Monday, March 17, 2008

Will Second Life change?

Is Second Life changing? Do we have to fear for our cozy situation? Or is it for the best?Are we now going to see the real progress in virtual world?

All these questions can be asked after the step down of CEO Philip Rosedale. Linden Lab will now look for a new CEO with more operational and management expertise. And I think it is all for the best being of Second Life. It will come out much stronger and more functional with a new CEO. Not that Philip did a bad job, not at all…..but it is a normal step for a founder of a company like SL to step down at a certain point, taking over the chairmanship of the Linden board, and leave the daily work to more operations-focused craftsmen.

We have seen it coming, didn’t we? After Cory Ondrejka left the company, we all knew something was happening. The step down of Philip Rosedale as CEO is typical for technology start-ups and the search can begin for a more operations-focused CEO.

Philip Linden will not leave the company, let that be clear. He will be full-time on Second Life working on product development and strategy.

As I already wrote in previous articles, 2008 is becoming very, very important to Second Life. Things are changing, decisions are being made, and the search for a new CEO has begun.
It will not be easy to find a replacement for Philip.

“Legally, the board hires and fires CEOs,” Mitch Kapor, former chairman of the board, said in an interview to Reuters “Process-wise, this is going to have be someone Philip is incredibly enthusiastic about".

Second Life will never be the same again, but it is too early to say in which direction it will go, as the competition is also very much alive. But after we have seen what happened to the virtual world in 2007, I must admit that this step down, does not necessarily means that Second Life is going down the drain, on the contrary, it can and will come out stronger than before, as long as they find in time the right CEO.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I agree with you about actually i think this will be good for Linden Lab. As you said is the "standard" movement in technological companies. After Cory and Philip we will have different people, and possibly, some fresh air in the Lab (and we will see not so often the horrible hair of Philip). ;-)

Looker Lumet said...

No, not the hair of Philip, but what can we expect next. Which style will the next CEO choose?;))
But I agree, it can not be worse than the hairstyle of Philip. But at least it was recognizable.

Anonymous said...

who needs sl, I think I will stick with http://www.citypixel.com as my virtual world destination for now.