Our meeting took place at a busy restaurant/brewery in beautiful Carlsbad Village by the Sea in Southern California where both men now call home. Nothing about their appearance seemed to set them apart from the dozens of other patrons, but there was indeed something very different about them as I soon found out. Through the window adjacent our table LEGOLAND could be seen across the street. As we talked about ActiveWorlds, it was hard not to draw a few ironic parallels between the two virtual worlds. After all, both places had a real world counterpart as their inspiration. Both places allowed their visitors to see things they might never be able to otherwise like ActiveWorlds virtual Yellowstone Park or LEGOLAND's uncanny depiction of The Mall in Washington DC. As the conversation continued over the next three hours I would occasionally catch myself looking out at those giant brightly colored building blocks and realizing that the architect of a far more ambitious creation was just a few feet away.

I came to the interview not quite knowing what to expect. I brought along a small recorder and a list of nearly one hundred questions. Within a few short moments of sitting down with Britvich and Viescas I had the feeling that my subjects were interviewing me. Neither man seemed to be much interested in talking about themselves. This caught me off guard to some degree, but I quickly adapted. I found that once you got either of them talking about their latest project or what they saw ahead for the Internet in years to come, they had plenty to say.

The fact that these two seemed to be so interested in my thoughts on the Internet and how I viewed it, quickly made me realize how they were able to constantly come up with innovative and cutting edge ideas. Britvich and Viescas retained a quality rare among their peers… they had the ability to listen to what the average user had to say and put it into action.