it was phone
[17:34] DJ Jenns: no problems
[17:34] Aimee Weber: do i believe the security breach?
[17:34] DJ Jenns: yes
[17:34] Aimee Weber: Oh yes I do.
[17:34] Aimee Weber: Why? Do you think the Lindens would fake an announcement like that?
[17:34] Aimee Weber: lol
[17:34] DJ Jenns: Well I see it this way
[17:36] DJ Jenns: I dont think its fake but its very convenient, after the farore with dropping the CC verification. The amount of Alt's was sure to rocket out of control. This might be a very useful stunt in reducing. Or just a very lucky result of said security breach
[17:37] Aimee Weber: I still don't follow. You mean by voiding passwords they are filtering out residents?
[17:37] DJ Jenns: Its a utter conspiracy I know, but just is a feeling i have
[17:37] DJ Jenns: conspiracy theory ^
[17:38] Aimee Weber: Well if you look at it as a conspiracy, you have to think the Lindens would conspire to do what is in their own best interest
[17:38] Aimee Weber: and this thing wasn't it.
[17:38] Aimee Weber: This kind of security breach hurt them in the PR department more than just about anything I could think that could happen
[17:39] Aimee Weber: The last thing they would want to project is the idea that resident's private and MAYBE payment information is not secure
[17:39] Aimee Weber: and that's what this whole incedent projected.
[17:39] DJ Jenns: Yes, they were quick to say that unencrypted payment info was not affected
[17:39] Aimee Weber: If they had issues with CC unverified folks and wanted to be sneaky about dealing with it...this wouldn't have been how it would happen :D
[17:39] DJ Jenns: but refused to comment about encrypted info
[17:40] DJ Jenns: Well I'll take your word for it since you've been here longer
[17:40] Aimee Weber: hehe well i don't have any inside info. I am just thinking that if it IS a conspiracy, it's a really stupid one on their part
[17:40] DJ Jenns: Okies I've taken up wayyyyyy too much of your time already so one last question for you Aimee
[17:41] Aimee Weber: ok
[17:41] DJ Jenns: The future of SL - where do you see the world going, and what would you like to see happen
[17:43] Aimee Weber: People are going to say I am overly optimistic but I see it turning into something like the web
[17:43] Aimee Weber: widely distributed, and essential to business and pleasure for everybody
[17:43] Aimee Weber: that's a guess by the way :D or maybe it's a HOPE
[17:44] DJ Jenns: well the way sl is going it might not be all that optimistic...
[17:44] Aimee Weber: totally
[17:44] DJ Jenns: Aimee Weber thank you so much for your time, it's been an absolute pleasure...
[17:45] Aimee Weber: fun for me too!
posted by DJ_Jenns at 5:56 PM
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