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Robin Harper to leave Linden Lab
After almost seven years at Linden Lab Robin Harper, the Lab's Vice President of Marketing and Community Development, has given notice of her impending departure from the company. Harper, who arrived at Linden Lab from game company Maxis, was nominated as one of Edge's 100 Most Influential Women in Gaming in 2006, and in 2007 we considered her the one person Linden Lab and Second Life could least afford to lose. While we still believe that was a correct call at the time, times obviously change. The Lab has been undergoing significant shake-up at the executive level, particularly in the last six months, as new Lab CEO Mark Kingdon has been completely overhauling management of the company, and given the rate at which Kingdon has been restructuring the executive, this doesn't come as much of a surprise.
Linden Lab responds to blog back-off
You may recall our coverage of the state of the main Second Life blog this week, which drew a very prompt response from virtual environment operator Linden Lab. The Second Life blog has been steadily transforming from a communications tool that conveys information to users into a marketing and promotional tool, whose target audience seems to be those who do not currently use Second Life, with an increasing number of posts that seem to be purely promotional. Lab CEO Mark Kingdon's post in July seemed to be little more than a brochure in the final analysis. Granted, Linden Lab seems to have no other prominent venue for publishing this sort of material, but the ongoing repurposing of the blog from communications tool to promotional tool is an interesting process to watch over time. Indeed, the Second Life blog seems to have now completely shuttered except for marketing and promotional purposes, though Linden Lab's response to our story indicates that they have other plans for it -- though quite what, is not made completely clear. Are you a part of the most widely-known collaborative virtual environment or keeping a close eye on it? Massively's Second Life coverage keeps you in the loop.
Linden Lab sparks bloggers strike
Starting today, a number of prominent Second Life bloggers are on strike for three full days in protest at Linden Lab's sudden detrimental change of position on the use of current and new trademarks. These bloggers feel snubbed and threatened by the new brand guidelines, which they find contradictory, excessive and potentially restrictive to free speech, and are going on a symbolic three-day strike as a gesture to show that they do not find Linden Lab's answers to these concerns sufficient.
Linden Lab hires Resident Communications Manager
In a search lasting nearly 12 months, Linden Lab has finally hired a Communications Manager. Linden Lab originally announced the search for a Second Life Resident Communications Manager in early May 2007, but the blog posting announcing the position was silently removed some months later. You would hardly know the position had been filled, if you weren't reading closely.
Peering inside - looking back at 2007 [UPDATED]
It's been no less a tumultuous year for Second Life in 2007 this year than any previous year, frankly. There are a few standout items though. This isn't the list that anyone else might make - We might completely skip over one of the things you see as standing out as a huge impact, based solely on that we don't actually think it was that big a deal in the scheme of things.
Peering inside - What does Cory Ondrejka's departure mean?
Ondrejka's leaving Linden Lab at the end of the month. It wouldn't surprise me to see him working for (eg) Google on 2 January. Face it, Ondrejka's hot geek property, any issues of sex-appeal aside. Recruiters, if you want a piece of Ondrejka, you've probably got very little time to pitch something at him. Whatever Linden Lab's fortunes are, or have been, Ondrejka's the bee's knees right now, both technically and from a PR perspective.
Linden Lab: International age verification failure rate "unacceptable" [updated]
Robin Harper, Linden Lab's Vice President of Marketing and Community Development, has just put out a late update on the status of the new Second Life age verification beta. Harper begins by acknowledging the very high failure rate among international verification attempts, "The failure rate is much higher than we saw in previous testing, and clearly is unacceptable."
Age verification arrives on the Second Life grid (updated)
Age verification is now in beta on the Second Life grid. We think it's called Age Verification, anyway. It's undergone a couple name changes since inception. Initially, Linden Lab were calling it Age Verification, then Identity Verification (IDV) and now we're back to Age Verification again. We're not really very sure if it is going to change its name again. There are a few things, though, that we do know ...
It's official: April 17th will be Remembrance Day in Second Life
[Update: Changed 'officially planned' to 'made recognition'] For those who recall, there was a recommendation put forth from the Second Life community that April 17th be a day of remembrance for Ginny Talamasca, as reported here. I'm as amazed as anyone when I say that Linden Lab has stepped up to the call to action and made recognition of the 17th as a remembrance day -- just not specifically for Ginny. From Robin Linden, VP of Marketing and Community Development:"We think it's a wonderful idea to have an annual day of remembrance in Second Life, to honor everyone we may have lost through the year," Harper wrote. "We're happy to have that day be on April 17. In addition, we'd like to donate (two island sims) for the purpose of holding any memorial type events ... It's our feeling that such a day will enrich Second Life, and the loss of Ginny is a reminder how important it is that we remember all our friends -- hence the move to a broader recognition day."I think this is a wonderful thing, but I do wonder if it was something LL felt pressured into doing, rather than something that ought to have been in planning all along and just received the push from the residents. While there's no word on what this day will be called, or what these proposed sims will contain or look like, this move could help LL's perceived reputation as hands-off, draconian landlords.[Via news.com]
