Robin Leaves: Last of the Founding Linden Execs Quits; Remaining Mgmt. Sparse on SL/Virtual World Experience

And then there were none: above, via Archive.org, Linden's 2003 exec. mgmt. roster

Last night, Robin Harper announced she was leaving Linden Lab and her role as Vice President of Marketing & Community Development in two weeks.  This is poignant news for me personally, because it was Robin who brought me on as the Linden's embedded journalist for awhile. She plans to "take some time to explore a few different avenues", and knowing her, I believe this is her genuine reason for departing.  (As opposed to, say, boardroom politics or conspiratorial corporate reshuffling, though some are certainly apt to speculate that way.)

This also marks the poignant end of an era for Second Life -- Robin is the last member of Linden's original executive team to leave the company, or its day-to-day management.  (Cory was fired by Philip in November 2007; Philip stepped down as CEO in March 2008.)   Her departure hastens an already ongoing trend: Linden Lab is increasingly managed by individuals with little direct first-hand experience in Second Life, or virtual worlds in general.  Take a look at this family tree composite of the current management, as created by SL artist Grace McDunnough:

Once Robin departs, only four members of the eleven member executive team will have been with the company for more than three years.  (Six of the eleven, including newly appointed CEO M. Linden, have not even been with the company for a year.)  Only two of the eleven, Howard Look and Joe Miller, have previous work experience in virtual worlds or related technologies.  When Robin goes, I believe only one executive, Cyn Skyberg, can claim to have extensive experience in-world and regular interaction with the Second Life community. (As opposed to visiting for occasional appearances.)  So with Robin's exit, the Linden corporate culture will inevitably be rewritten, and its relation to SL will change. For better or worse, or most likely, both.   As Grace puts it, "This is not your father's Second Life."

As for Robin, I believe she was the Linden executive with the most dedication to the community.  In my Linden days, I often recall her taking hours out of her day to talk with upset Residents on the phone, rather than transfer the call to a Liasion.  A businesswoman with an intellectual bent, she enjoyed forming the principles of Resident governance, and more than that, drew a real joy from being in-world and discovering new creations and the people behind them.  For all those reasons, the absence of her warmth and insights is sure to be keenly felt across the grid.

Comments

[Shava Nerad/Shava Suntzu in SL]

Is that quicksand under my community?

This feels, somehow, like the culmination of the "business" decisions of the past year-ish -- gambling, "age verification," outside certification for financial services,... I can't say I disagreed with the problems so much as the tone of the solutions.

In every case, the tone was about tearing down SL's position as a neutral platform, and turning it into a game with a real money economy, with strong policing and first consideration for ease of the company and not the future of the community.

I am glad that LL managed to get the grid to the point where it has a potential to clone and grow. I am sad to think that the tragedy of the commons in SL was perpetrated -- not by pressure blowing up the residents -- but by the pressure of the outside world causing LL to turn it into just another game community that needed to be manageable.

Hope I'm wrong.

[Orange Montagne]

Her departure is a real blow, I think. How can you replace a founder in terms of vision? From meetings and interactions with Robin I agree that she really cared about the actual user, and talked from the perspective of being "in" the world. I'm concerned that SL would ever come to be managed like "all the other" vertical virtual worlds which have, by comparison, only a fraction of the vision and potential. She's already missed.

[Arcadia Codesmith]

It always mystifies me when companies recruit management from other companies (or worse, fresh out of school) rather than promoting up through the ranks. Then they stand there scratching their heads while the new management team, who hasn't a single solitary clue as to how the business works, proceeds to drive it into the ground with their newly-minted paradigms.

It doesn't always work that way. Sometimes the business model has so much momentum that even a Havard MBA can't derail it (no matter how much they try).

I suspect that Second Life doesn't quite fit that bill. It is destructable. I further suspect we would be much better served if Linden Labs hired exclusively from the ranks of successful SL residents, regardless of their RL resumes.

Best wishes to Robin, and it'll be worth seeing where she lands.

[Pavig Lok]

It's sad to see Robin go. I believe she still had more to contribute, but I trust she'll make waves elsewhere now free of the restructured lab. :)

I'd thought the lindens insane for hiring outside the virtual worlds arena (they're mostly web, buzz or big iron infrastructure) and have been vocally critical. Maybe this is a good move though. The hires may not know much about virtual worlds, for that they've a fresh eye and some mistakes to make, but they all seem to know web strategy and foundation.

A large missing piece of SL has been that it is a dead end on the internet. I don't believe virtual worlds are the best platform for web content, but then again they're not the best platform for a lot of content the web does better. If SL could take stuff out to the web when appropriate and bring things in from the web when that makes sense, suddently it would be a fully fledged internet citizen. At the moment it's kinda fetishy.

Most of the content we view on computers is flat.. in the real world too.. tv's are flat.. paper is flat.. advertising is mostly flat etc. The internet is probably the most powerful delivery mechanism for flat media yet invented... but when we go into SL our access to that flatness is extremely problematic. Only 3d things exist. If we're going to live there, or meet there, flat stuff is important.

So if all these new web folk can bridge between the flat world and the 3d one they may be on to something. Considering these initiatives:

* webkit in SL - an overhaul of the browser engine
* http://jira.secondlife.com/browse/SVC-1086 web servers from within sl scripts (which would solve a LOT of problems)
* het-grid, which is basically oursourcing some bits of sl architecture to web servers
* the new slurl.com ... which is more web.
* a lot of web strategy hires
* _insert_favorite_web_initiative_here_ (There's a lot of them)

Looks like the lindens (or M) may be trying to integrate SL tighter into the web - or looked at in another way, tighter into the internet as a whole. This may be a good thing. Oh well.. it remains to be seen.

Well just my two cents as always, and if you're reading this... Good luck and fond regards Robin!

[Geo Meek]

Robin I'm happy if you are and i do hope you are. if you find some time do pop in from time to time please say hello. Good people like you are vary hard to find in any life.

[Laetizia Coronet]

We had our *strong* differences. And still finding this out (late, I am not very active anymore) is a bit of an unpleasant surprise.

[T_S_Kimball]

I remember working with Robin a bit in '05 and '06, due to my forum activity and brief stint as one of the ResMods. Good times back then, but as others above mention, SL is heading in new and even more interesting directions.

Best of luck to ya.

/salute
--Tim Kimball
inSL as Alan Kiesler