Though he is Linden Lab’s new CEO now, one of Ebbe Altberg’s first experiences with Second Life occurred over 10 years ago, and as it happens, actually involved a violation of Second Life policy. It was around that time, you see, that Altberg’s son fell in love with Second Life, and became an avid builder there. Which is usually a fine thing, but here’s the problem: Altberg’s son was a young teen at the time, and back then they were strictly not allowed:
“So yeah, he was underage,” Altberg admits now, “so SL booted him correctly.”
Altberg convinced then CEO Philip Rosedale to be lenient, but by that time, Altberg’s young son had become a well-known content creator in Second Life, and had revealed his age to his adult collaborators in SL (who were very surprised to learn how young he was). So Altberg’s son was booted from the main grid of Second Life, and when Teen Second Life opened around 2005, found himself exiled there. Frustrated by how comparably poor the quality of content was there, Ebbe’s boy began working with someone in the main grid to export content from Second Life proper to Second Life’s teenage wasteland. (As one of the early teen users described it to me, back in the day.)
Despite all that, Ebbe's son stayed engaged in Second Life for a couple years, and even co-founded an in-world design company. And being among the first explorers of Teen Second Life, one of that world’s original islands was even named after the avatar of Ebbe Altberg’s son. And Ebbe Altberg watched all this amazed: “For a kid to have this experience so early was fantastic,” as he puts it now.
Linden Lab’s new CEO tells me all this when I ask him how long he’s been involved with Linden Lab. “I feel like I’ve been part of Second Life and Linden Lab for many years,” says Altberg. For not only does he know Philip Rosedale and one of Second Life’s very first investors, there’s the experiences with his son, and his watching all the successive CEOs (starting with Rosedale) come and go over the years.
But strictly speaking, Ebbe Altberg has been on the job of Linden Lab CEO since February 10. So that in mind, I spoke with him in the broadest terms about his task ahead, for the company in general and Second Life in particular, and why he’s the right person to take the lead on both.
He addressed all that in the form of seven questions:
How Ebbe Altberg Has Been Close to Linden Lab From the Start
“You can argue I have known about Second life from the beginning,” Altberg says. In addition to the experiences with his son in Second Life, Altberg is extremely close to Jed Smith of Catamount Ventures, who he has known since college. Jed was one of Linden Lab’s very first investors, and has helped keep Altberg apprised of the company over the decade. (When the CEO slot came available, Altberg and Smith met to decide if he could take that role without it jeopardizing their friendship.)
Why Ebbe Altberg Took the Job in the First Place
“I’ve been fascinated with [Second Life] from the beginning,” says Altberg. “I know the hype got ahead of itself, because it takes awhile to get the quality of the scale and experience [right], so it was quite sad when the backlash and the negativity came about, because it just doesn’t deserve it.” However, he says, “I don’t mind those challenges, and I think we can fix this. I think there’s things we can do that can make [Second Life] broadly appealing, and then come back to the world and talk about us... But maybe the market is more prepared now than it was [during the hype wave].”
Why Having Little Professional Background in 3D or Gaming Isn’t a Negative
“Far as I can tell,” I ask Altberg, “you have no experience in gaming, 3D graphics or VR -- is this a drawback to leading Linden Lab?”
Altberg points out that he studied fine arts and computer graphics in college, and had some focus on 3D graphic studios while at Microsoft, and has experience on another graphics-heavy product. Also, he adds: “In the last couple years, [I] moved into a multimedia organization that ran a Java/animation engine which was shaped into a different product, but pulled it because it wasn’t ready for a market.” Speaking of 3D graphics and related technologies, “I’ve been interested or involved in things like that for quite some time… I’m not a gamer person, but SL is not a game. But I certainly understand game dynamics and 3D graphics.” He also points to his experience successfully scaling a VoiP product and other products that are not part of his core expertise.
Why Linden Lab’s Press Release on His Hiring Put as Much Emphasis on Blocksworld as Second Life -- and What That Means for Other Linden Products
“I think [Blocksworld is] very much aligned to what SL is about, which is user-generated content, but [for a] a different form factor and younger demographic… I felt confident that it’s something I’d want to invest in, because the two are very similar to what they want to do. And it’s doing really well.” He thinks Blocksworld just needs more dynamics to scale quickly.
As for the other Linden Lab products released during Rod Humble’s tenure: “We’ll do some clean-up, there’s some things that are not as aligned. There’s already very little resources spent on them.” (From that, I’d infer some recent Linden products will be quietly killed off or sold.) [UPDATE, 1:40pm: In fact, Linden Lab just announced it's "decided to cease development and support for dio, Versu, and Creatorverse."]
Ebbe Altberg’s Personal Experience Using Second Life
“Recently, it’s probably 1.5 hours max… when I came here, all last week I spent all my time meeting with people and teams [at Linden Lab]… clearly I have gone in there and figured how to walk again and fly and have that first user reaction experience. Enough that I can talk intelligently [about it].” Ebbe Altberg acknowledges “I will not get to that level” of expertise with Second Life as, well, someone like Ebbe Altberg’s son.
However, to understand the needs of the user base, he won’t just use SL as an official Linden avatar: “I’ll cruise around as an alt as well to get a feel for the culture and the dynamics.” (I'm emphasizing this point because I've already said how strong I feel about it.)
How Ebbe Altberg Plans to Save Second Life’s Revenue Base
“It’s open knowledge Second Life’s revenue base is eroding,” I tell Altberg. “How do you plan to solidify it?”
“That’s one question I don’t have a clear, concrete answer to,” he tells me, pointing out that Second Life is already 11 years old, and has had “a fantastic run”. That said, “there are issues with our codebase and technology that’s going to take investment and time…. I don’t think there’s simple things we can do to have it hockey stick to the right again, but the idea [of Second Life] should be much much bigger than it became.” He suggests the solution will include different technologies and platforms, such as the Leap Motion controller and the Oculus Rift. “There’s a lot of obvious and not obvious things to give it a much much broader appeal… without taking away too much from the depth that’s been created, the unbelievable engagement that’s almost unheard of, to have that level of engagement you have from the core audience.”
What Ebbe Altberg Can Do for Second Life Where Other CEOs Have Not
“You’re the fourth CEO of Linden Lab,” I say to Ebbe Altberg. “The three before you were unable to grow Second Life’s user base. Can you? If so, how?”
“I don’t even know what they’ve tried yet,” he answers. So early on the process, he’s still taking meetings on fixing the first-time user experience, to “get me up to speed on what’s been tried that failed for valid reasons, or execution reasons.
“Part of the complexity [of Second Life] is it’s a lot of things to a lot of different people… to be that generic and that open ended” in the first-time user experience is a challenge.
“Getting people to understand the value proposition and quickly get feedback on that so they can get hooked in minutes instead of hours and day,” he says, is the challenge he faces now.
“I don’t have the answers yet,” Ebbe Altberg acknowledges, but adds: “I’m convinced it’s a product that can offer a lot of people a lot of value.”
Photo of Ebbe by Peter Gray.
SL image via Kirby Crow.
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Muhahaha, a copybotter's dad is the new boss. Priceless!
Exactly as I predicted here. Empty hands, no clue. But fear not, there's a 5000-page SLU thread somewhere, waiting to enlighten him.
Posted by: Masami | Wednesday, February 19, 2014 at 02:22 PM
Well I like what I hear in that interview. I particularly like the comments about his son - and how it impressed him with the format.
I don't see 'copybotter' in there myself. But I do see the sort of adaptation that drives the innovation in SL. And it sounds like a CEO who gets the level of engagement the users have.
So thus far, hopeful indications.
Posted by: Pussycat Catnap | Wednesday, February 19, 2014 at 02:43 PM
@Masami, give the poor man a chance. He says a few things to Hamlet and the honeymoon is already over ;)
I'm looking forward to this thread. The first tablets have come down from the Mountain. The exegesis will begin here with all the ferocity of bearded theologians poring over Holy Writ in darkened halls.
I'm planning to parse the word "is."
Posted by: Iggy | Wednesday, February 19, 2014 at 02:59 PM
According to my notes, Ebbe's son was in Second Life (including TSL) before Copybot, so I don't believe he's referring to that.
Posted by: Hamlet Au | Wednesday, February 19, 2014 at 03:05 PM
I say give the guy a chance.. it sounds like his heart and family may be in this for the right reasons. Personally I think some good PR vs people always complaining will go a long way, a noob friendly viewer option, (I'm still a Firestorm fan) magically less lag/grey, and the rest will come. I see TV commercials and other ads for various platforms all over but never SL unless it's online ads. SL is not a typical "game" but can be promoted as a user generated content platform ideal for personal creativity of all kinds and socialization, that also include many games within it. The imagination is the limit. Put all that out there together and you've covered all demographics. Anyway, I welcome the guy and hope he does well by us. And I take it back what I said about his last name ALTberg making me a little nervous : )
Posted by: Kara Trapdoor | Wednesday, February 19, 2014 at 04:25 PM
Sounds reasonable to me. Sounds like he already understands the history of SL and he's not trying to blow smoke up anyone's ass.
Posted by: Metacam Oh | Wednesday, February 19, 2014 at 05:01 PM
I'm impressed so far. It's difficult to judge him too much until he has a firm grip on Second Life and starts making big decisions around it. For now though, I've liked his willingness to communicate and decisiveness in cutting some extraneous products.
Posted by: Ezra | Wednesday, February 19, 2014 at 05:22 PM
I think we are ok in SL.
I sure do miss that Philip Rosedale though. He was different in a great way. Nothing I read lately reminds of of his drive for a place to relax and create and communicate.
I hope we don't lose that inspiration he gave us.
Posted by: Lenni Foxtrot | Wednesday, February 19, 2014 at 06:42 PM
Metacam Oh , please watch the language. swearing helps to make the world worse
Posted by: bellahyae enchanted | Wednesday, February 19, 2014 at 07:15 PM
His son seems better qualified to run LL than he does.
Posted by: Max March | Wednesday, February 19, 2014 at 09:04 PM
My guess right now is that the main issue Ebbe will be pondering for the Second Life board is this. How quickly can Linden Lab go to an IPO, the "holy grail" of the original investors. My estimate is that about 4 years ago, Second Life, and the entire concept of Virtual Worlds reached what Gartner called "the trough of disillusionment". The owners of Linden Lab decided that the only way to eventually reach the IPO grail was to diversify, and use Second Life as a cash cow to fund all these wonderful new ventures such as BlocksWorld. Now, things have changed. Due to media exposure given to High Fidelity and high profile investments into it -- and associated technologies such as Ocular Rift, the virtual world category is seeing new life. Will Linden Lab stop treating Second Life -- and its users- as having no long term future other than having an ability to serve up sums of cash for expansion in other areas? Are we worth continued investment? Can the category of Virtual worlds get hot again -- perhaps in a somewhat different form? If the answer to these questions is yes, then we have a bright future in front of us. If not, well, just get ready for the same old thing. Interesting times are ahead.
Posted by: Eddi Haskell | Wednesday, February 19, 2014 at 09:20 PM
Secondlife is a great mother earth .... but time for new updated planets to explore ..... but luv the fact this ceo saw an impact on some desicions. New ceo. New world new rules? Wish him all the best....sorry to say the luv for Philip will devoted remain as in his vision ...the respect for Mark to take SL more global will remain and then there was this other guy.....but I have a feeling we will not forget easy the name Ebbe ;-)
Posted by: JoJa Dhara | Wednesday, February 19, 2014 at 10:41 PM
I have been so wrong so many times in what direction SL should develop. It is hard to see clear from the inside of a virtual world.
Maybe Ebbe can get a new angle on how to move SL forward.
And i understand he is a fellow Swede. Thats +1. I hope Linden lab for once made a good recruitment.
On the other hand i have hoped for that before.
Posted by: Cyberserenity | Thursday, February 20, 2014 at 01:35 AM
@JoJa - what the other guy did was have his development team fix the servers and the viewer. In his 3 years that other guy fixed more technical stuff to make SL go better than in all the years before. The visionary global years
So maybe some people forget his name already. Not me tho. His name was Rodvik. the other guy
Posted by: elizabeth (irihapeti) | Thursday, February 20, 2014 at 01:55 AM
I'm cautiously optimistic about this guy. Dropping Versu etc makes sense to me and a focus on improving the SL user experience is overdue. Personally I thoroughly enjoyed my new user experience all of those years ago but I'm a nerd and I know it.
Let's see what he does. Just don't change the name. Brands are important, even if they have some negative connotations.
Posted by: Julia Benmergui | Thursday, February 20, 2014 at 03:49 AM
If you guys knew how much teen SL sucked, you'd be OK with copybot. Thank goodness it's gone.
Posted by: Adeon Writer | Thursday, February 20, 2014 at 04:29 AM
I agree with Julia. This all sounds good to me.
Fact is, no matter what happens with SL, there are those of us who will hang in whatever happens.
I would prefer it to be a positive outcome, but, honestly, who would I be kidding by saying I would leave?
Welcome, Ebbe Linden.
Posted by: drfran | Thursday, February 20, 2014 at 05:46 AM
LL needs to benchmark with 2014+ opportunities and competitors. The 2006-2014 SL way has proven not to work, and is not a law-of-nature.
Monopoly vendor lock-in and intellectual property piracy makes SL a no-go platform for educational and industrial use cases.
Check it out, our new out-of-box Feasibility Project >
Your Use Case in Virtual Worlds + Total-Cost-of-Ownership
Who left Second Life and faced Total-Cost-of-Ownership, the real final McCoy on your budget sheet, Live Consumer Detriment in Action? Please come forward, we welcome Your Story - this in preparation for a future programme at Designing Worlds!
https://www.facebook.com/events/267206300108984/
Posted by: Oink | Thursday, February 20, 2014 at 05:55 AM
As of January 2, 2010, Teen Grid had 93 Mainland regions, 7 resident-owned estates, and 97 educational/project estates.
Maximum user concurrency was about 200 avatars on one day in a period of 6 years. That day was when Globalkids had a protest march.
Posted by: Oink | Thursday, February 20, 2014 at 06:11 AM
And Im just sitting here, thinking if its right to use second life when Im 14. I just love the user-generated content...
Posted by: Anonym | Thursday, February 20, 2014 at 07:03 AM
Eb’s hearing from the SL 1%’rs as to how things are isn’t going to help him in his unenviable job. He should create a regular SL account, log in, search for a small creator biz, a small land rental biz, a small niteclub operator, regular resident(s). The problem with previous CEO’s and upper management at LL is that they only interact with/listen to the top 1%’rs, the SL media, the top creators, and the top land barons. The “Atlas Land Program” being one of the major irritants to the 99%+ of SL residents not getting the “deal” the land barons are getting. I would love to see/hear the SL media ask about that insider “deal” and how it is in any way equitable/fair to the 99%+ of SL resident land owners not getting those sweet advantages.
Posted by: cathartes aura | Thursday, February 20, 2014 at 07:04 AM
A very interesting read. I put my own input into a post on my blog. I made four recommendations:
1. Do not lower tier.
2. Fix and moderate event listings.
3. Improve search.
4. Release experience tools and add scripting functionality.
http://www.myblackrose.net/2014/02/20/suggestions-to-linden-lab-from-an-old-timer/
Posted by: Vivienne Daguerre | Thursday, February 20, 2014 at 07:59 AM
Before I start repairing a computer, I always ask the same question: "When was the last time it was working, and what were you doing then?"
It doesn't only work with computers, either. Always backtrack. Count your steps. See where it went wrong. I think the big questions Ebbe Altberg should be asking are - when was the last time SL was booming, and what changed that?
Posted by: Kirby Crow | Thursday, February 20, 2014 at 08:14 AM
Kirby, that's a brilliant way for our new CEO to diagnose. We could all opine here--me for the EDU community--when the turning point(s) fell. Let's hope the CEO does reach out to folks.
I came in-world just in time for the final Linden Town Meeting, a format I'd not recommend. Yet some outreach (and moving around as an alt) will speak volumes about SL's current situation and past.
Posted by: Iggy | Thursday, February 20, 2014 at 08:28 AM
@Hamlet re "According to my notes, Ebbe's son was in Second Life (including TSL) before Copybot, so I don't believe he's referring to that."
****
Agreed. Its well known that a lot of people between teen and adult SL worked together to get things from one into the other. No one needed copybot for that. They could just talk outside of SL and say "Hey send me your texture for X and I'll send you my script for Y"
And linksets of a 100 prims? Frankly its all just numbers and dials you can tell another person. Everything one can 'steal' that is truly original can be grabbed by its legit owner and passed over - textures, scripts, sculpt maps...
Many serious creator co-ops exist in SL, and do a lot of their work offline by passing photoshop files, collada files, and script files back and forth in email.
Copybot is for people too timid or too lacking in connections to get onto a team of developers. And came later anyway.
@Max re "His son seems better qualified to run LL than he does."
Being a 'gamer' or experienced user is not the same as knowing how to run a business and manage a host of people, issues, and contracts.
Posted by: Pussycat Catnap | Thursday, February 20, 2014 at 08:48 AM
Good luck hoping things work out
Posted by: Geo Meek | Thursday, February 20, 2014 at 08:52 AM
@elizabeth re Rodvik:
Rodvik made SL work. He made it usable. People forget that because the company under him was abysmal in communication. But the pre-Rodvik SL versus the current one are completely different creatures both in terms of the kinds of content available and the fact that it is now usable...
But his lack of communication was a fiasco.
***************
@Anonym: "And Im just sitting here, thinking if its right to use second life when Im 14. I just love the user-generated content..."
Much of it is "toys" not suited to youth and while that will sound pretty exciting to a teen - you will end up learning that your parents parents are even more dull, boring, and outdated than you thought. Adult-age SL is not the toy of your parents generation, but of their parents. All those 'hot babes' you see are really in Betty White's generation.
Posted by: Pussycat Catnap | Thursday, February 20, 2014 at 09:01 AM
@Kirby: "when was the last time SL was booming, and what changed that?"
*************
CNN woke up and realized they were in bed with a furry, a child, a crazy cat lady, and somebody who's stomach was talking crap. But there were just two people in that bed.
Posted by: Pussycat Catnap | Thursday, February 20, 2014 at 09:04 AM
@ elizabeth
You are so right about Rodvik he did so much
now it seems this new guy wants to tear down all his work!
Diversification was the right way from a good business point of view.
To not rely on an 11 year aging platform
@ Adeon Writer
The teen grid was a good idea just poorly implemented because look how much IMVU makes creating a place for tweens & teens they make millions and its barely 3D
As for copybotting now not many even talk about it but its a huge problem that never went away
the marketplace has at least 10,000 copybotted items
@ Oink (Monopoly vendor lock-in and intellectual property piracy makes SL a no-go platform for educational and industrial use cases.)
You hit the nail on the head ..smiles
@ cathartes - You are so right!
Here is my thoughts on land as well as a stop gap measure without them losing a lot of money and resources
-----
1} Reduce Tier to $ 220 on a full region
Avatar limited raised to 125
18k prims
----
2} Homesteads at $99..
offer a 750 prim water region with each one free
you must still own a full region to get this deal
-----
3} 2x2 Homestead Package...
4 Homestead regions...
$275 a month
that must stay connected to each other
Each region 4500 prims and avatar limit raised to 45
will not require owning a full region
will not allow the owning of separate single homestead regions only a full region can own those.
-----
4} The Power Region includes..
1 Full region with 25k prims with 4 water regions
Avatar limit is raised 250
Water Regions allow 35 residents and 1200 prims and can be listed for events
$350 a month
----
They will need to rework the contracts they have with land barons after this
Allow people to hook a private region to mainland water regions
Remodel mainlands
The lindens have 2500 public areas on mainlands
Many are still nice and at one time was the destination places that made SL what it is
lets restore those areas and add them to the destination guide.
Remodel the roads / railroads / new terrain textures and have someone use write out scripts in the database to replace all the linden trees with mesh trees
Hook Linden Homes regions to the mainland
Restore the Second life Mentor program
Mentors should be recognized on their profiles
Restore Last Names
Bring Linden Realms to the mainland
Allow public access to the inworld linden regions including linden headquarters
why are we no longer allowed their?
Reopen bug reports
Allow 3rd party viewers to create innovative features.
why put chains on them they work for free you silly lindens!
Create a lightweight web based viewer for entry level residents so they can explore faster
Give region owners a premium account
Lets recreate what premium members are and the benefits
Allow more then one partner
create a good friends and bad friends list that allows bad friends to always get a busy reply
fix group chat
your strongest viewer asset is the 3rd party viewers devs let them redesign a modern inventory system and again see them as partners not as those you have to watch with an iron fist
Worth a shot for sure.. Smiles
Posted by: Jess 2.0 | Thursday, February 20, 2014 at 09:28 AM
Ebbe, for a few, just alt and enjoy, dcheck the blake sea, bay city, see the mainland continents history, remember, open sim grids offer private regions for free or at a much lower price, any can pick up a program and host their one grid, If Usa army has Moses and most edus know about how to host a open sim grid!
But none has the history behind Sl mainland or the private regions connected to it (Blake sea and so on)
Posted by: zzpearlbottom | Thursday, February 20, 2014 at 09:36 AM
@ Pussycat
It came later? copybot came out in 2005
only 2 years after SL opened
http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2006/11/second_life_clo.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CopyBot
http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2006/11/open_forum_copy.html#comment-25327636
You make valid point and I enjoy reading your comments but please try not marginalize the issue if you were not their or had to suffer from it
A lot of friends logged out over it to never return=(
2005 til now that's 9 years ..Meh
Posted by: Jess 2.0 | Thursday, February 20, 2014 at 09:46 AM
From various comments I've read, it seems a small advisory council of actual SL users would balance nicely with first life 1%ers.
Personally, I skipped the introductory islands in early 2007 and started working with people I met inworld. But if I were to craft the initial user experience, I would use tracks: roleplaying, building, coding, social networking, absolute newb, etc. There's a large community of librarians in SL who could really be helpful in this regard--someone from there ought to be among those on the advisory board mentioned above.
I also like the idea of bringing back the enterprise version of SL. Ensure compatibility with OpenSim and open source versions, including teleporting and ability to move creations among platforms.
Posted by: Paypabak Writer | Thursday, February 20, 2014 at 09:46 AM
SL Forum 03-27-2006 Question:
What would make a good competitor for Second Life?
Answer: I say Garry's Mod... GMod already gives you the ability to run your own sim, with the server option. It lets visitors come by your sim. It lets you build inside your sim; you can both save what you build and save the state of your sim; and best of all it's very possible to both import and export objects to-and-from GMod - That was 2006, now we have Garry's Mod 13 + Standalone Version 14.01.22 in 2014!
http://forums-archive.secondlife.com/108/6a/96447/1.html
Posted by: Oink | Thursday, February 20, 2014 at 10:01 AM
"It came later? copybot came out in 2005"
Yes came later. Read the context I was posting in and what I was replying to. I'll expect you to do that rather than restate it here.
I keep seeing two concerns that seem in conflict to me: copybot vs. vendor lock in. It seems to me that copybot IS the solution to vendor lock in... how can you avoid vendor lock in without having a copybot tool? A poisonous solution, but that might very well be why we still have vendor lock in...
Posted by: Pussycat Catnap | Thursday, February 20, 2014 at 10:08 AM
Jo Yardley wrtes more about this meeting:
"Linden Lab invited Mal Burns, Daniel Voyager, Inara Pey, Draxtor Despres and myself to a meet & greet with its new CEO Ebbe Altberg.
We started with a little delay due to technological issues and unfortunately quite a few of us had problems with the sound.
Ebbe wanted to know if it was normal to have this much audio difficulty, we explained that many of us used Skype for recordings and such.
I could almost hear Ebbe make a mental note of this"
http://joyardley.wordpress.com/2014/02/19/chatting-with-ebbe-altberg-new-ceo-of-linden-lab/
This is very funny, because in June 2013 >
Philip Rosedale complains 00:04 about needing ONE HOUR himself as SL creator to get his audio in Second Life running, next to crashing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rv91AwOkJQ
Posted by: Oink | Thursday, February 20, 2014 at 10:10 AM
Vendor lock-in is the cause for the delisting of SL by the Immersive Education Initiative in 2010...
In 2010, Second Life was de-listed by the Immersive Education Initiative for the following reasons http://immersiveeducation.org/go/iED_Article_Taking_The_Initiative_CGW.html
All those in-the-box educators who are blind-eyed to this, are also in denial of the evolve of a “Create Once, Experience Everywhere” Education Grid http://youtu.be/cMhBiu0YJ3s
Just check the Educational Use Case Requirements Management for an Education Grid:
Immersive Education Technology Group (IETG) > Education Grid Requirements Specification
http://mediagrid.org/groups/technology/grid.ied/specification/index.html
Check Item 2.1: No “Vendor Lock-In” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vendor_lock-in
Client use case requirements for education demand no Vendor Lock-in, and logically of course no Intellectual Property Piracy...
Posted by: Oink | Thursday, February 20, 2014 at 10:40 AM
Ebbe's son is Daniel Voyager
now one can wonder why they are hiding this fact?
Posted by: Hero Sandwich | Thursday, February 20, 2014 at 11:13 AM
Oink
Vender lock in is GREAT
everything made by me is mine why should you get a free copy of my hard work .
Posted by: Hero Sandwich | Thursday, February 20, 2014 at 11:18 AM
I think they've missed a trick by letting Versu go but hopefully they will let someone else take that platform on rather than just let it die, there's potential there.
Ebbe is certainly communicating well with Second Life users at the moment, let's just hope he doesn't bite off more than he can chew, you'll never please everyone.
Posted by: Ciaran Laval | Thursday, February 20, 2014 at 03:57 PM
@hero
Vendor Lock-in is not great... check Wikipedia
"In economics, vendor lock-in, also known as proprietary lock-in or customer lock-in, makes a customer dependent on a vendor for products and services, unable to use another vendor without substantial switching costs. Lock-in costs which create barriers to market entry may result in antitrust action against a monopoly."
So it is no wonder that SL and Virtual Worlds, in total, are in decline. as long as you pursue predatory ways and contradict OECD and national Consumer Protection guidelines and laws.
It's a Buyer's market, and not a Seller's market.
Posted by: Oink | Thursday, February 20, 2014 at 08:15 PM
@ Oink
No "vendor lock-in" = no IP protection.
SL would not have lasted this long if it hadn't early on provided a means for creators to protect their IP.
Posted by: Amanda Dallin | Thursday, February 20, 2014 at 09:51 PM
@Amanda
Nothing is lasting long...
As long as Linden Lab pursues predatory and honeytrapping behavior by implementing Vendor Lock-in AND Intellectual Property Piracy, it is no wonder that Second Life, and Virtual Worlds in total, are in decline.
http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=second%20life%2C%20virtual%20worlds%2C%20app&cmpt=q
In contrary, Big Data + Google Trends are helpful tools to support the fact that:
It is a Buyer’s market, and not a Seller’s market…
4/26/2013 Big Data Gets Bigger: Now Google Trends Can Predict The Market
http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidleinweber/2013/04/26/big-data-gets-bigger-now-google-trends-can-predict-the-market/
Posted by: Oink | Thursday, February 20, 2014 at 10:42 PM
@Amanda
How can you say that you are protected, if you read the unchanged version of LL TOS 2.3, this version was not even reversed to prior status?
Let's call the August 2013 act a Scam Confidence Trick of a vendor utility provider.
A Letter of Intent to remedy the situation remained as a lip promise. Not one tangible and accountable measure has emerged.
Silence prevails since the Lawyer's Redress of this in mid-November 2013...
A LL CEO ditched his job a few weeks later in January 2014 without responding to the pending risk of facing to be reported to the Federal Trade Commission...
Posted by: Oink | Thursday, February 20, 2014 at 11:09 PM
Well I keep seeing the movie The Loved One playing in front of me with Ebbe's son at the controls of the rocket as Jonathan Winter is working on a marketing scheme to make the public buy into the burials of people placed in space orbit so as to free up valuable cemetery plot space to be used for real estate shopping center development...what we need is a celebrity to endorse and be seen in virtual worlds Justin Bieber he needs a country ..hmmm how about all the pet people can we "reachout to the facebook community" and place a photo of their parted loved one in SL where they can rest in eternity with yearly memorial parades of Furries and Nekos to add the solemn and respectful atmosphere? I wish the new Linden Lab CEO luck. I will offer discounted marketing advice for real USD payable to my paypal..
Posted by: Up4 Dawes | Friday, February 21, 2014 at 12:03 AM
@Oink - there is no vendor lockin to SL
textures, soundfiles, sculpts and meshes are made outside of SL. A creator can upload their own work to any world or webstore they like
scripts and notecards are cut/copy and paste enabled. You can copypasta from SL to your own editor and vice versa freely
so that leaves prim builds. Is permitted by the ToS for you as the creator to export your prim builds data to your own computer. From there you can upload to any other world you like
+
am not sure why you seem to post a lot of the stuff you do. Seems to be an awful lot of advert links in your posts. Maybe Hamlet should start charging you tiers for them
Posted by: elizabeth (irihapeti) | Friday, February 21, 2014 at 02:59 AM
@elizabeth
Sorry, but the Education Grid is an open source project, and not a commercial one.
So any antagonisms based on commercial considerations fly past this use case, and have no affect.
I think that I indeed provided some beef about the value-adds of an open source Education Grid.
1. If you look into the SL Delisting Arguments of Immersive Education Initiative iED under item 1 above, you will see:
"Second Life is a closed and proprietary platform that is in direct conflict with open mandates defined by the Immersive Education Initiative Charter (see "Open and Royalty-Free")"
I am sure that you can follow-up on the argumentation and iED's use case requirements yourself from there.
2. As a closed platform, SL unfortunately does not comply with iED Educational Use Case Requirement Specifications for the evolve of an Education Grid. You can check item 2.1 in the above link.
I hope you have the insight to agree that such a worldwide educational platform, as targeted by Harvard University and others, needs to be an open higher-level meta platform in order to achieve a "Create Once, Experience Everywhere" strategy. Please do check the according video above.
So what sensible educator would want to exclude himself from such a grand and open cybernetic strategy, and pursue the closed platform path of a predatory and commercial vendor?
Such meta-delivery of content would provide much more value-add (meaning less total-cost-of-ownership - even youth jobs) than a closed and monopoly-priced version of a predatory platform vendor like SL.
3. Of course, this needs according open source licensing, separate from commercial licensing.
In comparison to the Opensim audience, the SL audience lacks and needs some training about commercial and non-commercial Licensing in Virtual Worlds...
- Licensing Considerations Virtual Worlds
http://de.scribd.com/doc/39525822/Licensing-Considerations-Virtual-Worlds-02-2010
As SL has basically missed the train, SL would still need to benchmark itself with competitor opportunities in order to get on the catch-up train.
4. Comparitively, if you want to see what others are doing with regard to "No Vendor Lock-in" and "No Intellectual Property Piracy" check the following examples TOS:
Cinema Class - Garry's Mod 13
http://www.garrysmod.com/terms/
Cartoon Class - Kitely/Opensim
http://www.kitely.com/virtual-world-news/2013/10/05/the-content-liberation-front/
5. If you check the pricing strategies, LL's pricing strategy is way off track with competitive comparisons, thus holding onto SL Consumer Detriment and out-of-proportion Total-Cost-of-Ownership is not in your nor in consumer's interest.
I recommend that Hamlet should start assessing your contribution to Consumer Detriment and out-of-proportion Total-Cost-of-Ownership.
Consumers and customers want a competitive environment of economic choices, and not a monopoly and anti-trust environment.
Again, it's about Customer Satisfaction and not about Platform satisfaction...
It is a Buyer's market and not a Seller's market.
Posted by: Oink | Friday, February 21, 2014 at 08:25 AM
"Ebbe's son is Daniel Voyager
now one can wonder why they are hiding this fact?"
O.o?
Where do you get that idea from?
Posted by: Pussycat Catnap | Friday, February 21, 2014 at 09:13 AM
"“Getting people to understand the value proposition and quickly get feedback on that so they can get hooked in minutes instead of hours and day,” he says, is the challenge he faces now."
A simple way to start is to put Linden staff in the newbie landing areas to answer questions. I logged in a new alt, and everyone around me was asking questions, but no staff was there to answer questions and point people to their areas of interest.
Over and over, I heard the question, "What's the point of this game?" If you want to increase the number of people who return, you need staff to say, "If you tell me your interests, I'll tell you how to pursue them here."
Over the years, I've seen numerous attempts to automate the first time learning experience, but nothing is as effective as having live people to answer questions. The people I've gotten into SL are here now because I walked them through the first steps.
After Ebbe takes that easy step of adding live staff to help newbies, next please make group voice chat easier to set up.
Posted by: Flashing Merlin | Friday, February 21, 2014 at 09:55 AM
@Oink - Oh!
so is ok for you to comment/pimp Education Grid on every article about SL bc it serve a noble purpose. A noble purpose like educating SL users on how their continued use of SL is detrimental to the noble purpose
so you not advertising then. Can accept that. You just recruiting for the noble purpose
+
ps.
please don't tell me that you dropped a pile of cash into LLs pockets when the SL bear market hit. All the cash you and/or your friends and/or the org you work for, made in the SL bull market just by logging in. And a whole bunch more of your own and/or your friends and/or the org you work for, fighting the bears
I hope not bc that would hurt. Like hurt me. bc I don't much like to hear them tales. They pretty heart-breaking
Posted by: elizabeth (irihapeti) | Saturday, February 22, 2014 at 04:17 AM
I'm about 90% sure Daniel Voyager is not his son. I remember when it happened that a well-known designer was outed for being under age and sent to the teen grid. If I recall, he made hair and maybe clothes. He wasn't as well-known as other designers of that time like Truth but he was definitely on his way. I was disappointed that he was going away. I just can't remember his name. Would have actually been around 2007 or 2008, maybe 2009 even. I also remember the publicity around it and the focus it brought to the teen grid. Some very well known designers may have set up shop there for a time during this whole thing. Anyway, I can't remember any specifics, so this is all anecdotal.
Posted by: Krissy Muggleston | Saturday, February 22, 2014 at 05:45 PM
@elizabth
Are you on the Consumer side, or on the Platform side?
I am on the bona-fide Consumer and Customer side. I express Warranted Dis-Appraisal of the Angry Noob.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/immersiveworld.angrynoob/
If you are on the Platform side, how much do you get on Kickbacks?
Posted by: Oink | Saturday, February 22, 2014 at 07:09 PM
@Oink
Your education use case is very limited and doesn't apply to most people who are in SL.
Arguments over the TOS that came out last year are purely hypothetical at the moment since LL has not stolen anyone's IP using the TOS changes. This also has nothing to do with anything I was talking about. I was talking about protecting the Intellectual property of creators from people who think they should be able to use the creativity and labor of others as they wish.
A standardized virtual world system where you could take your avatar and things you've purchased between various virtual world would be great but it doesn't exist. It won't exist until there is some way to protect the rights of all involved, consumer, creator, and platform owners.
Posted by: Amanda Dallin | Sunday, February 23, 2014 at 06:31 PM
Posted by: Oink | Sunday, February 23, 2014 at 08:24 PM
@Oink - I get it now. I understand that you just angry with LL. Bbout everything it would seem. Can understand that
If LL ever (like never) get shut down by the Feds bc of stuff they do then umm! oh! well. Be a bit sad but oh! well
until then just keep going on SL and any stuff I make then keep backups. Like I do anyways bc I put into my own Aurora and OSim as well
that LL don't want to share metadata on their servers with other online providers then is ok with me. Same as is OK with me that Google Store, Xbox Store and Apple Store don't share. If I want to upload stuff I make then they all happy to take. If I want to buy stuff off any of them then I just login to their sites and buy it
is the same with any stuff I want to put on my Facebook. I just do that and upload separate to my Tumblr
Posted by: elizabeth (irihapeti) | Monday, February 24, 2014 at 12:29 AM
@elizabeth
It seems you don't take Warranted Dis-Appraisal as warranted, but that's not my problem.
Due to it's "Die-Hards" and "In-the-Box" sheep ready to be honeytrapped and scammed, Virtual worlds lacks a culture of quality, sustainability, and continuous improvement.
Do you know the name of the LL's quality manager?
No matter, there is a negative quality scale that ranks Linden Lab well - it's the so-called Capability Im-Maturity Model, you can rank LL yourself.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capability_Immaturity_Model
As long as Linden Lab's development culture is misadministrated in Anti-Patterns, you will hardly see a turnaround of the situation. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-pattern
So it's no wonder that millions are balking SL, Opensim, and Virtual Worlds...
Posted by: Oink | Monday, February 24, 2014 at 02:58 AM
@ Oink
It makes a lot of sense whatever you do never stop speaking the truth because it is the only way to reach a solution. lough at the haters
Posted by: Karen White | Monday, February 24, 2014 at 08:46 AM
@karen
Thanks for the kind words :)
A simplified example > If you want to run a Barber Shop, your first attention is focussed on getting Customers to walk into your shop and buy a Haircut (Use Case), once that happens, you put them on a Barber Chair (Tool)...
A Barber Chair does not run your Barber Shop, it is vice-versa, a Barber Shop governs the Barber Chair (here the virtual world platform)...
A Barber Chair is merely a piece of utility from a vendor, a utility provider...
Tools change, and Use Cases remain stable for the most part, so any Tool goes as long as it complies with Use Case Requirements
That is called the Tool Agnostic Approach like the US Army specifies for procurement purposes.
Now why the hell is this predatory Barber Chair, called Second Life, trying to govern the Barber Shop with Vendor Lock-in and Intellectual Property Piracy?
Do you get the point, the value-add chain does not start at the Barber Chair.
All and any Tools, like Second Life + Opensim vendors, are exchangeable backseat utility providers who compete with each other as a 3D commodity, the Use Case is on the frontseat.
This is the sustainable way.
Posted by: Oink | Monday, February 24, 2014 at 09:19 AM
LL is in danger of being reported to the Federal Trade Commission? Oh dear. I expect management is pissing themselves in terror.
Last year, the FTC received 2,061,495 complaints.
While, LL's apparent IP grab is unethical and a huge problem, a threat of a report to the FTC is unlikely be high on the minds of the people who run LL.
Posted by: Carl Metropolitan | Tuesday, February 25, 2014 at 07:25 PM
@carl
Thank you for your kind words in support of monopolist and anti-trust behavior! How much do you get on Kickbacks?
The complaint form above covers 28 countries!
Posted by: Oink | Wednesday, February 26, 2014 at 12:05 AM
@Oink
Linden Labs gives me a premium stipend of 500L$ a week instead of 300L$ a week. Shsshh... Don't tell anyone.
Posted by: Carl Metropolitan | Wednesday, February 26, 2014 at 11:21 AM
Hey, I was wondering if you can bring teen second in because the other teens never got to try out second life .... And it's not fair that the 13 years olds have to wait 3-4 years just to go on there because y'all might be shutting down on 2016-2017 so if your not going to shut down then. Please email me. Or a least bring teen grid back on the charts.
Posted by: Megan Williams | Saturday, April 26, 2014 at 03:58 PM