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The Archives
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03.14.08Rosedale Being Replaced as CEOI won't even dig into this, the bloggers will be all over this one, but interesting timing on the heels of concerns about whether Linden has the vision to operate as a company rather than just some kind of idealistic dream. Linden Lab Chief Executive Philip Rosedale said on Friday the company he founded has begun a search for a new CEO with more operational and management expertise. Rosedale will become chairman of the Linden Lab board when his successor is found, replacing Mitch Kapor, who will remain a board member and the company’s largest investor. Rosedale said he will also keep ...
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02.22.08Linden’s Age Verification HypocrisyIn December, Linden launched age verification in Grid-wide beta, and barely a word has been heard since, other than a post that it wasn't working so well in certain countries. The purpose of age verification was "as Robin Linden explained... to increase trust, by enabling Residents to voluntarily verify parts of their identity, and giving content creators and landowners the ability to restrict access to content that is inappropriate to minors." But the only change in trust has been loss of it with Linden. There was a great deal of speculation as to why Linden chose to implement age verification, with their ...
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02.05.08Learning about Second Life from…Google?Linden Labs is worried that the competition may have learned from its mistakes. In the meantime, it's by way of Google that I ran across this mouse, constructed specifically for use in 3D applications including Second Life (according to its Web site): Linden is spending so much time with its head in the back of its servers that its neglecting its role of supporting advocates, champions and evangelists for the value of Second Life. What I'd LIKE to hear Rosedale say is: Until now, we’ve played favorites and we’ve given them more reasons to moan and complain than to celebrate and its ...
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02.01.08Second Life Users Have Too Much Time On Their Hands: Philip RosedalePhilip Rosedale tells Der Spiegel online that "The early users of Second Life are simply people who have a lot of time" and outlines priorities and his thoughts on coming competition, including the fact that he's worried that the competition has learned from Second Life's mistakes. The interview reiterates Rosedale's current speaking points: - Second Life needs to crash less - Improvements will make it do more and look better - Usability needs to be improved, for example the client - Doing these things will create a utility that will attract business and education, plus a bunch of other people Continue Reading...
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01.28.08P2P Virtual World – SolipsisWayne Porter has an extended summary of research on Solipsis, a peer-to-peer virtual world platform developed out of France: Solipsis is a free and open source system for a massively multi-participant shared virtual world. It was designed by Joaquin Keller and Gwendal Simon at France Telecom Research and Development Labs. Its goal is to provide the infrastructure for a “Metaverse-like” public virtual territory. Once again taking scalability into account it relies on a (P2P) peer-to-peer architecture sothat the virtual space has the potential to be populated by an “unlimited” number of participants. Thanks Wayne. I wish I knew what even half the ...
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01.11.08Closing of Second Life Banks Distracts from Sources of ValueThe recent announcement of the closure of the Ponzi schemes, er, banks, in Second Life seems to have generated more buzz than it merits. The response SHOULD have been "yeah, and what took them so long". The membrane has dissolved that divides most virtual worlds from the "real". Financial instruments, currencies, payments, and values are not DIFFERENT because they take place in virtual worlds like Second Life. Some virtual worlds may try to preclude the intrusion of economics within their game economies as a way of preserving the "magic circle" of play, but even Warcraft which officially doesn't accept out-of-world trading ...
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01.10.08Fireside Chat with San Francisco Mayor Sees Virtual Worlds as Collaborative LabOnly hours after being sworn in for his second term as mayor of San Francisco, Gavin Newsome joined Linden CEO Philip Rosedale in Second Life for a chat about how a virtual world can provide insight and imagination towards shaping real world governance and policy. This gives credence to the argument by Edward Castranova that a) there is a migration to virtual worlds and that b) if people migrate to a new country, the features of that country may be a source of lessons and policy for the "old world". (More about Castranova's book soon!) Massively kindly transcribed the chat and ...
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01.01.083D London in Second Life – Google Virtual Should Be Here Already, and why SL Should Act Like a Gaming PlatformA fascinating and noteworthy bit of work by Dr. Andrew Hudson-Smith, from UCL’s Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis, who rezzed a 3D model of London across a scrolling map. It looks like the map may have been using the AC3D translator which takes 3D object files and converts them into triangles - prim heavy but it works. Thanks to Francis Anderson for pointing this project out. According to the blog entry's update, however, the powers that be in London had the map removed from SL - security reasons? IP ownerships issues? Early user-hacked prototype of Google Earth: Interoperability If this project had been accomplished ...
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12.10.07Metabucks in/out of Metaplace: Linden Awaits Stroker SerpentineOver at Metaplace a blog posting explaining that the Metabuck will be a convenient tool to allow world builders to opt in or out of the Metaplace currency model. As posted: Of course, we're all about freedom so we don't require builders to use our currency; they could easily bridge to their own web service and use whatever currency they wish. Of course, if the builder just wants gold pieces in their fantasy world, with no bridge to real world currency at all, that is also an option. No one is dragged into using real money trading (RMT) if they do ...
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12.04.07The Islands of Second Life: Walled Gardens for BusinessSecond Life was developed to be driven by the imagination of its users - a creative commons, if you will, where individuals could create, share, and build on the work of peers. The quintissential example of Wikinomics. Linden took the bold step of allowing users to own their content, and changed the economy to be "real estate" based rather than object based. Lifting the tax on prims, and instead relying on the idea of renting server space (or land), ripped open the potential of Second Life. Control the Factor in Loss of Corporate Support But a bunch of flying genitalia and failed ...
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