Ebbe Altberg Promises Transparency & Empowerment as Linden Lab's New CEO

@marimccann Thanks! I'm opening as fast as I can. Jira is coming. Lindens in SL will come too. Transparency and empowerment are core to me.

— Ebbe Altberg (@ebbealtberg) February 26, 2014

Well this is a refreshing change: In response to a post that SLer Marianne McCann Tweeted at him, new Linden Lab CEO promised much more openness, transparency, empowerment, responsiveness to JIRA support tickets, Linden Lab staffers in Second Life, world peace, magic ponies (or at least most of those). His predecessor Rod Humble operated the company in a way that was much more similar to how companies like Electronic Arts and Sony Online Entertainment are run (where Humble was once an executive), so on paper at least, this seems like a radical return to Linden Lab's roots.

Then again, it'll be interesting to see how far Altberg can keep these promises. They're very much in line with Philip Rosedale's original vision for the company, but it's been difficult for succeeding CEOs to follow. And at this point, there's frankly a lot of things Linden Lab can't be transparent about, without causing a community-wide panic. (Especially when many in the SL user community are already prone to panic at the smallest or most misinterpeted things.)

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Comments

[Adeon Writer]

Experience permissions please. Most needed feature for good content development.

[Rob Heath]

I think Ebbe is curing my apathy! If its just smoke it smells good!

[Hitomi Tiponi]

I believe that Ebbe's comment about Jira is referring to comments he has made elsewhere about opening up more access to it.

[Iggy]

The CEO's tweet is good news. Just remember, Hamlet, before you ask for a pony: they did shoot ponies at LL. Poor Pony Linden!

http://alphavilleherald.com/2010/08/pony-linden-fed-to-zombies.html

[DontGetHairy]

Promises Promise Promises

"...new Linden Lab CEO promised much more openness, transparency, empowernment, responsiveness to JIRA support tickets..."

Well, let's really dig in, and take a look at the JIRA support ticket Agreement Terms:

https://jira.secondlife.com/secure/Dashboard.jspa

"All submissions to this site are governed by Second Life Project Contribution Agreement. By submitting patches and other information using this site, you acknowledge that you have read, understood, and agreed to those terms."

What is Second Life Project Contribution Agreement?

http://wiki.secondlife.com/w/index.php?title=Linden_Lab_Official:Contribution_Agreement

This Contribution Agreement resembles Linden Lab's predatory Terms of Service 2.3, the Intellectual Property Piracy issue presently under scrutiny.

But this JIRA Agreement goes a step further to add predatory terms for Patent issues as well.

The Lawyer's Redress about the August 2013 TOS 2.3 was mid-November 2013, Linden Lab has already been warned about being reported to the Federal Trade Commission, this is the immediate pending risk for LL now - LL is lacking a response since mid November 2013.

Moreover, the former CEO ditched his job in January 2014 > Linden Lab remains silent to respond to these lawyer's redress requests.

http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2013/11/uccsl-tos.html#more

[DontGetHairy]

Ebbe Altberg got things wrong if he means Platform Empowernment, it's about Consumer Protection + Empowernment.

This is Consumer Protection + Empowerment...

OECD Consumer Policy Toolkit > What is Consumer Detriment? http://www.oecd.org/sti/consumer/consumerpolicytoolkit.htm

Eight Basic Consumer Rights in Virtual Worlds > On 15 March, 1962, US President John F. Kennedy delivered an historic address to the US Congress in which he outlined his vision of consumer rights. This was the first time any politician had formerly set out such principles. 'Consumers by definition, include us all,' Kennedy said in his Congressional Statement, 'They are the largest economic group, affecting and affected by almost every public and private economic decision. Yet they are the only important group... whose views are often not heard.' Over time, the consumer movement has developed this vision into a set of Eight Basic Consumer Rights that now define and inspire much of the work CI and its members do (around areas such as financial services and communications)
http://www.consumersinternational.org/who-we-are/consumer-rights#.UVR_vhe27To

OECD Workshop on Consumer Protection and Empowerment in the Purchase of Digital Content (2012)
http://www.oecd.org/sti/consumerpolicy/oecdworkshoponconsumerprotectionandempowermentinthepurchaseofdigitalcontent.htm

OECD - Empowering E-Consumers (2009): Strengthening Consumer Protection in the Internet Economy
http://www.oecd.org/ict/econsumerconference/

OECD Guidelines for Protecting Consumers from Fraudulent and Deceptive Commercial Practices Across Borders (2003)
http://www.oecd.org/sti/consumerpolicy/oecdguidelinesforprotectingconsumersfromfraudulentanddeceptivecommercialpracticesacrossborders2003.htm

OECD Guidelines for Consumer Protection in the Context of Electronic Commerce (1999)
http://www.oecd.org/sti/consumerpolicy/oecdguidelinesforconsumerprotectioninthecontextofelectroniccommerce1999.htm