Comments on: Linden Lab Becomes A Content Provider Again?

By: The Grid Live » Second Life News for February 14, 2008

The Grid Live » Second Life News for February 14, 2008 — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 07:04:06 +0000

[...] Gwyn’s Home Linden Lab Becomes A Content Provider Again? Quote from the site – In a surprising and unexpected move, Linden Lab has just announced that they [...]

By: A.T.

A.T. — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 00:45:13 +0000

granted that main leverage against open source platform is only content (technical gap getting thinner every day), content development goes more and more attractive – after all His Majesty Main Linden got rid of Cory, now he has to show his people that technical path was not good strategy LOL

By: Gwyneth Llewelyn

Gwyneth Llewelyn — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 09:58:47 +0000

Well, this is crowdsourcing but with a twist: work is for free. If it weren’t, people would follow it up with drama on the SLogosphere (“why was AvatarName hired? They can’t build at all, I’m much better, this should have been a public bid!” etc.). So they go for the “free work” — in that case, LL can always defend themselves and say “these were the only people who volunteered”.

I obviously wonder what those builders will get out of it except for fame and glory, and possibly an opportunity to get hired by an MDC later on.

Lem, curious that you suggest the idea of “Building a whole sim”, since that was one model strongly encouraged by LL back in 2003-2005. They dropped the model in March or April 2005 (I don’t remember exactly when) as the majority of the community complained that “only friends of the Lindens got a chance to win a bid for building public structures”. I wonder if they’re going to introduce it again. It would certainly be a 180º turn in their policies…

By: dandellion Kimban

dandellion Kimban — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 07:32:57 +0000

Maybe. Depends if I count that in that month or two I can get experience, knowledge and contacts, or a passcard into Google (provided that I want one).

By: Laetizia Coronet

Laetizia Coronet — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 21:13:45 +0000

I am talking about any volunteer. Would you volunteer to man a Google helpdesk, for example?

By: dandellion Kimban

dandellion Kimban — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 15:31:34 +0000

Laetizia, are you talking about this project or mentors as well?

By: Laetizia Coronet

Laetizia Coronet — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 14:20:56 +0000

You know, I found myself wondering why I would volunteer for a profitable company. I spend my time keeping new clients happy – would I do that for my local supermarket or my ISP? And so I can’t help but wonder how much longer Linden Lab is going to be able to use volunteers to keep the customers happy.

By: dandellion Kimban

dandellion Kimban — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 10:52:14 +0000

Yes, I can imagine noob that is trying to get some clothes on and to figure out how to teleport, watching around and thinking who badly done are those park benches

By: Lem Skall

Lem Skall — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 00:13:50 +0000

Philip was mentioning content as one of the reasons for low retention, in his interview from Davos with Reuters. This looks like a follow-up from that. And it makes sense to me in principle. It only remains to see how it’s going to be implemented. And why just mainland? Why not offer some public island sims to anyone who has a good idea for a public project and who cannot afford the costs?

By: Sleazy

Sleazy — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 22:13:41 +0000

That’s great news. They must have read my post on Danton’s blog, where I lamented their mainland-lameness