Mitch Kapor's announcement of the Linden Prize at Second Life's fifth anniversary was rather surprising. Out of roughly 27 and a half minutes of presentation, the "very important announcement" got all of two and a half minutes of talk-time before Linden Lab's staff ran to the fire exits.
There wasn't actually any fire, of course, but it was certainly astonishing just how fast they wound up and departed the event, especially in contrast to Rosedale and Kingdon's speeches on 23 June. It bordered on the unseemly.
By now (more than a week later) you'd expect additional information about the Linden Prize to have been published or disseminated, only there doesn't actually seem to be any. Linden Lab's PR agency isn't taking questions or responding with comments anymore, so there's no help to be had there either. Indeed, the announcement seems to have been all but forgotten.
The annual Prize, given for 'superlative achievement exemplifying the mission "elevating the human condition" through using Second Life' seems to translate more or less directly to being an award for the achievement with the most media/marketing mileage for Linden Lab. Forgive us if we seem to be a little cynical here -- it's what we get when we put a finger on it to stop the spin.
On the whole, this is an excellent deal for Linden Lab, since they don't actually even pay for the prize.
You see, the US$10,000 prize is paid in Linden Dollars. Those can be whipped up in a few seconds, and Linden Dollars are a fiat currency that aren't backed by Linden Lab. The Lab never pays for Linden Dollars (that's written into the Terms of Service, actually). When you wish to convert them to USD or other currencies it is done by trade with another user who purchases the currency from you (usually anonymously through an exchange).
So, here's the good part. It's a US$10,000 prize which Linden Lab doesn't pay for, but which Second Life users do, when they buy the currency from the winner (assuming they're converting it to USD). If they're using the Lab's own Lindex currency exchange, then the Lab actually gets a skim off the transaction in assorted fees.
So, just looking at the prize part, the Lab actually stands to come out cash positive on the deal. Plus they wind up with free publicity to trot out in front of the media annually -- assuming anyone qualifies for the prize. Free publicity at virtually zero cost.
As marketing gimmicks go, that's really hard to beat. Don't you think that it deserved more than two and a half minutes?
'Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing' -- Theodore Roosevelt.
