\nVWBPE 2021: Patch Linden \u2013 the board, Second Life, and\u00a0more<\/h1>\nPosted on March 19, 2021<\/time><\/span> by<\/span> Inara Pey<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n\u00a0<\/div>\n<\/header>\n\n\nVWBPE 2021<\/em><\/a><\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\nOn Thursday, March 18th, 2021 Patch Linden, the Lab\u2019s Vice President of Product Operations and a member of the company\u2019s management team, attended the 2021 Virtual Worlds Best Practice in Education<\/a> (VWBPE) conference in the first of three special events featuring representative from Linden Lab.<\/p>\nThe following is a summary of the session covering the core topics raised. The notes provided have been taken directly from the official video<\/a> of the session, which is embedded at the end of this article. Time stamps to the video are also provided to the relevant points in the video for those who wish to listen to specific comments.<\/p>\nNotes:<\/p>\n\nThis is a summary, not a full transcript, and items have been grouped by topic, so may not be presented chronologically when compared to the video.<\/li>\nIn places, information that is supplementary to Patch\u2019s comments is provided in square braces (i.e. [ and ]) are used in the body text below to indicate where this is the case.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nLinden Lab\u2019s New Board<\/h3>\n[Video: 4:04-10:55<\/a>]<\/p>\n[For additional information on the new board members, please also see: Meet Linden Lab\u2019s new board of\u00a0directors<\/em><\/a> (January 9th, 2021) and Linden Lab\u2019s board of directors: snippets of\u00a0news<\/em><\/a> (February 4th, 2021).]<\/p>\n\nLinden Lab\u2019s board of directors (l to r): Brad Oberwager, J. Randall Waterfield and Raj Date<\/em><\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n\nNew ownership team is a \u201cjoy to work with\u201d.<\/li>\nBrad Oberwager is particularly active, and has the avatar name Oberwolf Linden\u00a0 and is described as \u201ca lot of fun\u201d to be around and to work with. [He is both on the board and serves as Executive Chairman on the management team.]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\nBrad Oberwager has joined the Lab\u2019s management team as Executive Chairman, and his long-time colleague, Cammy Bergren serving as Chief of Staff<\/em><\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n\nAs Executive Chairman Brad Oberwager\u2019s aim is to see Second life set as the \u201clargest and best\u201d virtual world,\u00a0 and has a genuine love for the platform.<\/li>\nBoth J. Randal Waterfield and Raj Date (particularly) appear to lean more towards the Tilia Pay side of things, with Brad Oberwager more \u201cin the middle\u201d. However, this doesn\u2019t mean there is a dichotomy. Tilia is a key component of Second Life (it runs the entire Linden Dollar eosystem), and Tilia\u2019s own success and growth will benefit SL.\n\n[Tilia is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Linden Research (Linden Lab). It\u2019s board comprises two members of the Linden Research Board: Brad Oberwager and Raj Date), together with Aston Waldman, the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) at Linden Lab. The management team comprises: members of the the Lab\u2019s management team: Aston Waldman, David Kim, Ray Johnson, Emily Stonehouse and Brett Attwood.]<\/li>\nThe two entities enjoy a symbiotic relationship: Tilia is owned by Linden Research with Linden Research also a primary customer. However, day-to-day operations are carried out by two separate\u00a0 teams.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n[48:48-49:59<\/a>] The new owners are bringing a tremendous new energy to Linden Lab, and are \u201csuper enthusiastic\u201d about growing Second Life, including its educational use. What gets to be invested in the platform will only benefit everyone.\n\nThe key question Brad Oberwager asks and prompts people to ask is, \u201cHow will it benefit the residents, and how will it benefit Second Life?\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nSL Short-Term and Longer Term<\/h3>\nPriorities for the Second Life Team in the Next 12 Months<\/h4>\n[Video: 10:57-16:02<\/a>]<\/p>\n\nImmediate priority is to increase the Second Life active user base. This is very much being driven as a goal by Brad Oberwager, and includes:\n\n\u201cDrilling down into\u201d the new user experience.<\/li>\nRefactoring the on-boarding process and orientation islands.<\/li>\nThe work will include viewer-side changes that are intended to \u201csmooth out a lot of the bumps in the road\u201d.<\/li>\nThe will will be built on two years of active study and A\/B testing to try to determine what the on-boarding path should look like, together with learning from users returning to Second life as a a result of the SARS-CoV-2 impact.<\/li>\nIt is hoped this work will both help LL improve user retention and also feed through to the community gateways, particularly with regards to the upcoming changes which will be made to the viewer.<\/li>\nNo specifics provided, but the viewer changes are described as:\n\n\u201cNew UIs\u201d<\/li>\nRefreshed looks.<\/li>\nEasier to find information.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\nThere is also the need to complete the work of transitioning to AWS \u2013 fixing the current issues directly related to the move and also on-going work to properly leverage the AWS environment for the benefit of the platform.\n\n[29:24-30:00<\/a>] This work includes a\u00a0 lot of under-the-hood simulator performance improvements that will be continuing throughout the year.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nSecond Life in Five Years Time<\/h4>\n[Video: 16:04-19:33<\/a>]<\/p>\n\nThe company would like to at least double the active user population over the next 3-5 years.<\/li>\nThis is seen as a realistic goal in light of the shift in emphasis seen within business, education, etc., from purely physical world interactions towards more digitally-based interactions \/ hybrid opportunities that mix various formats [e.g. digital + virtual + remote working \/ learning].<\/li>\nAWS offers the potential for regions to be geographically located around the world, potentially bringing them closer to their core audience.\n\nThis could allow educational regions, for example, to be hosted much closer to the schools \/ colleges \/ students they serve, making them more responsive.<\/li>\nThis approach could potentially start to be used towards the end of 2021.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\nFurther out, geolocating regions could potentially offer the ability for the Lab to offer white label grids to specific customers \/ groups.<\/li>\n[24:00-28:25<\/a>] White label grids present the opportunity for the Lab to better meet specific client requests to remove features and capabilities from the viewer \u2013 and also take features an capabilities required for a specific environment and potentially make them available across the entire Second Life product.\n\nTwo examples of the latter already exists: the new extended chat range feature available to region owners, and the Chrome Embedded Framework updates that allow video to be streamed\u00a0into<\/em> Second Life, as originally demonstrated in the Adult Swim streaming of episodes<\/a> from The Shivering Truth<\/em> in May 2020.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nWhat Lessons has LL Learned due to the Pandemic?<\/h3>\n[Video: 20:31-24:00<\/a>]<\/p>\n\nThe pandemic, particularly as a result of attempts to leverage the platform for education, business and similar use by organisations and groups, reinforced the fact that the new user experience needs to the overhauled.<\/li>\nIt has also underlined the fact that people\u2019s usage habits have changed.<\/li>\nThe Land Team in particular has learned a lot about business, etc., needs of clients \u2013 the team deals directly with such requests as they come in to the Lab, and so have been dealing first-hand with understanding client requirements, determining the best for of assistance (e.g. providing one of the Lab\u2019s turn-key solutions or brokering contact between the client and a solution provider<\/a> who can meet their requirements.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nPricing and Options<\/h3>\n[Video: 30:27-34:17<\/a>]<\/p>\n\nNothing on the roadmap related to pricing; land costs should remain untouched through the rest of the year.<\/li>\nThere is the potential for AWS to allow the Lab to develop new region products; this is something that may start to be looked at 12-24 months hence.<\/li>\nAWS might also allow for on-demand spin-up of regions, initially building on the idea of Homestead holders being able to take a temporary upgrade to a Full region to run a specific event, then downsizing back to a Homestead.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nCompetition and Experimentation<\/h3>\n[Video: 34:39-45:58<\/a>]<\/p>\n\nCompetition helps drive innovation.<\/li>\nThere is no Lab-based group specifically tasked with investigation competitive platforms, but staff tend to try them out through their own interest.<\/li>\nAttention is paid to how other platforms adopt newer technologies and the challenges encountered in such adoptions.<\/li>\nThere is still no real, direct competitor to Second Life in terms of size, flexibility of use, or in having an in-built content creation tool set.<\/li>\nLL don\u2019t regard users as beta testers per se.<\/em> However, major new features do require trialling \/ testing, which can involve selected users \/ tried at scale to determine feasibility \/ performance, etc. Sometimes the result is a capability has to be withdrawn as it is not performant enough (e.g. the VR headset viewer) and \/ or negatively impacts the user experience.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nOz Linden\u2019s Departure<\/h3>\n[Video: 46:09-46:56<\/a>]<\/p>\n\nOz was a fabulous colleague to work with. His retirement<\/a> leaves a \u201cgaping chasm\u201d at the Lab.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<div>Have a Great Week from all of us at Zoha Islands and Fruit Islands<\/div>\n<p data-adtags-visited=\"true\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/main><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>VWBPE 2021: Patch Linden \u2013 the board, Second Life, and\u00a0more VWBPE 2021: Patch Linden \u2013 the board, Second Life, and\u00a0more Posted on March 19, 2021 by Inara Pey \u00a0 VWBPE 2021 On Thursday, March 18th, 2021 Patch Linden, the Lab\u2019s Vice President of Product Operations and a member of the company\u2019s management team, attended … <a href=\"https:\/\/zoha-islands.com\/blog\/vwbpe-2021\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">→<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6315,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2,3,4,5,6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zoha-islands.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6306"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zoha-islands.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zoha-islands.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zoha-islands.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zoha-islands.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6306"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/zoha-islands.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6306\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zoha-islands.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zoha-islands.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zoha-islands.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zoha-islands.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}