It’s nigh-on two weeks since SLCC 2011, and I’m still on something of a buzz about Second Life.I’ve already given four reasons why I’m excited about the platform once more, in which I focused on in-world aspects. Here are some more, broader, reasons.
Rod Humble
Yes, I know I come off as something of a fangirl; but the fact is that in eight short months, Rod Humble has more of a positive impact on Linden Lab than perhaps either of his predecessors had for the period between late 2007 and January 2010, something I’ve commented upon in the past.
But since March, we’ve seen it reinforced in so many ways that Rod Humble has a clear and constructive vision for Second Life. Yes, there are still issues to be addressed in a number of areas, but in the last few months it’s been pretty evident that Rodvik has been gradually refocusing Linden Lab and laying good foundations for both technical and progressive growth in Second Life and the Lab. The re-worked sign-on process, the split with the Viewer modes that allows for faster development of new user-friendly functionality via the Basic mode, introducing the release, test, polish, test, polish approach to features and capabilities which – while frustrating at time – is starting to yield benefits.
He understands the need for both bringing-in new user and the twin needs to bothengage / retain them and to maintain engagement and enthusiasm for the platform among existing users. As we move into the latter half of the year, he’s indicated the focus will shift more towards the latter (engagement / retention), with more “polish” plus things like and overhaul of Premium Accounts to offer users more “at no extra cost”. We even have the promise of a significant marketing campaign through the end of the year / early 2012. These are all things to welcome.
Lindens are getting engaged in the platform
We’ve all complained about the lack of any real in-world Linden presence for a long, long time. That’s changing.
I’ve personally spent time in-world in the mesh sandboxes on the Main grid with both Dan Linden and Charlar Linden (even if I did confuse him 🙂 ). More importantly, the Product Team have been involved in in-world building, developing a game-based experience to help them understand the tools and limitations of in-world content creation.
Change in Philosophy
As Mark Viale (Viale Linden) said, there is a change in philosophy at Linden Lab – they’re looking to work more with the user base and “bring forward” communities and events and make sure they have good visibility through the likes of the new Viewer 3 log-in screen (which is being offered to TPVs to increase the visibility – hopefully they’ll take it up). We also have the opening of communications channels once more – e-mail addresses are front and centre, people are responding to IMs once more. We also have new and useful wiki portals being written that information the availability of information.
Within the Destination Guide, there is now the opportunity for communities and users to carry the message of Second Life out to the world through the Create Ad widget, while LL themselves are starting to work with communities to leverage awareness of Second Life – such as through the use of Machinima via YouTube, etc. All of this is very positive in terms of raising the visibility of SL as a vibrant platform.
The is something of a roadmap
Of course, there is still much to be done – and bringing-in users alone is not going to keep Second Life afloat, much less growing; Gwyneth Llewelwyn holds up a cautionary hand in this regard. However, when you look back just twelve months, just about the only thing we heard from LL was the need to bring users in – nothing else. That has now changed. Thought around retention and engagement is being put into the mix – and starting to be translated into positive actions.
…But one still cannot help but feel that there is a roadmap there, even if we’re not privy to all of it. This is actually a good feeling to have – and while many of us likely won’t feel comfortable with things until we see the in-world economy growing once more, and things like concurrency improve – it’s actually nice to be able to feel things are moving in the right direction, not only with technical aspects, but also within LL itself.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 
I certainly share your optimism! And I agree: it’s not really Second Life that has changed, or their user base, or even the real impact of all the new features (it’s too early too see how widely they will be adopted). No, it’s just Linden Lab’s attitude that has changed, and for the better.
In this terrible world where the-company-that-was-formerly-known-not-to-do-evil has joined forces with The Evil Others to literally take over the world (or at least how we view it), it was truly encouraging to see that Linden Lab, by contrast, is turning back to its most precious assets: its users. And the little impact that a change in attitudes may have makes an immediate difference!
A silly example to illustrate my point: on Tuesday I was shopping for some clothes. I saw that LL, after a year or so of complaining, had tweaked the in-world Search to behave more sensibly. I searched for a specific item on Google (yes, on Google) and it was the first thing listed, with a direct link for teleporting — and yes, I was in the right place and could find the item immediately! I don’t remember, in the SL 2.X era, if it has been so simple like that. I know, it’s a very tiny detail. But it’s a direct result of a change of attitude: they finally agreed that the Search really, really needed tweaking, and did exactly that! Or perhaps I was lucky. Perhaps it was a coincidence. But I’ve been finding that all those tiny “coincidences” are resulting in a better overall experience, and, of course, this also encourages me (and others like me) to log in more (even if it’s only for shopping and testing new viewers hehe).
Let’s hope that Linden Lab is really being serious about their change of attitude. We will all benefit.
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Search is indeed being tweaked. During the commerce presentation Thor covered much of what has been done to improve relevancy across the board, and more is to be done. It’s good to hear that this is working byond SL’s immediate gates as well.
SLCC was a breath of fresh air compared to recent years. Even last year there was a degree of response from some presenting on behalf of the lab that, if not precisely hostile, was certainly guardedly defensive that did not bode well at the time. Concerns raised by questioners were either turned away because descisions had been made and were going to be implemented, period, or were responded to with a aggressiveness that – on video at least – swayed pretty close to combative impatience. The change this year couldn’t have been more obvious – or pleasing.
I certainly hope the situation is this positive in a year’s time!
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Si, los cambios se notan en todos los niveles y los considero muy positivos, desde lo visual hasta la incorporación de nuevas tecnologías!
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Muchas gracias, estoy de acuerdo estos cambios pueden ser muy positivos y hablar bien para el futuro.
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