New World Newsfeed: Philip Rosedale Ends Full-Time Linden Role To Start New SL-Centric Company (I Have 2 Theories)

Second Life Blog: Next Chapter!

A year after ceding the CEO position to Mark Kingdon, Linden Lab founder Philip Rosedale just announced that he will no longer work at Linden Lab full-time, suggesting that work in his capacity as Linden's chairman will be restricted to "outbound and media type things as before - talking about Second Life". For the most part, however, his main efforts will be devoted to starting a new company, the details of which he won't divulge as yet, except to say it "actually depends on Second Life existing to get started, and that I have been thinking about almost as long as I've been thinking about Second Life."

Regarding Kingdon, he praises the team he has hired, while acknowledging he does not always agree with the company's new direction, and frames that with an interesting analogy: "It's like when your teenagers leave home - of course you still worry and wish they would listen to you more! But at some point you believe that they are safe enough to live on their own."

For now, then, the main question is what Philip Linden's new company will be. From the hints he offers, I'd speculate two directions:

His new company will expand the API technology behind Second Life's dynamic map interface, which he has been concentrating on since stepping down as CEO, especially through his open source Snowglobe project, and work on integrating it with real world map data, into some kind of augmented reality platform. This would satisfy his original goal with Second Life, of simulating and modeling the entire real world in 3D. That, or he may be returning to work on "the Rig", a haptic interface contraption that resembles a treadmill with headgear, a device Philip actually started Linden Lab to develop. (You can read about more, he unsubtly plugged, in my book.) As seen by Microsoft's Natal, the time for a body-driven interface that Philip imagined over a decade ago is finally feasible.

Other speculations, of course, are possible. You may find hints in his new Second Life office, P Squared, where he promises to share more details. (When I arrived there tonight, Katydid Something and others were already lounging in Philip's living room.) Then again, to judge by his office, his new company will involve building luxury oceanfront homes with ambient music booming from the speakers. See for yourself: SLurl teleport at this link.

Rosedale photo by Laura Howard

Comments

[Ken Ley]

Wow, it's going to be really interesting to follow. Though a founder leaving his/hers company is not unusual.

/Ken

[ColeMarie Soleil]

*just crosses eyes*
#_#
*coughs*goodluck*coughs*

*coughs more*
*chokes*

eep sorry.

No I'm not.

[Paisley Beebe]

that office is a pre=fab Dolphin Designs I think. Its a home of course, not an office Im interested in seeing what furniture he chose, Dolphin also do furnishings. I asked him about his house in SL, during my RL interview last Aug, I didn't get a sense that he was domesticated at all in SL! but M was. Maybe he is thinking of relaxing a bit more?

[Gwyneth Llewelyn]

Now that's breaking news... the speculation will never end!

One wonders if he'll get back in touch with Cory and Robin ;)

[Tristin M]

I gotta admit.. THIS one is interesting...

[Iggy O]

Hmmmm....

Steve Jobs leaves Apple to found NexSTEP. John Sculley comes from PepsiCo to run Apple. Apple flounders without visonary at helm.

It's deju vu all over again!

Cory was LL's Woz, IMHO...

[Haney Armstrong]

Love it! Onward!

[Iggy O]

Curse my typing..."NexTSTEP." Thanks for breaking this news, Hamlet. In class we were just discussing Rosedale's belief that the Burning Life era has ended in SL. Timing his announcement with the start of Burning Life 09 seems deliberate.

From the cheap seats, we all watch the drama unfold.

[David Crespo]

The truth here:

Philip was the teenager, Mitch and the board the frustrated parents.

Philip kicked out Cory.

Philip couldn't make decisions, he froze in the face of action.

The adults step in.

Hire people who can make decisions, who are accountable. Also, can be kicked out if they don't deliver.

Philip starts an alternative viewer, one in direct competition to the 100+ working on the 'official' new version. Talk about a waste of resources!

Philip leaves Linden Lab.

Philip makes new company a smaller team, without the weight of expectation of investors and user base.

New company is a great success.

Nice ending!

[Filthy Fluno]

Whoa! Goodluck with everything man!

[Gwyneth Llewelyn]

Iggy, one wonders if Philip will be back in 2015 to turn Linden Lab into a megacorp, like Jobs did with Apple :)

[coco]

The Apple / Linden comparison falls way thin when one looks at the type of people who actually made the Mac , and then the Iphone, compared to the "management-cheerleader-fans- that work at Linden on the actual products.

Superficially, Jobs_Rosedale seems like a neat story, but the two coudln't be more different, and the cultures of workers, not fans, quite the opposite.

cocoipod