This morning's closing speech

Makes Chicken noises...

I just said I knew better. I don't always follow my instincts.

oh like this?



or this

[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kf4eu5y0418&feature=related[/url]

I can only read what you write. If you can't get your point across, it is your problem not mine.

Very much agree.

The thing is...the longer you are here in SL, as time passes, you notice it does not really change much, getting better or worse (spikes of unreliability, periods of stable). By the same token most people remember the grand "alternate internet" idea and such.

Strikes me more as a giddy edge developer pipedream....which, while some come true, and certainly drive innovation, is almost immediately crippled here by the "tao of linden" mindset which causes them necessarily to keep reaching back to steady the foundation of the tower they are intending to layer levels on. But that foundation cannot be dismissed practically, whether or not they choose to admit it, adding bells and whistles can only go so far as the foundation will support, whether an edge dev likes it or not, and the dev salary will only ever be supported by the income generated by that foundation, whether a dev likes it or not.

Sure there are practical cutting edge applications, but is it practical for major corps to use it as a viable R&D tool, with the various platform issues ? Dunno that it is to the average CIO of a major corp looking at his own companies numbers where less than 95% availability is a cause for corporate level outrage. You cannot involve financial systems, I mean real ones for example, where anything less than 90% full availabilty is unacceptable. To them these are the minor leagues of infotech with a disinterested nod to the edge technology they will simply one day find a use for.

Delusions of grandeur, visions of splendor. If SL has not really changed a whole lot to date, beyond expanding bells and whistles in terms of existing functional detail, maybe this is simply as good as they get with their business model. Not sure it really can get much better with the way they function, admittedly just my opinion, but it was reinforced by the Gartner/Infoweek interview which they responded to inappropriately with financials, sort of indicating a blissful oblivious.

I don't think Kapor was talking about "us", which from his perspective was a given he would have expected people to realize. In the world of someone like Kapor, and this is personal observation, not concrete...they seperate the tech from the people factor and assume everyone realizes it.

I'd bet if you talked to Kapor...or a Philip Linden, they would tell you their virtual vision of course needs people like "us". Could never function without it. We populate the vision, consume the virtuals, drive the purpose.

They likely see a world of interconnected sims created by users, hosted privately....all sharing their common foundation in the same sense individual users share the present internet.

When they speak of pioneers, I get the feeling they mean the first people figuring out LSL, functionality....creative uses of the platform to build and exploit and grief and fumble with...

I am not sure it is anything to get worked up about, just clumsily stated from edge dev viewpoint. Observing the development pace and methodology, I would not be holding my breath for anything much to change any time soon.

In essence, we are the citizens of their matrix dream.

Epic over. Was feeling thoughtful. ;p

Thank you. You just saved me alot of typing. I've been giving alot of thought to this, and I am just very hard pressed to believe that Mitch was hinting at a new era for Second Life, to the exclusion of those who have to date contributed in extraordinary ways to create the world as it is today. I see his comments as just sortof "thinking out loud" about how he and the lab envision expanding on this foundation. Not replacing it. Everybody around this big virtual dinner table knows that would be absolutely disastrous.

I'm not sure I agree with every point you made, but on the above, I am certain.

*snickers* Yeah.. thinking out loud got me into all sorts of trouble in communication skills in college.

See, I prefer to think of the users as part of the product LL wishes to "sell," in that we are needed. Without us, LL would have only a useless, lifeless shell to showcase, which nowadays, most big corporations are just going to shrug off.

We give the world life, breath and soul, which LL is trying to harvest and package for their new interests. I.. just wish that the CEOs' would get the PR people to write their speeches or at least, go over the speeches and smack the CEOs with the occasional, "this will offend the users, stop it!"

As I said earlier, I didn't get past the word pioneer and blah, blah, blah, before my eyes glazed over.

His message may have been extremely poorly worded, but it's really nothing to get upset about. The chart he showed is a basic, run-of-the-mill adoption chart for anykind of new technology. Technologies that last follow that basic curve. The residents that have built SL up to this point truly are the pioneers of the 3D web. At least, those of you that are creating content are the pioneers; I'm mainly just along for the ride.

The big problem is that technologies that LAST follow that curve. The ones that don't last tend to follow that curve for a little bit, then stop and die. We've got to bring in that second group of people to really make SL continue into the next decade. Unfortunately, SL has stalled at the current level for longer than I expected. SL had been following a pattern of steep concurrency growth followed by periods of almost no growth, but the current stagnant period is sticking around. I thought we'd hit 100K concurrency by the end of July, but it looks like I'm going to be a little off. If LL can get the backbone propped up soon, we could see the concurrency double again this winter, but only if LL and/or current residents can do something to reach out to that next section of the population.

But isn't it time that these types of announcements, especially when coming from people like Rosedale and Kaper, stopped being extremely poorly worded? Is it that difficult? These are well educated successful businessmen, who have made millions. Shouldn't they have figured out how to speak to their customers.? Or are they fostering the stereotype of being arrogant, self absorbed, techno elitists?

DAMN IT!!! NOOOOOOOO!!!!!

That song is my weakness!!! I cry like a lil' girl when I hear that song, even more so after a few beers.

he he, then that's a bonus. It's one of my favorites, too.

Which continent do you want? =)

Well said =)

Lots of techies are simply oblivious to how their messages are perceived by non-techies. Talking to your own kind is a simple exercise. But when the audience takes in more than that then, well, perception is everything. Getting a speechwriter to help with the latter is always a smart move.

I dont think M Linden will let a Kapor-like speech happen again at a public event as important to the company as this was. Smart CEOs know that managing the Board is just as important as managing the staff, if not more so. Specially when the Board is populated with visionaries.

You mean Robin and Everett Linden??

Wait.. they're PR Lindens, aren't they?

Scratch that.... They need to outsource their speeches!

Actually, they have a PR firm. Everett is in Community (not marketing). Robin is in Admin, thoguh I don't recall the position.

The birthday sim Linden build was kinda informative about who does what.