These last two weeks, Linden Lab has opened the doors for some of us to have limited interviews with Rod Humble, the freshly-minted CEO of Linden Lab, and the new face at the helm of Second Life, and I was among those given the opportunity to ask some questions. I took the opportunity to ask a number of you just what questions you’d like answered, and managed to squeeze a number of them in on your behalf.
Humble was quite circumspect and reticent in his responses, but to be fair, he’s only been involved with Linden Lab for about three weeks so far, and is far less acquainted with what Linden Lab has done to-date than most of the rest of us.
TMJ: How would you describe Second Life in your own words?
I wouldn’t. Partly because I feel I would be a little silly by naming something that others (such as yourself) have experienced far more than me, but more importantly, I would let our customers do that over time as we figure it out together. I think it has something to do with creativity and how we evolve identity as we interact with others, but I like its undefined nature. I like its ambiguity. That to me feels like it is the beginning of something.
TMJ: Linden Lab has received quite a bit of criticism for its removal of discounts for educators. Given the subsequent increase in educators starting to look elsewhere, how does Linden Lab see the non-profit / education sector fitting into its strategy?
I wasn’t really here for that, so it’s hard for me to comment on past policy, but we certainly value these communities and don’t want to hamper their contributions to Second Life or prevent them from getting the value from it that they currently do.
TMJ: Going back a couple of years, Linden Lab was driving the interoperability agenda to a large extent, with that now being driven primarily by the OpenSim community. Does Linden Lab have any plans to get more substantively into that space and if not, is it just a case of keeping Second Life’s feature set ahead of OpenSim in order to maintain the lead?
Sorry it’s too soon to talk about this. Gotta play the new guy card.
TMJ: To get parochial for a second, back in mid-2007 we were told there would be Australian-based Second Life servers “real soon now”. Can you outline your strategy for managing bandwidth and response times for Second Life outside of the USA?
Yeah that’s a bit too detailed for me right now, but we definitely intend to fully support customers worldwide. How we can do that, we are looking at, but it varies by territory.
TMJ: What do you think Linden Lab’s strengths are?
Customers – we are blessed by customers who talk to us a lot and are not shy. This is a tremendous asset. While obviously we make mistakes and do not please everyone, the level of feedback helps us enormously. Our harshest critics are also our staunchest defenders when others put out misinformation about Second Life. If anything, getting customers’ voices heard coherently is our biggest task. There are way too many places where customers send feedback (or a “tower of babble” as one customer put it). As part of serving folks better the team here is trying to focus that more. The new user groups are a step along that path. Finally, of course, our customers literally make the whole world.
TMJ: Given that you’re approaching things from a different background, what do you think Linden Lab’s biggest mistake has been?
Given the incredible technical and social challenges that Second Life solved, I am not sure I would label much to be a massive mistake. Second Life is technically really impressive – Linden Lab solved some astoundingly difficult technical problems in order to create it – but it’s still much too hard for new users by an exponential factor rather than a small one. There’s a big gap between how experienced customers can enjoy Second Life and the experience of a new user, and that’s a huge opportunity for us. What’s interesting is that in the entertainment space, most companies face these challenges in the reverse order – first you figure out ease of use and accessibility, how to make interacting with it an enjoyable experience, and then you tackle the technical stuff to make it work.
TMJ: What particular thing do you feel you’re bringing to Linden Lab, given your skills and background?
I hope my experience in growing large communities will prove useful to our customers. I care about art and creativity, I express myself through technology. I hope those traits will prove helpful.
TMJ: Linden Lab has spent much of the last decade juggling one or another balance of “fast, easy, fun”, seemingly without really finding a balance point that lasts for more than a few months. Is the problem – do you think – with finding the right balance, with the thrust of the strategy itself, or is there some third angle we’re overlooking?
I wasn’t here, so it would be inappropriate for me to comment on past strategies, but I will say Second Life is a vibrant world that exists today and is enjoyed by millions of people, so it succeeded in many ways. It seems to me that a blended strategy can often be effective. I am used to operating a strategy where you have a general strategy setting the overall direction then initiatives on a 1, 3, 6, 12, and 24 month timeline, which evolve as you work through them. That technique is not particularly revolutionary but it works.
TMJ: Linden Lab has always seemed to most focused on the retention of new users at the apparent expense of existing users. I know this comes across as quite a leading sort of question, and I cannot really see quite how to avoid that I’m afraid, but do you think that situation should continue, be reversed or should some other sort of balance be struck?
I think you can see from my comments above that I strongly believe you need both. Our existing customers should expect us to do a bunch of unsexy backend work to address your valid issues. I would also say that intelligent internet savvy new users are utterly lost with the current experience and discoverability. That for sure will also be addressed in the short term.
TMJ: Have you tried any third-party viewers? If so, do you have any preferences?
I have tried them all they all have positives and negatives. I do have various features I like from each that I think we should learn from.
TMJ: What do you feel is the greatest threat to Second Life?
If we put barriers in the way of creativity and exploration. There are temptations to do this every day. They need to be avoided.
TMJ: What actually are Linden Lab’s goals or direction for Second Life? Nobody’s ever really said, and everyone’s awfully curious.
As I mentioned before, my goal is to enable our customers’ expression and creativity, beyond that, let us see where the journey takes us all. The residents of Second Life are smart, communicative and creative. They are going to take this in all sorts of directions. Our job at Linden Lab is to set solid foundations, create the tools, and then get out of the way as much as we can.
TMJ: Should we expect a change of direction from the Lab and/or for Second Life? If so, how?
Expect to see a focus on customer service, experience, creativity and usability. Second Life should become the natural home for intelligent, creative, and social people online. Whether that is a change or not I don’t really know, but those are my priorities right now.
TMJ: Under Philip Rosedale’s tenure as CEO, Second Life’s motto was “Your world, your imagination”. During Mark Kingdon’s era it was “Your world, your way”. What motto do you feel will be the hallmark of your own tenure at the Lab?
Those both sound good and appropriate to me. I don’t think 3 weeks in it would be appropriate for me to succinctly summarise or change a mission statement or motto.
TMJ: What are your initial impressions about the culture and communications inside the Lab?
It’s great! People are very friendly and committed to wanting to make something important. I am really taken aback by just how much people here care. It is good to see.
TMJ: What are your personal goals while you’re the CEO of Linden Lab?
I would like to meet someone in five years who said “Yeah I joined Second Life just after you joined, and it really meant a lot to me. The people I met, the things I saw. That was important.” If I can achieve that, if a decision I take changes some human beings for the better, then I will be pleased …………Oh and I want to script a fully operational miniature wargames table in Second Life 🙂
TMJ: We don’t want this to be entirely one-sided. What are we – as users and customers – not asking you about that you’d nevertheless like us to hear?
I will read the comments to this interview, what I would most like to know is this: In 2 years time what would you most like to be doing in Second Life, and how would you like to be doing it? The answers to that question would be very helpful indeed.
So, who is willing to speak up in response to Humble’s question: In 2 years time what would you most like to be doing in Second Life, and how would you like to be doing it?
[i]In 2 years time what would you most like to be doing in Second Life, and how would you like to be doing it? [/i]
two years is yet a long ways away. That would be my 7th rez month, which may well be a stretch for someone who planned to be in SL for two weeks or so, and has still managed to be here.
I would hope, in that time, that I would still be connecting people and communities. I would hope to still hang around in my usual corners of the SL metaverse (Bay City!), while still being wowed by the contributions and places of others. I would hope to still be a valued, valuable part of this world, and still working with others to make for a better place for us all. Further, I would hope I could still be the avatar of my choice, and still have the freedom to express myself as I desire.
I would like to have the tools I have now, plus whatever comes down the line. I would like to be able to bring elements into SL, rather than having to leave my SL “experience” and go elsewhere to create and socialize. I want to be able to do more with my groups and friends, and keep in contact with them in better ways than notecards and ad-hoc conferences. I want to manage my inventory in more powerful ways, better ways to sort and find what I need, new ways to group items into far more useful sets and subsets. More than this, I want to know that my assets — the things I have made and built — are kept safe from both content theft and the ravages of the sometimes fickle asset server.
In two years time, I want to cross regions without fear that the vehicle I’m riding in will go skittering into the subset, leaving me and my friends to relog. I want to see bugs long-held, squashed. I want to feel that I can trust the SL servers and viewer to do what I want it to do, and that it will be as reliable and robust as, say, the average web browser is today.
I want to feel like I will know what’s coming tomorrow, in two months, in two quarters, and in two years. I want to not always be holding my breath, waiting for the next big policy change, the next big program or “team” that gets axed, the next big “improvement” that forces me to learn workarounds, forces me to ditch things that work, or causes me to have to rebuild products I’ve stood behind.
In two years time, I want a viewer that does what I want it to do, not what someone felt I should do. I want it to be as simple when it needs to be, but also give me the flexibility and options I expect from a platform designed to foster creativity.
I want my world, made with my imagination, joined together with the great, amazing, talent people who have made SL what it is, and those who have yet to discover this place we call the grid.
I’m developing a multiplayer sci fi roleplay area (plug: name of the region is Splintered Rock) with the sort of skills-based character system, achievement system and economy you would expect to see in a commercial release. The thing I’m most happy with in SL is the power of LSL. The things I’d like to see done better in 2 years time:
*Better search functionalityso potential customers for my game can find me
*Ability to reach my potential cutomers easier thru in world advertsing/marketing
…and this last one is a bit of a ‘nice to have’:
*A PHP/MySQL server incorporated into a region server. Many of us who develop games in SL find we need to use databases outside of SL (usually accessing PHP/MySQL thru HTTP). We usually do this by hosting the database on a third party server but maybe LL can offer to run PHP/MySQL on a region server for a little extra charge. I’d be more than happy to pay my PHP/MySQL hosting fees to LL rather than a 3rd party and as a bonus I know my PHP server is up and running whenever the region server is up and running and comms between the servers should be lightening fast. Just a thought!
In two years, I hope to still be creating compelling content from within the Second Life platform.
That means building tools need to keep pace with the content — we need in-world Mesh editing ASAP after Mesh is on the main grid.
It also means that scripting needs support from more developer resources. (Simply: Kelly does a terrific job, but he needs more help; scripts are an essential element of an engaging SL experience.)
Yes, the SL environment needs to be “consumable” on popular mobile gadgets, whether through SSR, HTML 5, or some other technology indistinguishable from magic. For that to matter in the marketplace of tech mindshare, however, there must be a way to use SL casually, and that’s a huge hurdle now, as you rightly observe in this interview.
Oh, and for extra credit: *Three* years from now, I hope we’re celebrating SL’s renewed relevance and popularity, and that you, too, will be impressed by the progress.
“Our job at Linden Lab is to set solid foundations, create the tools, and then get out of the way as much as we can.” — music to my ears. In the past two years LL was getting involved in all the wrong areas, while neglecting those that matter to their customers.
I would love for Rod to define “customer”. Are some customers more important than others? ie. Free vs Premium accounts. Mainland land owners vs. Region owners vs. Multi-Region Land Barons. Content Creators vs. Customers. The list goes on, we all contribute in our own way.
Technical: I’d like to see an upgrade in the basic prim mangling capabilities (like taper more sets of sides etc), work with up to 12-15 meters, avatar sliders to allow better customization of the head (I cannot get the features I want with what exists: for example lowering the point of the nose & the height of the mouth) & a competent skin tool, all as part of the basic tools.
I’d like to see more of what Jack began on mainland: seeing it as an estate LL takes responsibility for with attention to capital improvements & listening to feedback about individuals who adversely affect the experience for many and taking action to prevent their activity instead of engineers blindly helping them because their demands in JIRAS appear to be a worthwhile challenge on the physical engine’s capabilities.
Technical: I’d like to see an upgrade in the basic prim mangling capabilities (like taper more sets of sides etc), work with up to 12-15 meters, avatar sliders to allow better customization of the head (I cannot get the features I want with what exists: for example lowering the point of the nose & the height of the mouth) & a competent skin tool, all as part of the basic tools.
I’d like to see more of what Jack began on mainland: seeing it as an estate LL takes responsibility for with attention to capital improvements & listening to feedback about individuals who adversely affect the experience for many and taking action to prevent their activity instead of engineers blindly helping them because their demands in JIRAS appear to be a worthwhile challenge on the physical engine’s capabilities.
In two years time, I want Adult Content to still be a vibrant, fun, and at times ridiculous option within Second Life. I want adult content to be discoverable by new users, I want people to make a conscious CHOICE whether to view adult content or not.. not have it all locked away by default, invisible behind an obscure setting in preferences.
I’ve seen what happens when “Social Media” sites try to distance themselves from their populous, vibrant adult communities. How’s that working out for Yahoo these days?
Responsible, reasonable barriers to adult-content access are fine. Age-verification, when it works, is totally reasonable. But don’t make accessing adult content so obscure and complicated that new users who are adults, don’t even know it’s an option.
In two years time, I’d like things to change. I’d like the ability to hide my land from my neighbors.. creating a sort of “you can only see it when you’re on my parcel” system. This would open up a world of privacy, removing petty annoyances like “security orbs”. At the same time, I’d like a companion setting to allow me to hide my neighbors objects from my own view, when I’m on my land. THIS one option would remove the need for all these “privacy walls” that people put up constantly, to block out their neighbors ugly builds.
Search needs to work much better, and the tools to search for “land for sale” inworld are absolutely terrible in viewer 2. (teleport once, redo the search from scratch). When I recently went searching for land to buy, I had to use the older 1.23.5 viewer to get anything accomplished.
There are lots of things that really need fixing.. things that haven’t been a priority for half a decade or longer. From fixing region crossings, to the lack of a “neck” attachment point, to the way that objects can’t send instant messages to each other. From the inability to “drain” an underwater build, to our avatars’ lack of toes, to the fact that there’s no simple way to tell how tall your avatar is. From the viewer’s odd habit of just “losing” items from your inventory.. to how difficult it is to get someone at LL to notice a new feature suggestion, or bug report.
In two years time, like McCann there, I’d like to be planning for my 7 year rez-day party. I’d like to be considering buying more land and expanding my business, or expanding my play and “home” spaces.. not packing up to leave. On the small side, I’d like more room for my forum signature. I’d like images back there too. I’d like everything to run quickly and smoothly, I’d like profiles to open in second or so, not 5-15 seconds after the third time I click the profile button.
I want my profile at my.secondlife.com to serve as a way for people to contact me from outside of SL. I want my own @residents.secondlife.com email address. I want to be able to use outside messenging services like pidgin or trillian (perhaps using something like jabber/xmpp) to connect to my IMs from Second Life, using my own applications and portable devices.
I’d like to be able to use a “low-graphics” client to connect to SL using a simplified SL visual experience on a mobile device like a tablet or netbook, without worrying that at any minute, my built in graphics hardware might melt.
But most of all, what I’d like to do in 2 years.. is be able to say that I am still a happy Second Life user. I don’t want anything that’s an option today, to not be an option then. There’s so many possibilities that newer technologies, and bug fixes could open up… why shut off ideas, when we can just keep opening up more new ones?
Wow some great ideas there! I’ll second so many of them Paisley B
Wow some great ideas there! I’ll second so many of them Paisley B
Rod asked:
what I would most like to know is this: In 2 years time what would you most like to be doing in Second Life, and how would you like to be doing it?
In 2 years from now, I want to be able to fully use Second Life from inside a web browser.
I want to be able to use the WWW to show to non-SL users a Second Life event while it’s going on, in an easy and efficient way.
Also I want to play a Second Life version of Rod’s art videogames! or a new, SL-native, one 🙂
In 2 years time? I would hope for good answers to a number of crucial questions. Will SL remain a walled garden; or will it move definitively in the direction of the postulated Metaverse, with hypergrid linking, different hosting options, and sorting out the issues around creators licensing content for use on multiple grids. Will they have found a way to leverage the popularity of social media and asynchronous communication without disrupting the desire for virtual identities.
Stuff like that.
In two years time i would like to see the way we communicate with each other inside SL totally rethought. I want a better way to see and hear what my friends experience and love in their SL. Not by broken group chat, not by notices lost in the viewer. Not by destination guide.
When we get a better way to communicate what we do in SL with each other, then we’ll be empowered with the tools to share and promote what we love in SL.
Oh and in Two years time i hope tier will be a lot cheaper.
Oh and id like to see some USEFUL SL related mobile apps to either manage communications/ notices http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HsOvuPkOLl8/TM2PijkmLJI/AAAAAAAAAsA/cgq_3-erjGc/s1600/viewer2_activity_crop.jpg or a destination guide. http://lokiboy.blogspot.com/2011/02/exclusive-new-sl-destination-guide-app.html
To follow up on the ongoing discussion about the hurdles of new users in SL. If SL is a game, the answer is pretty straightforward – you make the content and we just wander about and complete quests. If SL is a 3d modeling program allowing participants to build and change the world around and create their own narratives, then it is already worlds easier than say, Blender (personal experience here!).
There is one tried and true solution for new folks in SL that has worked very well when they had access to it – current users. We do a much better job of explaining the interface and how it works than any programmed or scripted tutorial. You discovered this yourself, I believe.
By creating a viewer that is purportedly designed for newcomers, that is much less useful to your experienced residents, you create two tiers of users.
Newcomer asks “how do I accomplish X?”, experienced resident tries to explain, unless they already know to ask “what viewer are you using?”. This generally results in experienced resident (on a TPV for their sanity) replying that they cannot help, and suggesting new resident download a TPV.
Some sort of rebuild is needed that will provide the functionality that users who want to build or manage land (without dozens more keystrokes and headaches trying to find where things are hidden) and ease of use for those who just wish to shop and buy the cool things that builders are making!
So in two years, I would like to be interrupted in the midst of building by a newcomer wearing a box and be able to walk them through removing the box from their head and the contents from the box 🙂
Great interview, and I think it is very clever of you to access the recognized writers and bloggers to reach us all. I am a content creator who has enjoyed SL since April of 2004. The creativity and long term online friends I have met here keep me hooked.
SL has given me reason to learn to script, make animations, use 3D modelling products, sound software, and photoshop. I was always artistic, and SL has set me on fire and given me a playground to create in.
I’ll be here til you turn out the lights and close the door. I like your focus on the importance of fixing things and providing more tools to create with. Here is a list of what I would love to see in the next couple of years.
1. Bring on the mesh! I cannot wait and I am very excited about this.
2. Improve scripting tools. So much of my scripting is trying to make things work despite limitations imposed by LSL. Please expand what we can do in LSL, or perhaps bring back the C+ programming project.
3. Fix the events listings. They are so choked with spam that many of us have turned to groups to advertise events, and if you miss joining the right group, you miss out on a lot.
4. Fix group chat. We rely on that for many things, and the social experience would be improved if that were fixed. It is often difficult to start a group chat or join one, and frequently the attempt fails.
5. Give us more prims!! Technology and SL have both improved since 2004. I think the limit of 15000 prims per sim should be raised to at least 20000 prims. This increase would greatly improve the new user experience as well, increasing the prim limit for a 512 sq. m. plot from 117 prims (hard to do anything with) to 156 prims, which is a little better. If you increase prims for a region to 25000 prims, then a new user with a 512 sq m. plot would have 195 prims. Give the new user enough prims to get them hooked on creating!! They will not be efficient enough to make anything reasonable with 117 prims right off the bat, so increasing the limit makes sense. As for me, the owner of two private island estates, 20000 or 25000 prims would make me sing and dance!
6. Once mesh is brought to the main grid, don’t stop and don’t disband the mesh team. Keep them working to bring updates to mesh, such as the ability to apply a custom skeleton and animations to objects not attached to the avatar, so we could have mesh animals that move and walk around. We would also like to see morphing and ability to make custom skeletons for avatars.
7. Things I miss and would like to see taken from Viewer 1.23 into Viewer 2:
a. Traffic displayed on “about landmarks.” As a content creator and merchant, I get a lot of landmarks thrown at me in a day, people wanting me to rent space in their malls. The ability to see traffic without having to go the sim saves me a lot of time, and keeps me from fully embracing Viewer 2.
b. The ability to have multiple group windows open at one time. As a sim owner, I need to advertise some sim events. The events feature is hopelessly choked by spam, and so we turn to groups to advertise events. If I can have more than one group window open at a time I can prepare notices in batches: copy the subject line to all the group notices, drag the landmark or notecard attachment to all the notices, copy and paste the body to all the group notices. It is much faster to have all the windows open at one time and move between them at each step than it is to have to do them one by one. This keeps me from fully embracing Viewer 2.
c. The ability to open one window with tabs for multiple items to view and change properties of items in my inventory. I am a content creator, and let’s say I have just made a new outfit consisting of a shirt, jacket, pants, shoe, prim sleeves upper, prim sleeves lower, prim shoes, prim collar, and prim skirt. There are a lot of pieces to it! Now, let us say that I made it in different colours–red, blue, black, and green. If I can open the properties of all of them on tabs in a window, I can click, click, control w to close the tab, and repeat to quickly set permissions and move through the tabs in a minute or two. If I have to open the property window for each window, one by one down the list of items in my inventory, it turns it into a slow process and one in which errors can be made. This keeps me from fully embracing Viewer 2.
When you bring in mesh, I will of course like everyone else have to use Viewer 2, but I can see that in my creation process or for some tasks, I will have to close Viewer 2 and open up an old viewer to get the work at hand done, and then come back into Viewer 2. That is a huge pain.
Thanks for the chance to provide input!!
Vivienne Daguerre
Business: Black Rose (http://MyBlackRose.net)
Private Island Estates: Tancred’s Landing and Vosk Woods
I come to SL now not for teaching, since that has moved to OpenSim, but to attend meetings and see what content-creators are up to. Often, to test the “world” metaphor and look at content, I just drive around.
In a year, I’d love to see vehicles move so seamlessly across regions that I could host a road-rally. That would be wonderfully game-like. It’s just not possible, currently, nor was it in 2008 when I last tried it. Better physics and quicker hand-offs between regions, Mr. H. I know that is “unsexy backend work” but it would rock for this older user.
Here is a link to a post in which I talk about what I would like to see LL do under your leadership Rod. http://slofdreams.blogspot.com/2011/01/66-of-365-oklinden-lab-lets-talk.html I would be delighted if you took the time to follow the link and read my thoughts. I won’t repost them here for brevity and because shameless self promotion has limits!
Thanks for asking all the right questions Tateru. I am beginning to be hopeful about the future of SL again. Still? “Acta, non verba”
Here is a link to a post in which I talk about what I would like to see LL do under your leadership Rod. http://slofdreams.blogspot.com/2011/01/66-of-365-oklinden-lab-lets-talk.html I would be delighted if you took the time to follow the link and read my thoughts. I won’t repost them here for brevity and because shameless self promotion has limits!
Thanks for asking all the right questions Tateru. I am beginning to be hopeful about the future of SL again. Still? “Acta, non verba”
In two years…
I would like to have an intuitive interface that not only takes into account new users who come from a ‘Facebook’ generation, but which actively makes intuitive tools available to content creators, who can in turn then drive the demand for sellable goods and give users (new and old) more reasons to stay.
I would like to use an interface that does not force users to view parcel media by default. I would like to exist in an environment where better tools are available to content creators to combat copyright infringement issues.
I would be like to be using a working directory and search system.
In two years, I would like to be developing content for a variety of audiences and continuing to make use of new and interesting technology that all SL users can enjoy.
In two years…
I would like to have an intuitive interface that not only takes into account new users who come from a ‘Facebook’ generation, but which actively makes intuitive tools available to content creators, who can in turn then drive the demand for sellable goods and give users (new and old) more reasons to stay.
I would like to use an interface that does not force users to view parcel media by default. I would like to exist in an environment where better tools are available to content creators to combat copyright infringement issues.
I would be like to be using a working directory and search system.
In two years, I would like to be developing content for a variety of audiences and continuing to make use of new and interesting technology that all SL users can enjoy.
In 2 years I want that Second Life in its core still is the Second Life that we know today and love. I want it to be a lot faster and I would like to have better tools for content creation. In 2 years I would like Second Life to be fast enough to be able to support ego shooter, car racing games or any other kind of game. Second Life really needs more entertainment and interactivity. Second Life needs to become a platform for games, like it is for business, education or meeting people. I would like to host my own sim on my home server and I wish I could invite one of my first life friends to visit me in SL, without the need to create an account.
And finally, I want to become a lindenaire:)
Almost total lack of customer service is the greatest problem. People who have spent a lot of money here are finding literally months go by without tickets being answered.
In two years from now I would like to see more advertising done out of world to entice more to come take a look, but not to be done with gimmicks that make us look like blue avatars from the movie, or have us spin in place like the website that is a direct take off The Sims. We are and have always been our own creations in Second Life, we should be showing that to the outside world. I want to see people embrace and report on the amount of charity events take place in world, how when someone needs a hand in RL because of the community they are part of people pitch in to help.
I would like to see Linden Labs change how they rent out sims for events such as those, instead of pricing daily because of corporate structure which is understandable for people coming in for a three day meeting, but for annual events that just keep on giving something more than mainland should be available at the regular price.
I would like to see in the next TWO MONTHS all Linden Lab employees that have avatars that visit in world, to not disrespect the residents and the creators by logging in looking like they did in 2004, to show through their own avatar how far we have come as a creative mass, everyone has their own style, and yes you can be what you want, but be up to date at least.
he wants to read these comments eh? well, i don’t have much constructive to say as i have left SL and have been finding what i thought i’d find inSL in OpenSim
no one wants (or would have the time) to read my last two years of daily blogging, but in that time i have posted my true feelings about Second Life and then virtual worlds
it’s a slow daily shift from “omg, SL is the best thing in the world and personally such a wonderfully creative tool where i genuinely feel anything is possible” to “OpenSim is far more than anything SL could ever have been for me”
i am thankful to SL for opening my eyes to this creative outlet and reticent at SL for turning a pure joy to a painful experience that i could not get away from fast enough
in that journey, just one by a pretty insignificant person, LL lost a loyal blogger, documentarian, reputable conference speaker, and a $3000 a month customer
as i said, nothing i mentioned here is very constructive and i no longer care to pour my passion into SL – i would have never foreseen these words just two years ago
i wish LL no ill and do wish the best to Rod – there are many people that still feel about SL the way i used too . . .
Rod, Vivienne here posted some excellent suggestions. I will piggyback on some of them with additional details:
1. Promotion is a sore point in SL. Promoting an event requires a lot of work: sending notices to groups, posting to a blog, posting to social networks such as Twitter and Facebook, sending notices through our mailing list. How about simplifyng the whole process? LL should create a tool to promote events, perhaps available through our account’s web page or a dedicated web page, where I can send a notice to most of the promotional channels we use with a single click. The tool should have an interface so that the user can select groups and social networks and send the notice. There are examples of this on the web with social network aggregators such as Ping.fm. Even better, as events are usually associated to groups, each group could have a web page the way user profiles do now, and have the tool accesible there. Group pages should display all the promotional channels used to promote so that other users can subscribe to their preferred channels. There should be an API so that third-party creators can link their services to the tool. All this work on reliable, well-tested technologies that are easy to implement. Perhaps the only link that needs to be created is between the web and group notices.
2. How to promote is one side of the problem. The other side is visibility. Today content promotion — where content can be anything from a location to an event — is spread in several places of the SL system. There are two things that could be done here: one is to aggregate all this content on a single web location where users can find anything from events to, say, the destination guide. The second thing that could be done is creating a subscription system to events, news, groups that can be easily accessed from one single place. This could be the user’s profile page. I’d like to have a way so that users can subscribe to an event notice and receive an email several hours before and an automatic reminder when the event is about to start.
3. LL should do more to support communities. What happened to the Community Partnership Program?
In two years time i hope to be able to have my artworks on a free culture grid wish is open to other grids (no walled garden anymore) and wish serversoftware has become free (as how described by the free software foundation). I hope to see secondlife as a community thats proud of sharing things instead of scared of loosing things.
Great interview! My greatest hope is a increase in customer service. It would also be nice to see the tiers decrease. I can dream can’t I? LOL!
Peace!
My SL is all about escape from a confining reality to have fun with people. Anything you can do to enhance SL’s magic and free residents from RL concerns would be welcome. Therefore, for me, tying my online social networking identity and tools more closely to SL has no value.
To fuel that fun, I need tools to express myself. Casual inworld object & clothing creation is vital to that fun – so inworld mesh creation would be a big help.
Also, after you’ve been inworld for a while (since 2006 in my case) you become hungry for more animations. I can see that making inworld animation creation tools would be a huge endeavor (although, migod, the payoff on that would be immense). So let me request something much easier – how about a 6-month program that creates incentives for existing mocap animators to produce more for SL?
Inworld animation creation would be spectacular – actually, even a tool that made it easy to create sequences of existing anims with an automatically generated interpolation between them would be a lot of fun. People would have a blast stringing together sitting positions to express their own style while sitting around talking.
“Getting out of the way” of SL’s customers is a meme that Philip Rosedale would often promote when he was running LL. I’ve always felt the idea was critical to the success of SL, so I sincerely hope Rod expands on it.
As for what I’d like to see in SL two years from now, I would love to see SL playing a part in the rapidly growing interconnected constellation of Opensim virtual worlds. Allow content creators in SL to thoughtfully license their creations for use across many grids. Give SL users the ability to visit other grids while retaining their identity. And open up SL to visitors from these other grids as well.
Walled gardens are wonderful for cultivating initial growth. But the future lies in being connected to a wider universe. Just ask AOL. Get out of the way of your customers by giving them the freedom to widen their experience of many different virtual worlds. Ultimately, you’ll have happier customers and plenty of revenue. And you’ll help the entire constellation of virtual worlds grow even *bigger.*
The real question is, do you want to own 100% of a small pie? Or do you want to own a slice that’s 10% of a pie the size of the planet?
Ditto.
I totally agree. Being an Island will only grow for a while but participating in the Hypergrid would be a win win. The opensim grids if played with right would augment SL and SL would definitely augment them.
You’re a visionary, John, and in the 5-year timeframe I think I agree with you. But I’ve managed development teams, and for a while I followed the IETF VW interoperability group. The issues here are massive, and doing it right is a bit of a black hole at the moment. If I were Mr. Humble, I’d let the OpenSim folks make some more progress, and concentrate on re-creating initiatives that will attract reputable nonprofits and small-medium sized business meetings.
Mr. Humble: I understand why you are reluctant to second-guess previous LL decisions. But you have a unique opportunity during your “honeymoon” to reinvent policies that will attract nonprofits (like education) and business clients. It would be a big boon to the SL community as a whole to do so. Nonprofits add a lot to the culture of SL. And I for one have always wanted to start a business hosting small=group meetings in SL – the platform was just about ready when LL axed their enterprise team, sending a message that they were abandoning enterprises altogether.
You’re a visionary, John, and in the 5-year timeframe I think I agree with you. But I’ve managed development teams, and for a while I followed the IETF VW interoperability group. The issues here are massive, and doing it right is a bit of a black hole at the moment. If I were Mr. Humble, I’d let the OpenSim folks make some more progress, and concentrate on re-creating initiatives that will attract reputable nonprofits and small-medium sized business meetings.
Mr. Humble: I understand why you are reluctant to second-guess previous LL decisions. But you have a unique opportunity during your “honeymoon” to reinvent policies that will attract nonprofits (like education) and business clients. It would be a big boon to the SL community as a whole to do so. Nonprofits add a lot to the culture of SL. And I for one have always wanted to start a business hosting small=group meetings in SL – the platform was just about ready when LL axed their enterprise team, sending a message that they were abandoning enterprises altogether.
If you’d asked me two years ago to say when I’d be doing in SL now, I doubt I’d have named any of the things I’m actually doing. That is SL’s glory – it’s like RL and “things happen to us while we are busy making other plans.”
Yes, I’d like things to work better, but I’m often amazed that it works as well as it does, or even that it works at all.
Things I would like to be doing in SL in 2 years…
I blog about SL and virtual worlds. I came to SL from the Myst Online world, along with 600 or so others. In building Myst Style regions I find the regions too small. I would like to have larger regions or transparent crossings.
I enjoy the dark rp combat regions/games. Lag is horrible in combat games. I would like to see that improved.
Vehicles of any type are a disaster. I would like to see them work well.
I am really looking forward to mesh coming to the grid.
I wish well at the Lab. Thx
Dear Mister Humble,
I am writing to you on behalf of the Minister of Finances of Nig-
Wait, sorry, wrong letter.
DEAR MISTER HUMBLE,
SecondLife is awesome. Seriously, it is. There is no other place on the internet that I know of that shows such a radiant variety of creativity and fun.
But, you know… it could be better. So, so much better.
1) More transparency. Talk to your residents about what’s happening with projects; tell them the standards you use for, say, rating objects adult on the Marketplace. Don’t fall into the Linden habit of imagining that we’re stupid children.
2) More listening. You have a creative pool so wide and deep that it’s a valuable resource. Valuable, that is, if you don’t squander it and ignore it. People here are smart, versed in a variety of subjects, and could teach you as much about SecondLife as any of the Lindens, at this point.
3) The DMCA process. As Siyu said, it’s time to work with creators – you know, actual creators, rather than people who exploit the work of creators to either make money or chase grudges – to make the process better for both creators and customers. How? I don’t know. Talk to us and we can figure stuff out.
4) Zindra as leper colony. People who create Adult content benefit you as much as G rated content creators. Don’t treat us as the unwanted – our money is as good as anyone else’s, and spends as well. Give us clear indications of where the boundaries are. We’ll work in them.
5) Stop chasing shiny. Start fixing what we’ve got. The JIRA is an excellent place to get ideas of where to start, and you would be silly to close it. But you know what?
6) Once you’ve fixed the various problems with what we’ve got, chase shiny! People with powerhouse computers (like me) are a minority, but we’re growing all the time as the cost of powerful components drop. And there’s no reason to keep SL in a form that looks more like 2001 than 2011.
7) I understand that Third Party Viewers are a pain in the ass. I really, truly do. All the same, this falls back to #2 – they have valid input on what people want in a viewer. I’ve tried v2.x viewers. I ~loathe~ them. I’ve been a member of SL since 1/1/06, and 1.x viewers are comfortable to build in. Don’t abandon 1.x interfaces yet, and don’t nerf 1.x viewers irredeemably.
8) Finally, don’t forget – we’re customers. Everyone who buys L$ or rents land or makes things in your world nabs you money, and to alienate us is to butcher your cash cow, or make the goose that lays the golden eggs into fricasee – it may taste really good in the short term, but in the long term it’s a dumb move.
I hope that you don’t get overwhelmed too soon. This is a big job for anyone, and you’ve stepped into the shoes of people who have managed to really piss off their customers, creating a base of cynical users who are cautiously hopeful – but we’ve been hopeful before.
Don’t let us down, Rod.
Best of luck,
Coyote Momiji
In two years? I’d like to be able to travel the grid seamlessly without teleporting or being aware of sim boundaries, totally immersed in the in-world experience. I’d like to be building and scripting deep down in the guts of how the world is represented, not fighting with artificial limits ineffectually imposed. I’d like my creations to be able to fully interact with their user – way way beyond the current “eight keys and a button” inputs we currently have.
I’d like to be able to better control who can see me online, and what they can see about me – or make me see. I want to use Shared Media, but I’m not willing to trust just anyone to feed me web sites blind. Give us choices and awareness of what’s happening to us, and let us choose our level of exposure online, or to adult content, or whatever. (The same applies to current permissions; I’d really like to be able to say “allow my own objects to attach to me, whenever.”)
I’d like the option to let my viewer to be controlled by in-world objects. RLV goes a long way in a good direction, but proper integration server-side would make good, better.
I’d like to be able to create scripted agents without resorting to dedicating a computer to act as a fake user. Proper integration would be much less load on SLs resources and provide a lot of functionality to people building immersive experiences.
I’d also like to see people stop wearing full-bright hair and lighhouses on their faces, and make them stop shouting “WOOOHOOO!”, but I don’t think “Are you an idiot?” is a useful question to ask at sign-up. : )
This software doesn’t seem to like me. A third attempt. My apologies if these are already showing up, I’m not seeing either of my earlier attempts at posting feedback.
Like Chestnut, for the sake of brevity here, I’ve jotted down thoughts on the matter on my blog, and I hope, Rod, you’ll pop over and take a look.
This software doesn’t seem to like me. A third attempt. My apologies if these are already showing up, I’m not seeing either of my earlier attempts at posting feedback.
Like Chestnut, for the sake of brevity here, I’ve jotted down thoughts on the matter on my blog, and I hope, Rod, you’ll pop over and take a look.
To Mr. Humble,
I’ve been heartened by your optimistic but pragmatic words, especially concerning content and its creation. As a content creator, I would like to see what has been toyed with and experimented with for stolen content removal come to fruition.
I believe that there should be a new resident status available: to register as a verified merchant. A registered merchant would have a trade of personal privacy (and thus more accountability) for increased efficiency in handling DMCA’s and the removal of stolen content. Since I make my income with Second Life, offering my real name, address, birthdate etc as collateral for the ability to truly wipe a copybotted item from the grid when they pop up is fair.
I’ve been faced with nothing but frustration when filing DMCA’s. Though I’ve been able to get the accounts responsible banned, the items remain no matter how many times I’ve corresponded with the Removals team. The responses are obtuse, and almost seem deliberately obstructionary. Despite giving exact locations, names of people involved, object uuid’s etc, I’ve received “We could not locate the item in question” as a catch-all brush off phrase more times than I care to count. It would be easier to accept this sort of thing as inescapable if the capability to completely remove items from inventories, in-world locations and the marketplace hadn’t been demonstrated for people luckier than I.
Stolen content removal should not be a matter of luck. Please restore my faith and trust in the Lab’s commitment to protect intellectual property.
What I’d really like to see is a lot more taking on board and listening from people at the Lab. It often feels like we tell you all what’s wrong and you nod and pat us on the head then go off and do something completely different, or carry on regardless, having not taken on board what we’ve said.
The SL community knows SL very well, listen to usand please act on it sometimes!
Looking forward to the CEO-BRAND table top gaming system.
That right there, a personal project that shows understanding of the capabilities of the system yet requires a deep level of actual personal commitment to learning and using the system at a fundamental level is exactly what SL needs in its leader.
For the rest, everything Winter said so much better than I could.
I think I’ve only met Artists and Social people in the nearly four years I’ve been in world. I’m social so I’d like to be able to move my face and hold my partner’s hand. Such small things…
First I’d like to say welcome Mr. Humble – And the second thing, is my biggest hope: For the LL team to stop blowing smoke up our collective rears. Thankfully, you haven’t gotten to that part yet, but the rest of LL is pretty on the ball at standing ‘behind’ their customers (us) – Though not as support, more as restraints, and the aforementioned verb.
I’d venture to say many, if not most of the current users, and probably most of the new users that dropped off, are greatly unhappy with SL and LL, because of LL and how they function. You can’t take more than a couple steps before you hear someone complaining about the berth and depth of problems – You will get an extreme minority here, but many solutions will get lost, and have gotten lost through time. LL just proceeds and continues, and moves forward – Each new version of SL being a downgrade in usability, performance, and so on, because LL-teams have so far, been 100% focused on producing something (whether or not it’s wanted/needed), and hammering it down our collective throats.
The large majority of viewers and “fixes” that have come down the barrel to our local LL-viewer, are viewers that are forced on us WAY before they should’ve been released (i.e. seemingly untested/crash-tastic/etc.), and “fixes” are to fix the viewer that was forced on us (that the small minority wanted)- As seen in Dazzle, Viewer 2, and what I’m sure will be the next viewer to come out (though I have high hopes for the viewer AFTER that, when you are fully settled in).
I’ve been on SL for tens of thousands of hours, I’ve been playing non-stop since 2006, and you’ll often find me actively playing for 4-16 hours a day (not just idling, but actually moving, talking, building, interacting, etc.), every day. Morning, noon, and night. I wasn’t there for the beginning, but I’ve been here for the larger majority of wins and successes for SL – I’m quite obviously a harsh critic, but just like you said – I want the best for SL (I’m still here, aren’t I?) – I’m a huge defender of it, because it has oodles and oodles of wasted, squandered potential.
Do I think you’re the new messiah? No, but I do think you’re a reasonable person, with reasonable expectations, and hopefully will set, and have reasonable goals for the future of SL – To plug the increasingly expanding hole LL claims isn’t there.
Now then, onto the question:
In 2 years time, I would like to be creating items in world again, and continuing to roleplay in a roleplay/combat sim effectively (both of which are currently not happening).
I’ve stopped building, because of prim limits, and the utter choke LL has put on sculpties – I’ve seen some amazing things done with sculpties…in promo pictures at least.
My roleplay is fairly hindered by shoddy Group Chat performance, Group Notices failing moreso than not, public chat lag, sims with more than 20 people in them lag and hang far beyond a reasonable level, and small-to-medium sized combat is always with a huge heavy dosage of lag. I do understand SL isn’t intended to be a combat game, but combat is a very large portion of SL (as is roleplaying), and both are regularly and extensively held back by SL viewers. Viewer 2 is an atrocity for the LL brand name, it works *against* the user every step of the way. It pushes the failing group chat away, hides the 1 out of every 10 group notices that manages to actually get sent out, and hides IM’s as well.
And how?
Well that’s the part I don’t have a specific technically grip on, but I could very well draw out if propositioned to do so. However the easiest way to describe…ehh…Get LL to step back from Viewer 2, and return to 1.23.x. Fix 1.23.x, and proceed from there. It wasn’t the best viewer, but it was the last good viewer produced by LL. Currently I reside with Phoenix Viewer, based upon the Emerald code – Emerald was used by the majority of SL-users (over 50% of SL’ers used Emerald), and I’m sure Phoenix is within range of that same number.
Follow that viewer, embrace it. It’s far more advanced than LL could’ve made 1.23.x on its own, and outperforms any LL viewer pushed to public since the mid-teens (1.13-1.17, I believe ‘1.18’ was Dazzle…nobody but Torley liked Dazzle – It’s been renamed ‘Fizzle’.). I wish you could go back and revisit the mid-way viewers like I have, then you could see what made SL successful like I have. There’s something boggling about having a successful viewer with fairly minor visual changes for nearly a decade, and then deciding to scrap that for something completely different and much worse.
Have I helped? I dunno, probably not. My whole ‘view’ point is literally 180 degrees from many people, because I look into the past to see what made sense, to see what made things work, to see what brought people here, and to see what made things successful (be it a small SL business, a large SL sim, or SL itself). Besides looking back so that one can build towards the future, is “form follows function”. Tattoo that on the head of every member of LL that works on the viewers so that when they brush their teeth in the morning, or look in the reflection of their phone each day, they can see that fantastic motto that brought the world into the 21st century.
In two years?
I’d like to be able to look back and laugh instead of looking ahead and wincing.
Dear Mr. Humble,
I’d like to see Linden Lab remove their fingers from the residents pie, ie No more homes and no more taking over of established industries. I’d like to see Second Life and Linden lab provide tools, manage server space and allow scaleable interaction so its possible to have more than 300 people on any sim without issue (whereas today its 40 people-ish)
I’d like linden lab to get out of the residents way as much as possible and I’d also like residents to have a an elected committee which can give input that will be taken seriously by the Lab.
good website.
Reading this interview I get the hope that looking at the viewer code in 2 years I will have the feeling it’s done with love – just the 10 minutes or one hour more of time that make the difference from “it works” to “it’s good”.
In 2 years time I would Secondlife’s mainlands to perform much better as contiguous landscapes, in which we can drive, fly and sail from one place to another without disturbance. As a virtual sailor in this world I would like to have the key stability of the grid improve, meaning issues like region crossing failures, time dilation in regions and others that disable Secondlife as a credible sailing simulator are taken care of.
I would like to be making my 3rd really good film in SL that satisfies me as to quality and content.
What I need to do this is:
-better looking avatar mesh with facial expressions..especially blink, sleep
-animations that last longer than 30 frames, ability to upload from Kinect (possible now with hacks but tricky)
-ability to have several local chat windows open at a time set to different channels so I can turn on various scripted effects on the fly while filming
-group chat works so I can communicate with crew while filming with no lag
-ability to buy extra capacity for shoot to lessen lag (super sims) or to have my film sims not paired with super laggy club
-ability to control camera, I used a scripted cam now but it would be nice to set an angle and return to it also to set film paths
-increased particle count when filming (I believe this is client based)
-better lip sync
-ability to buy stock in LL (just threw that in so you know I’m willing to throw even more money at this crazy dream :D)
I’m actually pretty confident this is all coming at some point..for one thing there are folks who really want to create full scale war games in SL and this sort of thing will bring new residents in droves..immerse games could be a big draw
I like how SL customers can be ‘free’ logins, or paid logins and get a small house. I think a third level – a VIP level that gives customers a choice of Larger Linden homes with double the prim count would be excellent – and allow a path for paying customers to move up to a larger Linden Home, and of course – fill it with the decorations and furniture they like to buy. In two years I would hope to be enjoying more concerts and social gatherings, and chatting and ‘hanging out’ with my on-line friends in SL.
Linden Labs should work toward sponsoring some things in SL (like a virtual Lady GaGa concert, or inviting trade shows into SL.) The SL meet-up expos every year is a great way for customers to enjoy meeting other SL people, vendors, and Linden Labs employees. The SL annual birthday party is also great – where people from all over Earth can meet and celebrate and play. Of course, advancements in graphics and increasing the number of people who can share one server would both go to enhancing virtual get togethers and be more fun.
I’m afraid I’ve left SL in favour of Inworldz now but I remain extremley fond if it, it released my creativity and gave me a lease of life I could never otherwise have as a disabled person. To answer your question:
I would like SL to become a socially respected media and for projects completed in SL to have some measure of value in the real world.
I would like all the wonderful designers, programmers and other content creators in SL to receive some tangible acclaim for what they have done.
I would like to be able to send an email link to a non-SLer for them to be able to enter my world and navigate it successfully with a minimum of hassle or technical difficulty and no download.
I would like to be part of a collaborative project operated by a real life organisation to work on issues faced in the real world.
Most of all I would like to visit YOUR sim and come away feeling inspired and glad that you are still ‘one of us’.
Forgive me if I sound negative, but wasn’t nearly every question answered with “I just got here let me get back to you”? Maybe I’m missing something as many people said “great Interview”.
Personally I don’t see any solid direction, nor commitment to address/rectify any specific problems that LL have introduded to the detriment of their loyal user-base to date.
With the CEO seat resembling more of a revolving door at LL would it not be better to just choose one issue of which there are so many and do something positive about it that shows LL is actually listening before the next CEO comes in. You would be one of the first Mr Humble…
Flattery is an old and tired veil used by LL many times right before they tightened the rope around our necks, sorry I’m just not convinced.
Hey everyone, I just wanted to drop by and thank everyone for their responses. I have read them and I very much appreciate you taking the time to write. This is very useful as we move towards our longer term strategy.
Thank you again!
Rod
if you like the creativity and effort people have placed into SL often for the benefit and further glory of SL, the least you can do when someone runs out of money to pay for a sim, is to provide a way for them to back up an entire sim so at some point it can be ressurected, the cruelest thing is how many sims and how much content has dissappeared because people have left and with no possibility of returning at any point and recreating their sims with ease, a huge and vast mistake on SL’s part as your losing content by this idiocy classic examples for example would be rezzables sims and nemos, this is sacrilige, imagine somebody just burnt a picasso because they had no place to store it ? and this in a digital environment in which storing a backup of sim for a user or allowing a user to downlaod a backup of a sim would take very little space indeed ? The idea that the ceo is someone who has no SL experience is madness. sometimes lindenlabs actions have looked like their deliberately commiting hari-kiri ?
trying to stamp out and segregate adult and mature PG content etc is nuts and a waste of energy, you use to need a credit card to play second life in theory ? therefore you need to be over 18 to have a credit card, so whats the problem with adult content ? you fell to lobbying pressure from religious idiots who seem not to realise that an individual has no necessity to view anything that offends them ? my prediction is that SL will continue to get worse, because every company has a coherent lifespan, and when the investors take over and kick out the original spark stuff tends to run dry, 90’s apple without steve jobs par example. I clicked on an old SL landmark to go to liberty island and the haunted house > I end up on Tikva the jewish island ? this is one of the problems with sim disposal and replacement on the grid and there are allot of my landmarks like this ? i think its indicative of SL’s decline.
Also get rid of ban lines theyve always sucked and ruined the fluidity of the game when flying along, and since you can place your camera anywhere and sit tricks still sort of work, ban lines are therefore just a pointless annoyance setup by idiots.
If SL needs money then just tell people on free accounts with multiple alts with no land that after so many years the first created char must pay a token amount per annum in order to remain active and keep its associated alts, ive always paid the subscription for the 512 land area for the last 6 years. and having completely free access forever creates a culture of a zillion alts, makes everyone pay after x years of free use for at least the main char so that they can retain their parade of alts. almost all other mmo’s charge ? this might eliminate soe griefing as well, and gte more realistic user number because active accounts is what counts not the number of alts that have been generated.