First Meet and Greet with Ebbe Linden
My Review
On Tuesday 18th February 2014 I was invited to a small invitation-only meeting with Pete Linden and Ebbe Linden who is the new CEO of Linden Lab. The meeting took place at PR island in a nice meeting area just north of the region. This was my first visit to PR island to meet the new CEO so I was pretty much excited. It was just 8 of us at the meeting using voice and text chat.
The meeting started later than planned from 9:40am SLT to about 10:55am SLT. Drax managed to record the meeting and at the end of the meeting I managed to copy the transcript. IM me inworld for a copy and check out my Flickr stream for snapshots.
The first meet and greet meeting with Ebbe Linden went extremely well and everyone had a few questions to ask Ebbe. Ebbe talked about the past, current and the future of Second Life which was very interesting.
After the meeting today Ebbe Linden posted Hello from Linden Lab’s New CEO on the official Second Life blog and answered questions from the SL community via Twitter/SL Forums. It’s a good start so far and I hope there will be more meetings like this with more members of the news media of Second Life soon.
PR Island preview where the meeting took place
Meeting timeline of events
- Invited over to the PR island and then SL press arrived
- Pete Linden and Ebbe Linden gave an opening introduction. The new CEO then said that he’s been in Second Life for a week or so meeting with employees, understanding the basics and he is very excited about being part of Second Life
- SL press members gave a brief introduction about themselves (8 avs attended the meeting)
- Pete and Ebbe opened the floor to questions one by one with a few prepared questions
- Final wrap up questions and goodbyes
Voice chat with Pete Linden and Ebbe Linden
Questions and Answers
Draxtor first asked Ebbe why he took the job at Linden Lab
Ebbe said that he’s known SL since the early beginning, he was an early beta user and that, his son was very involved very early on with Second Life. Ebbe has always known about Second Life. Ebbe hopes to create an environment where teens and adults can come together more than ever before.
Jo asked Ebbe about his first time as a newbie in Second Life, when he joined up, what he thinks about the experience for new users and how he plans to change this to improve user retention.
Ebbe said that it’s difficult and and that he knows of the previous registration methods that either worked/failed. Ebbe mentions that he wants to learn more about the new user experience and look into user testing with new ideas. Finally saying that he wants to make the on-boarding easier for new users.
Mal asked Ebbe about some of SL’s other products and possibilities
Ebbe said that some decisions have been made about simplifying the lab’s product portfolio and there will be some news on that later this week. The news will be focusing on Linden Lab offering. Also he wants to make Second Life more easier to visit in the near future. Ebbe is very interested in Blocksworld.
Saffia asked if Ebbe was going to continue trying to attract non profit and educational organisations to Second Life.
Ebbe said that it makes alot of sense to continue and he would love to meet with educational communities in Second Life soon.
I asked What plans do you have for the future of Second Life ? and what are you most excited about in the short-time/long-term? Thank you! 🙂
Ebbe said that Second Life is just at the beginning of something huge and he hopes to make the online world more engaging and more social. He wants Second Life to be more appealing to a larger audience and to have a massive scale of users using Second Life in the long-term.
Ebbe goes on to say the long-term plans including understanding the talent at the lab, making it more focused, creating a clear path and looking at the organisation as a whole. Ebbe hopes to raise the bar in focus and have a clear vision.
Saffia asked about if he played any sports in Second Life ?
Ebbe would like to learn more about sports in Second Life
Jo asked Ebbe how excited he was about the Oculus Rift and Virtual Reality going big and if he tried it yet.
Ebbe said that he did use the Oculus Rift last Friday afternoon, he knows of an early version of the hardware and he’s interested in leap motion. Ebbe understands the hype about Second Life and that he’s looking forward to discover Second Life for what it is really like.
10:55am SLT the meeting finished
Expect more coverage this Friday when Drax will be talking about the meeting during his weekly radio hour. I hope that more meetings like this will be set up in the near future with more news media folks.
Daniel Voyager 
I hope…
in the future the group of the attendants to such a meeting will be enlarge to other news media, even in Europe!
I hope …
this kind of meetings should became a fix appointment to improve the relationship among LInden Lab and Residents, as in the past many mistakes has been occurred.
I hope…
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Thanks, AquilaDellaNotte and yeah it’s a start I think. I agree, next time more SL news media should be invited. I hope that at SL11B and other big events happening this year/next year that Ebbe should do a speech to a larger audience. That would be fantastic and many would agree I think.
In the past week communications have been starting to get better but it’s early days and I hope the trend continues to get better between LL/SL community in the coming years.
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Some good questions from you, Daniel, but unfortunately not a lot of depth in most of the other questions. Is this just a quick excerpt? And was Inara Pey not included in this group?
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Thanks, Bear. I have now updated in blue more in-depth info into this post and the meeting was done in voice however it kept on breaking up in parts. The first post was a notes post to get the word out ASAP about this meeting and Ill be adding more during the course today/tomorrow.
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We all hope;)
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It’s good that Ebbe did host a meet and greet today. I hope more meetings like this will take place this year with more SL press media outlets.
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A wee disappointed that Marianne McCann wasn’t there.
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Yup, lets hope next time more will be able to attend. 🙂
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Thanks for the prompt posting . Hope he will address platform limits , commerce, land etc. There is much that needs to be changed in those areas before he can get “massive” numbers of people in SL ( at 295 USD a sim?) .
Very glad he’s been watching SL since beta.
Not sure how more under 18 year olds will pan out since the number of Adult sims grows monthly — but we’ll see :).
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Thanks, Bet. There is lot’s to address for sure and I hope within the next year or so Ebbe will be able to sort things out. 🙂
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I am disappointed that nobody asks what Ebbe’s plans are to improve communication between the Lab and the user community.
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Communications is already starting to look better from the lab. 🙂
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I did notice that Daniel. However, it would have been interesting to know his views on the matter. Anyway, there is quite a lot of information coming from the Lab, so it is clear that he is taking the matter at heart. This is good.
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Ooo, that would have been a good question, Indigo. I’m still waiting on a reply from anyone at Linden Lab to a series of questions and ideas I put forth to Jack, Michael, and the entire Linden team in 2010 (topic continues to appear on the inside back cover of my free online books covering SL travel). Thanks for sharing news of the event Daniel; it is good to see Ebbe has been pro-active in reaching out to reporters of SL news. I’m sure he kept this meeting small in order to be manageable. I also like your idea of an annual speech at SL Birthday events, Daniel. Maybe in time he could even consider to offer quarterly or bi-annual in-world or video-captured press conferences (or statements), and periodic retreats with specific-theme oriented focus groups or task groups. Until further communication opportunities present themselves, thank you, Ebbe, for your interest to step in-world to speak with us. We’re delighted to have you join the Lab, and wish you all the best.
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Thanks, Dahlia. Yes, hopefully Ebbe will attend the big events and talk to the SL community. Previous CEOs have done this and worked really well. I like that idea of “quarterly or bi-annual in-world or video-captured press conferences (or statements), and periodic retreats with specific-theme oriented focus groups or task groups.”
These are interesting times!
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I know what you mean, Dahlia. Like you, I also made suggestions which I blogged about back in 2011 that raised interest but never had any official response, even if some Lindens find them interesting.
I have to say that the amount of information coming from the Lab is encouraging and I didn’t expect changes coming so soon. Let’s hope it lasts. Rodvik started the same way and we all know how communication from the Lab ended up being.
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I am keeping my fingers crossed that Ebbe will set the course in motion to BRING BACK LAST NAMES! Hardly a day goes by that some Resident AV comments to me that they so wished for a last name like us oldies have. Surnames are like gold. I noticed that everyone in the meet and greet snapshots had one including Ebbe Linden. It was good to see. How sick I am of seeing SuzyQ123 and Suuuzzzzyyy type names. Who wants a name that sounds like a Yahoo email address? This needs to be fixed once and for all. At the very least give us choice. Hopefully a choice would improve retention rates for new folks. What’s in a name? Hopefully not “Resident” for very much longer.
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Thanks, Vale. I think bringing back last names would be a good idea and bringing back the mentor program would be good too. Lowering the tier of land could see more interest in regions in Second Life. I think the stats would go up and the SL economy would pick up again. This has to be done right of course!
We will have to wait and see.
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New Boss same as the Old Boss. Instead of anonymously creating an account, logging in, and talking to average residents about what has gone on in the past and what is currently happening inworld , he is talking only to the 1%’rs, the land barons, and the SL media. Good thinking, Eb’s. Cater to the narrow interests of the top 1%. He’s as clueless as they all are. Typical.
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Thanks cathartes and we didn’t know how many there was going to be. But I do hope next time there will be chance for more media to capture the moment with the new CEO.
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The media capturing the moment or Eb’s hearing from the SL 1%’rs as to how things are isn’t going to help him in his unenviable job. He should create a regular SL account, log in, search for a small creator biz, a small land rental biz, a small niteclub operator, regular resident(s). The problem with previous CEO’s and upper management at LL is that they only interact with/listen to the top 1%’rs, the SL media, the top creators, and the top land barons. The “Atlas Land Program” being one of the major irritants to the 99%+ of SL residents not getting the “deal” the land barons are getting. I would love to see/hear the SL media ask about that insider “deal” and how it is in any way equitable/fair to the 99%+ of SL resident land owners not getting those sweet advantages.
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Well, i do hope he can figure the Tos problem created a few months ago, as it seems obvious He does not even knew about it and that i doubt he will agree with the new terms as much as any of us do!
But i do hope that Ebbe did saw All Drax files!
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