Tag archive: Linden Lab

It's been a tops-turvy time for Linden Lab, the company that operates the Second Life virtual world. Just as Second Life is celebrating its seventh birthday, Linden Lab CEO Mark Kingdon has stepped down as the company's CEO, and the company is bringing back its founder, Philip Rosedale, to take over the CEO position on an interim basis as the company works to find its feet, improve accessibility, and simplify its focus. “On… Read More

Back in March, Second Life operators Linden Lab announced plans to create a new segregated area for adult content in their popular virtual world, and announced plans to solicit feedback from Second Life users, content creators, and business operators to work out the details. Now, the Lindens have a plan to deal with adult-oriented content in Second Life, which includes a three-tiered rating system, search filtering capabilities, and a… Read More

Second Life developer Linden Lab is making a major play for the pocketbooks of virtual world residents—right in its own back yard: The company has announced deals to acquire XStreet SL and OnRez, the two largest Web-based marketplaces for virtual goods in Second Life. Financial details of the deals were not disclosed. The two sites offer online marketplaces where in-world developers and content creators can offer their goods for… Read More

Folks have been saying for years that the “3D Internet” is going to be the next big thing, with everyone piloting avatars around in simulated 3D environments, chatting each other up, and (of course!) engaging in lots of lucrative e-commerce. And, certainly, tens of millions of people do something very much like that today, between smashing monsters in World of Warcraft to buying virtual fasions and bling-bling in Linden… Read More

Technology giant IBM has long been one of the most prominent corporate presences in Linden Labs' virtual world Second Life—and it turns out the company like SL so much, it's planning to set up its own private world. Earlier this week, IBM announced it will be the first company to host regions of the Second Life environment behind its corporate firewall. The idea is to create a region of Second Life where IBM employees can… Read More

Second Life founder Philip Rosedale has announced his company is looking for a new CEO, although he'll be staying on as chairman of the board and still be fulltime at Linden Labs. “I will be 100 percent involved and full time at Linden Lab. Second Life is my life's work, and I am not going anywhere!” Rosedale wrote in an announcement on the company's blog. Rosedale will take over as board chairman from Mitch… Read More

The virtual world Second Life is losing one of it's founders: controversial chief technology officer Cory Onrejka—known in-world as Cory Linden—will be leaving the company at the end of the year. Although Linden Labs' CEO Philip Rosedale describs Onrejka's departure as a move to “pursue new professional challenges out side the company,” both Onrejka and Rosedale have acknowledged the departure stems… Read More

Second Life developer Linden Lab is working on rolling out technology which will let in-world avatars receive telephone calls from the real world. Beginning in the first quarter of 2008, Second Life users will be able to have real-world phone numbers associated with their in-world avatars; from that point, users will be able to receive real-world phone calls within Second Life using the virtual world's already-deployed voice… Read More

Coinciding with the Virtual Worlds Conference and Expo opening today in San Jose, IBM and Linden Labs—the folks who run the popular virtual world Second Life—have announced they intend to develop standards and technologies which will enable world users to move seamlessly between virtual worlds, taking their precious avatars—and, of course, all their virtual commerce capabilities—with them as they go. “As the… Read More

The free-wheeling, anything-goes nature of the online virtual world Second Life is one of the things which appeals to many residents. Unlike games like The Sims and World of Warcraft, almost everything in Second Life is created by residents, who build and program objects, buy virtual “land” to set up homes and businesses, and interact with (potentially) millions of other in-world avatars. But that free-and-easy world has become… Read More

Broadcast television network CBS has bought into a $7 million round of financing for virtual content developer Electric Sheep, which develops properties and presences in online worlds like Linden Lab's Second Life. Electric Sheep has developed virtual properties for Fortune 500 companies including AOL, NBC, Viacam, and others, including several in-world creations in Second Life to promote Major League Baseball, MTV's Laguna… Read More

The Swedish Institute has announced (Swedish) plans to open an embassy in the 3-D virtual world Second Life. To named the “House of Sweden,” the virtual site will mirror the construction of Sweden's embassy in Washington, D.C., and will act as the nation's virtual representative to the over three million people from around the world who have alternate identities in Second Life. General Director for the Swedish… Read More

International news service Reuters announced today that it plans to open a virtual news bureau in the online virtual reality game Second Life from San Francisco's Linden Lab. The bureau will be run by a virtual representation of Reuters correspondent Adam Pasick, who will be present in the game under the name “Adam Reuters.” “As strange as it might seem, it's not that different from being a reporter in the… Read More

Users of the popular online game Second Life have received a bit of a shock: the game's creator, Linden Lab, has requested all the game's players change their passwords following a security breach in which an attacker may have gotten away with players' names, addresses, passwords, and encrypted credit card information. According to Linden Lab, the exploit was discovered on September 6, and was shut down immediately; the… Read More

Opening night at the State of Play: Reloaded conference at New York Law School on October 28 saw an animated debate of the rules governing the behavior of participants in virtual worlds and a majorannouncement from conference co-sponsor Linden Labs. During the first session, “The State of Play,” moderator Julian Dibbell, contributing editor, Wired magazine, and panelists considered: Who makes the rules in virtual worlds? Who is… Read More