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| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Founded | San Francisco, California, USA (1999) |
| Headquarters | San Francisco, California, USA |
| Key people | Mark D. Kingdon, CEO Philip Rosedale, Chair of the Board of Directors / founder |
| Industry | Virtual worlds |
| Products | Virtual worlds, Electronic commerce, software development |
| Employees | 250 (Q4 2007) |
| Website | www.lindenlab.com |
Linden Lab is a privately held American Internet company that is best known as the creator of Second Life and the virtual world platform Second Life Grid.
According to its Web site, Linden Lab has over 300 employees worldwide. Although the company's main headquarters are based in San Francisco, it also has distributed offices in Singapore, Virginia, Brighton (UK), Boston, Seattle, Mountain View and Davis, CA. In addition, the company employs remote workers that communicate and collaborate on projects using Second Life Grid technology.
The company, founded in 1999, employs numerous established high-tech veterans, including former executives from Electronic Arts, eBay, Disney, Adobe, and Apple. The company's founder and original CEO is Philip Rosedale, a former CTO of Real Networks, one of Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People in The World in 2007.[1] On April 23, 2008, the company announced a new CEO, Mark Kingdon, who controls day-to-day management and operations.[2] Rosedale remains chairman of the board of Linden Lab, with a focus on product development and strategy.
In 2008, the company was awarded an Emmy for Second Life in the user-generated content and game modification category. The award was given at the 59th annual Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards.[3] Philip Rosedale, chairman of Linden Lab, accepted the award.
Although Linden Lab's Second Life Grid platform was not the first online virtual world entry, it has gained a large amount of attention due to its expanding user base and unique policy that allows participants to own the intellectual property rights to the inworld content that they create. The company's name comes from Linden Street, the street it was originally based on. The company's transition from scrappy upstart to success is detailed in the book The Making of Second Life, written by former Linden Lab employee Wagner James Au.
Although many people have assumed that the inspiration for Second Life originated from Rosedale's exposure to Neil Stephenson's novel Snow Crash, he has suggested that his vision of virtual worlds predates that book and that he conducted some early virtual world experiments during his college years at the University of California San Diego, where he studied physics.[4]
Rosedale's strong coding skills eventually resulted in the creation of a video compression technology that would later be acquired by RealNetworks, where he was made CTO at the young age of 27. While at RealNetworks, Rosedale's ambition to create a virtual world was resurrected and recharged by technological advances in computing and his attendance at the popular music and arts festival Burning Man.
With the help of a financial windfall that he reaped from his time at RealNetworks, Rosedale formed Linden Lab in 1999. His initial focus was on the development of hardware that would enable computer users to be fully immersed in a 360 degree virtual world experience. In its earliest form, the company struggled to produce a commercial version of "The Rig," which was realized in prototype form as a clunky steel contraption with several computer monitors that users could wear on their shoulders.[5] That vision soon morphed into the software-based application Linden World, where computer users could participate in task-based games and socialization in a 3D online environment. That effort would eventually transform into the better-known, user-centered Second Life.
During a 2001 meeting with investors, Rosedale noticed that the participants were particularly responsive to the collaborative, creative potential of Second Life. As a result, the initial objective-driven, gaming focus of Second Life was shifted to a more user-created, community-driven experience.[6]
As Second Life emerged into the mainstream, it has been the subject of numerous pop culture references. For example, it found prominent plot placement in 2007 episodes of "CSI: NY" and the U.S. version of "The Office," and has been referenced in the comic strip "Doonesbury."[7]
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Corporate Affairs and Culture
Linden Lab has elicited both compliments and curiosity for its unconventional corporate culture, which is based on a non-hierarchical system where employees are unusually self-directed and transparent in their work. Rosedale details the guiding principles and philosophy behind the company's culture in "The Tao of Linden," a manifesto published on the Linden Lab Web site.
The company makes a strong effort to maintain transparency among its employees and to the general public. For example, employees at all levels are required to communicate weekly "Achievements and Objectives" (A&Os) to the company at large. Further, employees are encouraged to use positive reinforcement as an incentive using an internally-developed "Love Machine" application that enables employees to publicly reward and praise fellow employees for specific tasks completed. The "love" that is sent ultimately translates to a financial incentive at the end of each quarter and is used as part of an employee's evaluation. However, despite their stated efforts regarding transparency, Linden Lab remains a privately owned corporation and does not provide any reporting to the general public (or their customers) of their internal financial structure or other economic circumstances in a manner that could be verified by a public audit. Even though economic data is provided, it cannot be independently verified even though the users of Linden Lab's "Second Life" service, who have purchased virtual land, have an apparent equity stake in the company's business.
"The Love Machine allows anyone who works here as a Linden employee to send anyone else a brief note that says 'Thank you for doing this for me.'," Rosedale told Inc. Magazine in 2008. "There is a little webpage where you can go to send an e-mail, and then you get a little e-mail that says 'Love From Philip' in the subject and it's got text in it. Now, you think, what's the big deal about that? Well, all of that stuff goes into a database. Your review carries that. Everybody is sending love to each other. It creates a positive collaborative environment."[8]
Linden Lab also utilizes another internal tool, known as the Distributor, that enables all employees to distribute "points" to projects that they deem to be worthy of development and resource support. Each point has a financial value that is based on each quarter's financial performance. As a result, key stakeholders in the projects with high point values receive a distributed monetary payoff at the end of the quarter for successfully completed projects.
In addition, each employee's quarterly performance review is published on a Wikipedia-like internal Web site for all other employees to see.[9]
In May 2007, Linden Lab acquired Windward Mark Interactive, a small game development company of Waltham, Massachusetts. Windward Mark specialized in atmosphere and cloud simulation, and released their code as open source. Linden Lab intends to use this code and skill set in order to enhance graphics in Second Life.[10]
Employees of Linden Lab, who are easily identifiable inworld since their avatars bear the last name Linden, have been known to participate in several collaborative events with Second Life users. For example, the company holds an annual holiday "snowball fight" where users are encouraged to throw virtual snowballs at Linden Lab employees.
Controversies
Bragg v. Linden Lab
In 2006, Pennsylvania lawyer Marc Bragg (“Marc Woebegone” in Second Life) brought a lawsuit against Second Life developer Linden Lab when his account was unilaterally disabled by Second Life administrators. Linden Lab claimed that Marc Bragg had violated their Terms of Service by URL-hacking[11] the Second Life virtual land auction website in order to gain access to otherwise unavailable auctions. As a result, Bragg was able to purchase virtual land within Second Life valued at $1,000 for approximately $300.[12] Bragg’s account was suspended while Linden Lab conducted an investigation, and later closed completely.[12] Bragg argued that by closing his account, Linden Lab also dissolved his virtual assets, which he valued at between US$4,000 and US$6,000.[12]
See also
References
- ^ Vega, Suzanne (May 14, 2007). "The Time 100: Philip Rosedale". Time Magazine. http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/time100/article/0,28804,1595326_1615737_1615877,00.html. Retrieved 2008-03-02.
- ^ Reuters/Second Life » Linden Lab picks online marketing executive as CEO
- ^ BusinessWire (January 8, 2008). "Winners of 59th Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards Announced by National Television Academy at Consumer Electronics Show". Foxbusiness.com. http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/industries/telecom/article/winners-59th-technology-engineering-emmy-awards-announced-national-television_428278_13.html. Retrieved 2008-03-02.
- ^ Dubner, Stephen (December 13, 2007). "Philip Rosedale Answers Your Questions". The New York Times. http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/12/13/philip-rosedale-answers-your-second-life-questions/?hp. Retrieved 2008-03-06.
- ^ Au, Wagner James. The Making of Second Life, pg. 19. New York: Collins. ISBN 978-0-06-135320-8.
- ^ YouTube (November 22, 2006). "The Origin of Second Life and its Relation to Real Life". YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0t1XR-LrgyM. Retrieved 2008-03-06.
- ^ Trudeau, Garry (September 9, 2007). "Doonesbury". Doonesbury.com. http://www.doonesbury.com/strip/dailydose/index.html?uc_full_date=20070909. Retrieved 2008-03-06.
- ^ Inc.com (February 2007). "How I Did It: Philip Rosedale, CEO, Linden Lab". Inc.com. http://www.inc.com/magazine/20070201/hidi-rosedale_pagen_3.html. Retrieved 2008-03-06.
- ^ WorldBlu (February 19, 2008). "Lessons Learned and Best Practices from the WorldBlu Council Meeting in SF". WorldBlu. http://worldblu.com/blog/2008/02/19/lessons-learned-and-best-practices-you-don%e2%80%99t-want-to-miss-from-the-worldblu-council-meeting-in-sf/. Retrieved 2008-03-06.
- ^ Second Life gets a Bay State boost, The Boston Globe, May 21, 2007.
- ^ Dennis G. Jerz, URL-Hacking: Do-it-yourself Navigation (May 18, 2000).
- ^ a b c Tateru Nino, Bragg vs Linden Lab - The Story So Far, Second Life Insider (Jan. 27, 2007).
- Virtual Land Lawsuit Reveals Dark Side of Second Life Game Retrieved Aug 7, 2007
External links
- Linden Lab Official website
- list of Linden Lab Employees - hosted on the Official Second Life Wiki
- Analysis of court filings pertaining to the case of Bragg vs Linden Lab The analysis stopped mid way through the initial filings.
- Bragg v. Linden further analysis of proceedings and more accurate reporting. - Hosted at Virtuallyblind.com
- Collection of documents pertinent to Bragg v. Linden Lab
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