Free Friend Me by John Faubion Page B

simply by using web searches and word-of-mouth. Already thousands of people had discovered the virtual friend website and started using the product. There was no doubt about its success.
    Even so, the abusers had already begun to crawl out of the woodwork. Nothing illegal, but 53 percent of men had chosen a female friend. These men were taking something good, something designed to help, and twisting it to satisfy their own perverted male ends. Melissa knew something about men, all right. Nothing surprised her on that score.
    During the initial testing one developer had designed his female friend to look just like the wife of his best friend. That had not worked well, and he was now looking for another job.
    One by one, Dan named the people in the room and spoke about their accomplishments. When he came to Melissa hepaused and stared up toward the ceiling. Tight-lipped, he seemed to struggle for the right words. “There is one person, however, to whom we all owe a particularly great debt of gratitude.” He looked around briefly then nodded toward Melissa. “Without Melissa, we would not have a product to sell. We all owe much to her, her efforts, and the accomplishments of her team.
    â€œMost of you here today remember Aaron Getz. Aaron was the one who first brought up the concept of the virtual friend. One of the last things Aaron did before his untimely death four years ago was to choose Melissa for second place in the development team. He hired her to work directly under him because he saw in this young woman the drive, the energy, and the genius to carry off the ideals and goals of VirtualFriendMe. It was a dark weekend for us when we lost Aaron. I feared for our success, my friends. But Melissa stepped up to the plate swinging. We’ve never had to look back.
    â€œOur original goal was to simply provide a textual virtual friend experience for our users. We anticipated that through Facebook, MyLife, and other social networking sites our users would be able to design and construct a virtual friend that could interact with them on their birthdays, send them e-mails, chat with them online, and do all the things that a remote friend, a real physical friend, would do. We never imagined back then we would be able to have the visual representation of a virtual person that we have today. I say this is a good time for us to all give Melissa Montalvo a sincere round of applause and thanks for the hard work that she and her team have done.”
    Everyone in the room turned toward Melissa. Murmurs of approval ran throughout the crowd. Melissa nodded, thankfulfor their praise, and looked back at Dan while he waited for the applause to subside.
    â€œAnd now, my friends, I think we can talk to the reporters and let our public know just exactly what’s going on. I’ve asked our directors of marketing and software development to be present with me for the interview and answer reporters’ questions as they arise.”
    Fifteen minutes later, Dan Hammersmith called the meeting together for the Go-Live event. He spoke to the assembled reporters and other people that had come, and talked to them of the potential and future for the VirtualFriendMe business model.
    One of the reporters asked, “Can you explain to us how the virtual friend actually works?”
    Dan Hammersmith called for Melissa to step forward to the microphone. “I would like to introduce Ms. Melissa Montalvo to all of you this morning. Melissa is our chief software scientist. She is the brains behind the brains.” Then he bowed and motioned for Melissa to step forward. “Melissa, would you please explain to the people how the user experience works?”
    Melissa stepped forward to the microphone. “When a user comes to VirtualFriendMe.com for the first time they meet a person we call Jane. Now, Jane is not a real person in the sense that you and I are real. She is a virtual person. She is what we call our