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The Virtual Whirl: The bottom line
Hot topic of the week would be the Linden Lab layoffs. 30% of the staff (roughly 110 or so individuals) were laid off this week in a round of layoffs that we spotted ahead of the official announcements. Additional staff have been shed since the beginning of the year. Staff have been dropped from market-development, business development, engineering, quality assurance, human resources, community and executive management. Hardest hit this week are community and customer-advocacy roles and quality-assurance/testing. What isn't hard to see is why these cuts were made, and in fact, why they are vital to Linden Lab as a going concern. At least it isn't hard to see when you're looking in the right place.
Tom Hale talks Second Life premium accounts
Back in September, when we first noticed the hiring of Tom Hale (T Linden) as Linden Lab's new Chief Product Officer, we had a little difficulty envisioning quite what Hale's role would even be, given that Linden Lab and Second Life was very platform-oriented and had very little product-focus. Apparently, adding that focus as an extra consideration throughout the business seems to be the thing. Initially, we were more or less expecting Hale to be more focused on, well, the sort of thing that Rivers Run Red's Immersive Workspaces is providing. Perhaps there's some of that in there too. Right now, Hale's looking at Second Life premium accounts and stipends and how they can be improved; a topic which has been much on the Lab's mind of late.
