Second Life

Philip Rosedale founded San Francisco-based Linden Lab in 1999, and has built the virtual world of Second Life from initial concept to a market-leading virtual world, with a robust economy and a global population. A pioneer in the virtual world industry, Rosedale is actively involved in the strategy, development and design of Linden Lab's products, including the world of Second Life and the Second Life Grid platform. Rosedale is known for his entrepreneurial approach to new technologies, having started a network software company when he was 17. In 1995 he created an innovative internet video conferencing product, which was later acquired by RealNetworks, where ... Read Full Story

I’m a ball of emotion tonight as the founder of Second Life Philip Rosedale has decided to leave Linden Lab.   The decision comes about a year after Rosedale passed the CEO position over to Mark Kingdon and took over as Chairman of the Board. Rosedale claims that he will continue his role as Chairman and all that the change really means is that he will no longer be working full time at Linden Lab and will be restricted to "outbound and media type things.”   Instead, Rosedale will be working on a new company that he says is Second Life centric. “I'm starting ... Read Full Story

If IBM and the virtual online world called Second Life have their way, New Zealander Nathan Keir, better known as his avatar, Kermitt Quirk, one switched-on purple gecko with a shock of green hair will soon be free to travel to many virtual worlds, keeping the same name, look and even use the same digital currency.   Virtual worlds can seem like carefree, unconstrained environments where you can virtually do and say just about anything you can imagine. But there’s just one tiny problem; there’s no way to get out. Currently, once your mini-me is built, it will never leave the confines of the ... Read Full Story

Virtual worlds like Second Life came with the promise that all of the limitations of this terrestrial sphere would vanish. Sickly hermits desperately in need of the sun’s rays could live their second and better lives in peace and adapt an avatar that reflected the extent of their own imaginations. The ugly could be good looking, and a cyber-race of hobgoblins could lie down in unity with virtual unicorns… or something like that. But that’s not exactly how it’s turned out according to a recent study conducted by two social psychologists at Northwestern University. They logged on to There.com , which is like Second ... Read Full Story

There's a thought provoking post from commentator Dusan Writer who talks about virtual worlds one day giving us a form of immortality. The idea is that an avatar could be programmed with our behavioural traits and preferences and then carry on living a life in a virtual universe that wouldn't be subject to biological limitations. Second Life founder and former Linden Lab boss Philip Rosedale is quoted in a recent book as saying that he could envisage a point where one day he could be uploaded into code and "live" forever." At the moment, that's of course not possible as avatars are still the ... Read Full Story

This post is in support of Blog Action Day . Is it possible to have environmental concerns in a virtual world? Are there negative environmental impacts that could occur in for example SecondLife , for which Linden Labs has no cure? Are there repercussions of environmental issues in a virtual world that carry over into the real world? Is it possible to have environmental concerns in a virtual world? I think there are environmental concerns prevalent in SecondLife such as the role of real estate excess and pollution. When someone in SecondLife starts an avatar or buys property and then abandons the world – ... Read Full Story

Linden Labs has released some statistics of the use that their virtual citizens give to Second Life, the money they deal, hours online, and things like that. In case you are interested, read this article and this other one. ... 3 Vote(s) Read Full Story