Cinemassively: GigaOm interviews Philip Rosedale

by Moo Money on Mar 17th 2008 12:30PM

Video, Events, real-world, Interviews, Second Life, Cinemassively, Machinima

(Disclosure: Some of the raw footage in the background was commissioned by Linden Lab for news agencies. I was the machinimatographer on the project.)

Before Philip Rosedale announced his intention to resign as CEO of Linden Lab, he sat down with Chris Albrecht, of the GigaOM Show. Chris starts off with other news, so to tune in to Hamlet Au and Philip Linden, skip ahead to about 2:45. The duo discuss what SL was like back in the day, how large it has grown, and whether there's a backlash.

Proving that you can't believe everything you read on the internet, the show reports that, according to Wikipedia, Second Life has over 20 million accounts. However, if you check out the economic statistics page on the official site, SL is at just under 13 million. Again, they mention transparency. That word is starting to sound like fingernails on a chalkboard.

[Thanks, Melissa!]

Source

Tags: chris-albrecht, cinemassively, gigaom, hamlet-au, linden-lab, machinima, melissa-linden, melissa-little, om-malik, philip-linden, philip-rosedale, second-life, sl, wagner-james-au

Reader Comments (3)

I'm not sure why anyone even bothers reporting on the number of accounts that have been created. It's like looking for the population of Spain and including everyone who briefly passed through the Madrid airport any time in the past.

In any business model, but particularly in a free-to-play business model like Second Life, accounts created are nearly meaningless as an indicator of activity or population.

For the love of god... someone please make a suggestion to Philip about updating his avatar for once.

The Wikipedia population figure for SL is now updated -- to the "official" figures, which everyone knows are useless. Transparency, should start with these numbers; they should be solid and reflect reality. We could start with some meaningful statistics. Perhaps ban traffic bots?

That Wikipedia article needs some serious help and updating. (I don't think the PN's are sent to "The Cornfield", for example.)

I thought the interview was a mix of Rosedale's optimistic vision and Au's attempt to call him on some of the realities on the virtual ground. The host could have pressed Rosedale a bit harder, though. I think it's great that Rosedale will possibly now have time to do what he does best while a new CEO can grapple with the many inworld problems that affect SL users daily, and which drive many users away after an initial trial.