Yesterday on Tuesday October 29,
Linden Lab announced they were appointing Philip Rosedale, better known to SL residents as Philip Linden, to the position of Chief Technical Officer.
Philip Rosedale, the visionary who founded Second Life in 1999, is
returning to Linden Lab in a full-time role as Chief Technology Officer.
Philip will guide technology and product strategy daily alongside
Executive Chairman Brad Oberwager and the executive team, and is also
joining Linden Lab’s Board of Directors.
Philip’s return comes at a time when advancements in AI and mobile
technology are rapidly making virtual worlds more accessible and
mainstream than ever before. A pioneer in virtual world development,
Philip is uniquely able to drive Second Life forward in new,
transformative directions.
Brad Oberwager, the head of Linden Lab, would have this to say, "Over the last four years since the acquisition, Linden Lab has
re-focused itself on improving and serving Second Life. We’ve divested
ourselves of unnecessary projects, streamlined our operations, increased
the quality of customer support, and grown our overall revenues and
profitability. We’re now in a unique position to define the future of
virtual worlds, and Philip is returning to help myself and the exec team
achieve that goal."
Philip Linden would say, "I started Second Life in 1999 – a decade before cloud computing and
two decades before AI. We were early, but the success of Second Life to
this day shows that we were not wrong. Virtual worlds will play an
increasingly important role in the future of human culture, and I’m
coming back to help make that happen in a way that has the most positive
impact for the largest number of people."
It was also announced there would be a Community Roundtable event this Friday, November 1, at 10 AM SL time.
As part of his return to Second Life, Philip will be actively engaged
inworld with our communities and creators to listen, learn, and
collaborate on ways to improve our shared virtual world. He will be
taking your questions and sharing more of his vision for Second Life
this Friday at 10 am SLT as part of our next Community Roundtable series
(location to be announced later this week). Here’s your chance to
interact directly with Philip inworld to learn more about the past,
present and future of our shared virtual world.
People were invited to submit questions to the Lab for the Roundtable, via a Google doc (
here), "
All feedback and submissions will be reviewed by Philip directly for consideration and discussion at a forthcoming Community Roundtable."
For those who don't know, Philip Rosedale was the founder of Linden Lab, which created Second Life. He would remain as it's CEO for the virtual world's first several years until he stepped down in 2009. He would briefly take charge again as interim CEO for several months in 2010 before once again stepping down. He would depart the Lab for several years, founding High Fidelity. But he would return to Linden Lab
in January 2022 as a"strategic advisor."
Addition: the event will be at Linden Estate Services3 (26/26/29)
Bixyl Shuftan