Tag: Rod Humble

Rodvik Revealed

Posted on by Inara Pey

Rod Humble (Rodvik Linden), the new CEO at Linden Lab attended a short “meet and greet” event with members of the “Second Life Press Corps” on Friday.

The meeting itself appears to have been a bit of a curate’s egg: on the one hand, it *is* good that Rodvik is taking the time to meet and greet. On the other…but the time the greetings were all done, there wasn’t really much time for the actual meeting this time around – although a fair few of those attending did get some points across to Rodvik – which I’m sure he’s taken note of and some of what he said vis-a-vis in-world creativity within SL was encouraging.

The really sad thing here is that once again, this smacks of LL operating by stealth. The meeting was very small, with a selected audience who (one cynically suspects) were selected as much for their positive attitude towards LL as for any “journalistic credentials”. Certainly, Rodvik cannot hope to meet with everyone, and really large audiences can make for difficult meetings – but one cannot help but be disappointed that no-one at LL has made mention of the fact that these meetings are happening (assuming this was not a one-off), or indicated that larger audiences may be possible in the future. To be sure, LL are in a rock and a hard place: Town Halls, etc., are hard to organise and small meetings smack of talking to the anointed: but at the moment excitement around Rodvik’s appointment is running high and favourable – and as such, it would be good to see LL engender more goodwill among residents by holding somewhat larger, more open meetings that allow for a wider opportunity for people to see / hear / chat with Rodvik Linden.

Again, these needn’t take up great swathes of his time – but putting aside a couple of hours each week for a two or three-week period and scheduling meetings at times that suit international meetings (as was done with this first one)  isn’t really beyond the realm of the doable.

Anyway, here’s the transcript of the meeting, and my thanks to Chestnut Rea for posting it.

On a side note…Rod’s avatar is a fabulous (photo?) rendering of himself, and one of the freshest approaches to a Linden Avatar I’ve yet seen.

Rodvik Linden (right)

Rodvik speaks!

Posted on by Inara Pey

Well, for all those impatient to hear from him, Rod Humble, Linden Research’s new CEO, aka Rodvik Humble, aka … an Alt With No Name (wisely!), has blogged.

It’s not an earth-shattering blog with promises, visions or anything else – not that I was expecting such. And nor should it be, again for the reasons stated not just by me, but by the likes of wiser heads such as Tateru Nino.

However, what Mr. Humble’s first blog is, is this: it’s refreshing. Here is someone actually taking the time to paddle around in SL, and who is having fun doing so while learning more than just the basics of walking and teleporting. He has been building and scripting and discovering for himself just what can – and for many does – make Second Life so engaging. One might get a little nit-picky and say that it would have been nice to see him interacting with other residents while in his Alt guise – but just because there are no pictures to show him doing so within the blog, doesn’t mean he didn’t.

All I can say is, kudos, Mr. Humble for making the time available to do so and putting the effort in – and long may it continue as time and tide (so to speak) allow. Spending time in-world, exploring, meeting and chatting with residents of all flavours is really the only way of getting to define the complex strengths and weaknesses of Second Life that are otherwise tenuous and hard to define.

I certainly hope that now, as Rodvik, we’ll be seeing a lot of Mr. Humble in-world – attending events, making himself visible, gosh – perhaps even hosting regular meetings of the kind Mark Kingdon tried to instigate – or even bringing back regular Town Hall style meetings (yes, number means that the latter won’t have the direct reach they once had, but heck, the technology exists to make them available to potentially a wider audience than could be reached in the past as well). Certainly, with things like Office Hours looking like they are about to die a death, we need something to replace them beyond a corporate one-way feed. I also hope Mr. Humble will continue his incognito travels around SL as well.

I like Mr. Humble’s first post. It seems to bode well – and kudos to him for not leaping in with pronouncements on this, that or the other. That he is in the process of getting up to speed and working with the team to finalize our plans for 2011 – and thus taking the time to understand what is in the pipeline (and hopefully provide his own insight into such plans) – cannot be anything other than positive. Most refreshing of all is his closing comment: I look forward to serving you–our customers–in the times ahead. Without wishing to sound sour, it has been a long time since that sentiment has been openly expressed by someone at Linden Lab…

So welcome, Rodvik!  Congrats on an uplifting first post – long may they continue!

Rodvik’s tough future

Posted on by Inara Pey

So, according to Bob Kumin, or BK Linden as LL’s CFO / COO is known “in-world” (I use the latter term lightly, as I believe he’s actually been in-world um, once since his arrival at LL, and even then had very little to say), Rod Humble – potentially to be called Rodvik Linden, according to some – arrived at Battery Street yesterday. This has prompted some (going on the in-world traffic I was privy to yesterday) to start demanding “where is he?” and “Typical…no announcement from him”, etc.

Well…hang on! Give the poor sod a chance.

There has been lots of “free” advice handed out to Mr. Humble since the announcement of his appointment last month. When you push aside all the (inevitable) bitching about this and that, there is to be sure, a lot of sage advice contained within the responses to the announcement.

Similarly, Profoky Neva started a nice little thread in the blogs, urging three-word recommendations for Rodvik to consider. Sadly, I cannot link to the same any more, as it has, in the mysterious ways of the official forums, been deleted for some reason. Again, while there was much hoo-ing and ha-ing among the posts there, there were many replies that had more than a ring of validity about them.

But – and here’s the rub – the fact that both the comments posted to the announcement and Prokofy’s own thread did contain so much in the way of contradicting viewpoints (“Ditch Viewer 2!” vs. “Viewer 2 is great!”; “Forget Mesh!” vs. “SL needs Mesh!”; “Stop making SL inaccessible to older computers!” vs. “SL needs to keep up with technology!” and so on) that, even without the vitriol, one can see the problem Rod(vik) faces even if he merely glances at the replies.

…listening to the users isn’t actually always the best thing…

We’ve all – myself included – repeatedly called for LL to “listen” to its user base (well, I’ll actually redefine that slightly – I’ve been calling for LL to engage and communicate with us – both of which, dare I say, are somewhat more involved (on both sides!), than simply “listening”). But, what exactly does this mean, and how should LL go about it?

As Tateru Nino points out so well, users themselves have such widely varied views on things, that seeking broad-ranging input from them can – whether we like it or not – lead to as much confusion, angst and anger from said users when the outcome is announced, as simply not seeking input in the first place.

Take, for example, two of the most common cries in the responses to Rod Humble’s appointment as CEO. On the one hand people are loudly shouting for the “trashing” of Viewer 2; on the other, people are praising it. Similarly, and more vociferously, we have people loudly proclaiming that Mesh “isn’t needed”, and other citing very valid reasons why it is.

How do you reconcile such entrenched, widely differing views without pissing off at least 50% of your audience?

Of course these two examples are extremes, and to be fair, a large proportion of the “anti” lobby in both comes down to a simple unwillingness to change on the part of those voicing the objections. For example, many of those denouncing Viewer 2 do so on the basis of “having tried it for 10 minutes” before giving up – yet I wonder, when they first joined SL, how long it took them to get to grips with Viewer 1.x? Longer than 10 minutes, I’ll warrant; so why the impatience now?

But leaving aside the extreme position of these views, it does demonstrate the tightrope Humble has to walk, just where the users are concerned – and as Tateru amply demonstrates in her column with a simple little exercise.

Of course, there are “obvious” things that need to be done: stability, performance in general, smoothing out sim boundary crossings, etc., – but these are “easy” as we all see and feel them. What about the more complex? How does LL make SL more attractive, immersive, engaging, exciting – fun – for the “lay” user?

The answers here are far more difficult: ask ten people and get 10 different replies. Add to this the fact that Rod Humble isn’t just “answerable” to the users – he is in his post at the leisure of a Board that at times seems both remote from the realities of Second Life and somewhat hostile towards the user base. As such, he is responsible for heeding their collective will and turning their whims into realities – making any potential balancing act on his part, that much harder (the needs of the few (the Board) will always outweigh the needs of the many, if I might be permitted to paraphrase a certain Vulcan).

All this being the case, I’m not surprised that he hasn’t suddenly bounced into the official blogs announcing this, that and the other. Anyone with any common sense, whether they have been looking around in-world or not, whether they’ve been hopping in and out of the Battery Street offices over the last few weeks or not, whether they’ve been involved at all with the inner machinations of LL or not even from arm’s length – is going to need time to get into the office, settle down and take a studied look at what is going on and how things really work.

If nothing else, the legacy of Mark Kingdon would encourage anyone entering the role to do so with some caution. After all, he was trumpeted in by the likes of Philip Rosedale, who went on to talk about him in glowing terms – sharing the same pod, being of the same mind, etc., etc.,  – and look how that finished up (and don’t go blaming Kingdon purely for the way things went).

Given all of the above, I’m actually not that surprised nothing has been heard of from Mr. Humble as yet (and that’s taking it for granted that he did arrive OK yesterday as the new CEO); he’s going to need time to get properly to grips with things before (one would hope) he starts making massive pronouncements on just about anything.

But, that said, it would be nice just to get a quick “hello!” from him, coupled with a short statement confirming he’s “here” and perhaps asking for our understanding while he does get settled at his desk and takes time to settle in.

As the (virtual) world holds its breath…

Posted on by Inara Pey

We’re once again in that weird state of suspension: the old year is now behind us, the New Year is opening up in front of us, and we’re all getting back to “the usual” routines.

Some twelve months ago, this was a time of Great Optimism within Linden Lab; or at least within Mark Kingdon’s “pod”, as he enthusiastically posted not only about the next year in virtual worlds, but the next ten years. As I reported in my review of 2010, when it came to the 12 months directly in front of him, not all M hoped for came to pass. Indeed, there was much he didn’t – nay, couldn’t – predict.

This year, by contrast, those within LL remain resolutely silent. In around a week’s time, this is liable to change, given that Rod Humble “officially” starts-up as the new CEO around the 17th (next Monday) – so doubtless we’ll be hearing something around then.

In the meantime, the lack of news from LL is weighing on us all; although some are feeling it a lot more than others.  Tateru Nino is theorising that there is more to the silence than meets the eye – speculating that the silence is that which comes before what she calls the “Big Surprise Announcement” and hinting that it may not be A Good Thing. Ciaran Laval is taking it more lightly, pointing out that if there is one thing LL should do in 2011, it’s to listen to its greatest resource: those of us who use their blessed platform. Elsewhere, others seem to be caught-up the idea that the General Discussion forum should go; recently saw a completely useless thread on this very topic started by one of the forum’s regular naysayers & borderline trolls; but others such a Que Niangao – altogether more respectable – have hinted something my be in the offing where the forums are concerned. Where the information comes from, however, is anyone’s guess.

For my part, I’m actually not at all surprised by the silence; there is a new CEO; the company went through a wave of cutbacks mid-year, and the losses are still accruing: Jack Linden went just before Christmas, as did Joe Linden (Joe Miller), and it appears Wallace Linden (Mark Wallace) has gone after a heady time as the Conversation Manager that is equalled only by Katt’s tenure as the Communication Manager…

Ergo, it is unsurprising that little has been said, either blog-wise or, it seems, through the few remaining Office Hours meetings. For one thing, who knows whether the “restructuring” has reached a point of being “restructured”, and for another, people are liable to have one eye cocked pensively on the door to the board room and the other cocked pensively at the door to the new CEO’s office, waiting to see which way the wind is blowing.

The majority response to Rod Humble’s appointment has been positive: whether this remains so has yet to be seen. There are certainly a lot of people who are going to be disappointed – especially those calling for the scraping of Viewer 2.x; sorry, kids, ain’t gonna happen. Equally, those that believe Rod, with the best will in the world, will have a free hand in matters are also going to be disappointed; he’ll no more be able to push and pull LL as freely as Mark Kingdon did during his tenure. There will be requirements from the Board he’ll be expected to oversee, just as things like the Adult Content Changes came from the Board, and not did not spring solely from Mark Kingdon’s forehead.

Doubtless, there is a Big Announcement coming next week – but I doubt it’ll be as earth-shattering as Tateru implies. I also hope that 2011 will bring about a resurgence in LL’s ability to listen to its users as Ciaran states they should. Certainly, Rod Humble is perhaps more user-savvy than the likes of Rosedale, Kapor, Kingdon et al – but whether that is enough to really make a difference is going to be something that only time will reveal.

Be he ever so Humble…

Posted on by Inara Pey

So I was wrong. I’d been expecting Bob Komin to be a shoo-in for the post of CEO at Linden Research. Seems not, as the job has in fact gone to Rod Humble.

This is an interesting piece of news. Firstly, it keeps Komin out of the firing line (unlike Kingdon). Secondly, and far more importantly, it brings someone into LL who – for the first time – a) isn’t “home-grown” from the company itself but b) actually has gaming / virtual world experience. In this latter regard, Humble is perhaps best known for his input into The Sims 2 and the Sims 3 – and even has his own non-player character in one of the expansion packs for the former.

His credentials, games-wise are impressive – at least to my untutored eyes (I make no secret of the fact that I don’t play computer and video games, other than an occasional fling on a Wii). This in itself could indicate interesting times are ahead for LL and SL as a whole. He’s certainly very hands-on and is a self-confessed “games hobbyist” – hopefully, this will mean he’ll not easily succumb to the Ivory Towers Syndrome that has otherwise infected 98% of staff at Linden Lab and forced them to withdraw from almost all forms of positive interaction with the users of their platform…

…On the other hand, his own “designer games”, such as The Marriage, which interprets marriage as a series of interdependent geometric shapes moving around a colourful box –  tend to suggest that he is someone who perhaps needs to simply leave the computer screen every once in a while and get out a bit more.

Mr. Humble doesn’t take on his new role officially until some time in “mid-January”. However, he is already spending time in-world, where (to quote BK Linden) he is exploring and experimenting inworld to familiarize himself with the pluses and minuses of our product and the successes and challenges faced by our Residents.  If so, then it is going to be interesting to hear his views on things, should he chose (and one would hope he does) to air them.

In the meantime, and with an eye to the future, I’ll add my greetings to Mr. Humble as he joins the Second Life fold. And as a piece of small, humorous advice, Rod, I think the perfect avatar name for yourself might be Humble Linden – it would strike chords for so many and on so many different levels!