Dedric Mauriac: Another life from the first

The Lindens are asking for people again to send over to the media. I decided to respond this time to see what might happen.
Real-world name:

1. Lewis Moten

Contact info:

1. United States of America

Avatar name:

1. Dedric Mauriac

SLurl (if applicable):

1. 
   http://slurl.com/secondlife/Woodbridge

What are you doing in Second Life?

1. Making scripted objects and selling them to other residents.
2. Blogging with snapshots and talking about things that happen to me
3. Recording live podcasts

How long have you been in Second Life?

1. Since November 28, 2005

How did you find out about Second Life?

1. I was waiting with my wife for a doctor’s appointment.
   She found an article about Second Life regarding the recent change Linden Lab
   getting involved with their own currency exchange.

What were your original goals when you became a part of Second Life?
Have they changed?

1. My goal was to find something to entertain me.
   I had been playing many different online games that didn’t capture my
   attention for too long.
2. My goals have been satisfied, and new goals have formed over the years.
   1. Play around with different technologies as they are introduced
      to the grid.
   2. Become a better photographer (snapshots of what I see)
   3. Find interesting things to blog about each day
   4. Be a better person in communicating with people I see and form
      relationships.

Was there anything in-world that surprised you, something that you
may not have expected?

1. When I first joined second life, my main surprise was how
   mature everyone was.
   There were no competitive personalities to deal with.
2. The fact that most of the world was created by residents,
   and not the staff of Linden Lab surprised me as well.

What do you hope to achieve in-world?

1. I would like to be able to cover my monthly tier expenses with in-world sales.
2. I would like to develop a really great product that everyone knows by name.

What is your motivation?

1. It’s just who I am.
2. New things constantly interest me.
3. I love to pursue knowledge and understand how things work.

How many Residents frequent your island/business? Daily? Monthly?

1. 50 to 60 people a day
2. Roughly 1000 to 1500 people a month

How do you measure your success in-world? Is it by money or another means?

1. I measure by visitor statistics and how much money I am paying for
   my island at the end of the month.
2. I also look at how many people like to talk to me once they arrive at
   my business.
3. I appreciate how long people look around rather than arriving and then
   leaving quickly.
4. The fact that showing up at SLCC 2007 and a ton of people knew of my
   products.

What are some of your favorite places in-world?

1. Mostly the continent that my island is a part of (Los Arboles,
   Nowhereville, Edloe, Woodbridge, BlaksleeWorld)
2. Skynx. The place is very nice and natural and has lots of critters
   on display that are lively.
3. Gannet Island - Tuna Oddfellow puts on the craziest, weird, and
   odd shows constantly.
4. TreeEstates IV - Interesting museum of wonder.

What do you think makes Second Life interesting?

1. The wide variety of dedicated people getting creative.
2. The fact that you can make something that really helps someone
   else and get positive feedback.
3. The ability to communicate with someone in 3D rather than by words and
   pictures alone with most social networking sites.
4. The ability to leave a footprint of who you are entangled with the rest
   of the world.

What are the pros and cons of doing business in Second Life?

1. Cons
   1. Every little piece of news can have some kind of
      immediate and long term effect.
   2. Not everyone has a strong cash flow with money to spend.
   3. It is hard to find what works and what doesn’t with advertising.
   4. No control over what will happen next.
      1. At any time, someone abusive can show up.
         However, there are tools to take care of this after the fact.
   5. Mainland is very laggy.
2. Pros
   1. Unlimited natural resources.
      (I don’t have to buy prims/scripts before I sell them)
   2. Meeting new people.
   3. Instant feedback and suggestions from potential buyers that permit me
      to make changes before their very eyes.
   4. Ability to run a store with little investment and make
      sales while I am sleeping or at work.

What do you see in the future for Second Life?

1. Better In-world web integration
   1. URL on a prim
   2. Underlined URL’s in a note card
   3. Rich-Text note cards with formatting and visible pictures.
   4. Scripting language having ability to run in objects
      as as a limited web server
2. Social networking website counterpart
   1. Profile pages for people, places, regions
   2. Snapshots
   3. Machinima
   4. Blogging
   5. Comments
   6. Ratings
3. Opening up the API more to allow SL to be managed
   easier from outside sources.
   1. Download RAW images
      for islands (for automated backups off-grid)
   2. Manage audio/media streams for parcels
   3. Manage access control for parcels and regions
4. Plug-in architecture for the viewer to support things such as
   1. Post-processing filters for snapshots
   2. Client-side scripting language
   3. Integration with 3rd party software
   4. Import/Export of 3D objects

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