Announcing the $10,000 (USD) Linden Prize

Perhaps they need to find a few new staff... A new CEO, a new land manager and most of all a new Communications manager.

Oh hang on, it is OK for her to munch on popcorn whilst the companies customers are being done over just as it is OK for Mark to sit back and ignore his promise to talk WITH us.

From a commercial point of view it would be better to create something like
like IMVU Music to attract new residents (see http://gigaom.com/2008/11/10/imvu-music-opens-think-itunes-for-avatars/).

The technology to create this type of application is available in SL since years. The only feature that is still missing in SL is to download a file in-world (from an outside server).

But does this improve the human condition?

I have to admit, when I first came to SL it was to do charitable work and fundraising. First I had to immerse myself in the culture to understand how to best share my message. Then of course I began to buy land to understand that part a little better.

In the end, I decided not to do what I originally came here for. The reason being that I just think that there is very little incentive to do that type of work here... too many resources are needed for little outcome I think.

Having said that... knowing that a prize, such as this, were available, would be some incentive to explore and expand on my ideas. Also, a much reduced rate for institutions and charitable organizations would go a long way to supporting concepts that would enhance the real world via activity here in Second Life.

As the CEO of a real life National Charity, I understand many of the barriers to charity participation here, so I applaud the Lindens for considering part of the issue through this award.

Katrina Kellman

I can't help wondering what this will do to the economy. Millions of free lindens dumped on someone. They would have to convert it to USD, right? I mean... they could possibly pay rent to a private estate owner but there is no way to pay mainland tier with lindens, correct? So... I would think they would start dumping them on Lindex at a very high L$/US$ rate (so they would move) which would pretty much screw anyone else trying to sell L$ at a decent rate. Did anyone at LL think about this?
And I totally agree with the folks that criticize LL for giving out a prize that costs them absolutely zero.

Katrina

Please don't think that thre aren't Charitable acts going on in Second Life on a DAILY basis.

I myself have done New Resident Q&A's for 5 1/2 years without ever asking for anything in return. Shai runs a SIM dedicated to the New Resident and he's never asked for anything. During this time, I can give you countless examples of Residents reaching out to others, not only in Second Life, but in Real Life, where it really counts.

The point we are trying to make here is that Linden Lab has run Second Life headlong into the ground. Sure, we could just give up, leave, and never be heard of again, but there's just one little problem; we LOVE Second Life. It's hard to explain my attraction to this Virtual World, sure I have friends here, and that's part of it, but it goes deeper then that. I've been in Second Life since April 2003. I was here for the first land expansion and can tell you of a wonderous sight called SLATE when I first flew over her. Slate was beautiful, and I fell in love with her. So, I spent my own REAL LIFE money to buy up as much as I can and keep it, and at the same time, GIVE AWAY the same land to those that say they want the same as I for her. Some were honest others weren't and I spent even more REAL LIFE MONEY to buy it back from them. Eventually we get the whole of Slate into a single group and I announce that ANYONE in the group, whether they joined a month ago or a month from then, will live in SLATE for free. We then build areas dedicated to the New Resident Q&A and a Public Pool/Dance area for anyone to use and enjoy. In this time I get to know some of the best damn people I've ever met, people with Motor-Skill issues because they are confined to a wheelchair with a disease I won't mention, lest I give away their identity. Yet, here they are, everyday, wanting to help, wanting to do something, and so they decide to hold a Dance Party after each Q&A; that's three times a week for someone that can barely move the mouse, let alone type. This is just ONE EXAMPLE of why I LOVE Second Life. The people can be real, open, loving, and even hateful; but they are real. There's this group of us, who can barely manage in the outside world, yet here, we can do things like we've always wanted; that's why I LOVE Second Life.

My Charitable acts over the past 5 1/2 years, have benefited every New Resident that crossed my path, and therefore, every Resident that crossed their path. I've asked for nothing in return for it, just that the people I've done for, they go and do for others.

Charity isn't dead in Second Life, no, that's not what we are saying. Linden Lab, on the other hand, is doing it's level best to kill the one place I have to go to, where I can enjoy living an unencumbered existance. For this very reason, I will hound every Linden Lab employee into Hell and back if I must, until ONE of them stands up for the COMMUNITY and not the money of their Employer's. Just one of them needs to march into their bosses office and say, "Enough is enough. We need this Community. We need to do better, with less fluff and more objective goals and standards. We need to keep Second Life from dying!" When this happens, when just ONE employee has the guts to stand up and say ENOUGH IS ENOUGH, more will follow and then, perhaps I'm a dreamer here, but just then we have a chance.

So, please understand where I'm coming from, I just want Linden Lab to care for us again, and not just say they do, but show they do. Silly Initiatives like this are meant to draw attention away from what Linden Lab has done in the past couple of weeks; no matter what they say. If it were so damn important, that Mitch Kapor wanted to do this 5 months ago, why didn't they do it then, instead of waiting until a time when they could divert the Community's attention away from their own misgivings of the past couple of weeks?

You see then, Robin, Everett, M, Jack, et al, we aren't going to stop this fight. Yes, you created our world, and yes you were once an active member of the Community, but now your actions have shown that what you care about more then the world, the Community, is the all mighty dollar. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for making money, but NOT at the expense of this Community and NOT at the expense of this world.

WOW! Sounds like fun. This could allow for more recognition for the creative work being done by the residents of Second Life. ME wipes the dust off my IDEA books and looks for something inovative. 2.8 million Linden. CHA CHING lol <------ LL probably wont even notice its gone from there wallets

This, hot on the heels of the OS *? Your timing is incredibly poor.

So um... where are people supposed to build this prize contender and how is it to be paid for over the next few months?

Oh wait, and you raised prices so insanely to pay for this "prize"?

Yes, I'm a pretty malcontented kitty and I don't normally let myself get like this. I'm just stunned.

So stunned I cannot even form a complete thought.

Wow.

US$10,000 isn't much... look at the daily Lindex volumes.
It doesn't, Lindens they give out are Lindens that Supply Linden can't sell.

to: Katt & Everette Linden

Please clarify the following from http://lindenlab.com/lindenprize

"Eligibility

* SL Resident for 1 month as of December 31, 2008, with a verifiable SL name, and a valid account in good standing. ..."

1. SL resident on or before November 30th, 2008.. Does a "SL resident" include non premium accounts, "no payment info on file" accounts, alt accounts etc?

2. verifiable SL name... What is a verifiable name?

3. What is the definition of valid account?

4. What is the definition of "in good standing"?

Though this may be covered in some way or another in the ToS or in a wiki someplace, please do not use oblique references to answer. I believe a clear statement here answering each question is proper.

Thank you
JRB

Try as I might, I'm not coming up with any possible folks to prod into self nominating. The only one I might have considered, well, its creator has since passed away (RIP Soj). I also suspect any I might come up with are not what is being sought. Ah well.

Well I just want to say one thing... Linden Labs will be depositing actual USD$ into the account right ... not just simply adding more Linden dollars to the account right? If not then this will affect the rates and value of the linden dollar affecting all of us making our money worth less... accounting 101 ... anyone?

Update on the application form--our web dev team identified the problem and it is now fixed. The RL and SL names show up correctly in the review form. Behind the scenes, the submitted applications tracked the names correctly, and the applicants' confirmation email reported the names correctly.

Everett is now my favorite Linden.

@94

I agree. Even more reason to encourage smaller organizations (and organisations !) and individuals to apply for the Prize.


@ 97

Rights and ownership is covered in the Terms section of the application form. It makes clear that the owner retains the rights to the work.

Second, all applications are destroyed. See the FAQ for details.

Third, the Prize is focused on projects with tangible, documented results. I hope that the Prize might motivate Residents with ideas to put them into motion.

@106


Your questions are covered in the TOS, and that is the best resource for information, but to summarize

1. Yes. This is available to all SL residents
2 & 3. We can match the SL name to an actual account.
4. If the account is in violation of the TOS, they are not eligible.

starting to agree with you there

Everett, would you be interrested in a PR position or as Linden Mentor on how to conduct feedback, discussion and communications?

10,000 USD will NOT impact the LindeX. Go look at the daily transactions and trades here:

http://secondlife.com/whatis/economy-market.php

and economic stats here:

http://secondlife.com/whatis/economy_stats.php

Yesterday's volume was 81,000,000 or so, with a total L$ supply of over 5,350,000,000. Even if the winner of the 2,800,000 sold all his L$ in the same day (which probably won't happen because the winner probably is not in the upper daily trading limits) it would be a small potato in a huge field. Please don't get all hysterical over the LindeX. It can take care of itself.

Well I could think of a zillion builds that could qualify for this but since our prim limits will drop drasticly very soon I dont think they will qualify any longer lol

10.000 USD prize money? Hahaha! Now we finally know why the Openspace prices went sky high suddenly LOL

Make it a prerequisite of being awarded the prize. The idea is to showcase the integration of SL and RL. I would be interested in every project that entered and hope we can find them all listed.

I'm guessing this is all in there to satisfy legal though. I mean seriously do you expect Plastic Duck for example to be submitting a giant griefing machine an entry

Katrina, I don't know if you've looked at NonProfit Commons in SL, but folks there might be able to help get you started.

If I were to nominate a charitable project/institution for this award, it might be Partners for Others (a RL Canadian charity). They have been partnering with lots of SL groups on specific short-term projects for small development projects in Africa.

PfO was just involved with a monthlong project, a Halloween-themed sim "Caer Blanco", selling goods donated by premier SL creators. The beneficiary was a new clinic in Lesotho. My friend and I bought some plants and dropped $L$5000 in the donation box; this is probably typical and not much in RL terms. But, a month of such activity would help a single clinic quite a bit.

PfO was also involved in the 2006 "Gardens of Hope" project. From the Caer Blanco notecard:[Aside: one issue with fundraising in SL is that donations are micropayments - RFL may succeed in raising significant funds, but it is with an incredible amount of effort. Fundraising small amounts for specific small projects, though, seems very appropriate to SL.]

Here's a related idea for LL: LL is large enough now to do outreach to a targeted set of RL businesses. Taking the idea of "micropayments for microprojects" to Oxfam (which specializes in small development projects with concrete outcomes), and facilitating their setting up a process to quickly create short, targeted projects like Caer Blanco, would probably be a good bet for LL. With the creative use of bots and prototype sim builds for Africa and India, Oxfam would be off and running. LL would get fabulous press, and could request that Oxfam in return give LL opportunities to reach out to specific Oxfam corporate partners, augmenting efforts to bring those businesses to SL.

That's the last free idea LL is getting from me, lol! RL is calling ...

Since Black Tuesday when Linden Labs announced that its heavy hand would be taking land and real money from residents, destroying covenants, forcing people out of their homes with no recourse or restitution; anything LL does from this date forward should be viewed with nothing less than ultimate cynicism. IOW, keep your hands on your wallet and don't turn your back.

$10,000 USD is a paltry sum when compared to what LL stands to earn since the Black Tuesday announcement. This is a public relations gimmick which will benefit a select few individuals while so many thousands other residents are being screwed.

Agreed.

The tier increase is US$50/month and there's (per a Jack comment) 12,000 openspace sims on the grid. If only half of them change to be homesteads, the tier increase covers that prize money in one day.

This contest is not bad and 10.000 US$ is a bunch of money of course!
BUT
This "campain" feel's like it should paint over the actual frustration of a lot (a lot!) residents these days, due the greedy price policy regarding OS.

My creativity is completely blocked until mid of january, awaiting what will happen after that, when thousands of OS sims will sink into the great wide open grid.

Literaly:

- i don't spend a single Linden$ anymore
- i don't work on expanding my biz anymore
- i don't create a single prim anymore
- i don't waste more (more then i do already) money into paid adds anymore
- i don't be inworld as more as essential needed to keep up my shops at the moment
- i don't feel conftable within SL anymore

And i "feel" other's think the same..so don't expect loud hurrays for your "nice meant" contest, LL.

In addition: what is 10.000 US$ for new, fresh and practical ideas for further development of SL, compared to what they probably will be worth after all?
To get involved sort of marketing company that develop such new ways and strategies in charge of LL, would cost easily millions of dollars (not L$, but REAL MILLIONS of US$)

So this strategy is simple and cheap under the line (period)
Make your own mind, i gave you my opinion by this.