Logan Linden Interview - Part 1
February 24, 2007
SLOz had the opportunity in the past few days to have a chat via Skype with Logan Linden aka Chris Collins, expatriate Aussie and Analyst for Linden Lab. Logan was very forthcoming on a range of topics so we’ll publish the interview in three parts in the coming week.
- Part 1
Lowell: Can you tell me a little about yourself Chris?
Chris: I was born in Sydney, had ten years there then moved to Perth - I call Perth home. I went to the University of Western Australia, started working in Perth then worked in Sydney for awhile. I worked there consulting for an accounting firm. I then moved to London for three and a half years, did the Australian thing.
I ran a CRM software consulting company then I started a job search engine in the UK. I launched that over in San Francisco. We got to a point where we weren’t progressing as quickly as we wanted to, so we decided to pull the pin on that. I then briefly set up operations for another technology company and started to look around for other work. I wanted to work at a company that had a really exciting product, that had smart people, had a smart management team and came across Linden Lab.
Lowell: When did you first start with Linden?
Chris: I started beginning of June 2006. It was just before everything got really crazy.
Lowell: What’s your role there?
Chris: I’m the analyst here, so with all the charts that I look at - in June / July when everything really started to pick up, it was obvious 2006 was a really big year for us. When we went to free basic accounts, the growth really started to happen. Being the analyst is a really exciting position. I don’t think I could be an analyst in any other company or industry compared to what we’re doing here - the data we analyse is very exciting and there’s so many different ways you can look at it. We’re in an interesting position in that everything the company does is in Second Life and for us to get any exposure to that we need to be able to look at the data, to be able to analyse and break it down into hundreds of different reports depending on the individual who’s looking at it. They need to be able to work out what needs to be done to enhance areas, from an economic standpoint through to a simulator standpoint. I’m the one they all come to to be able to get all that.
Lowell: And are you it as far as resources go?
Chris: I’m in the Data Warehouse team, there’s two of us. The other guy I work with does a lot of the Warehouse engineering. We’re expanding our team, another two analysts are joining in March. At Linden Lab we’re going through a phase where we need to find staff. We need to find a lot of senior staff in all areas. That should be of interest to any of your readers - we’re looking for people in all areas. It’s easy to be able to come and work in the US.
Lowell: So it’s sounds like you’re going to have a real Decision Support setup there in the near future?
Chris: Yeah, which’ll be great. A couple of weeks ago we released a whole lot more information out to the community. We’re going through a phase this year where we hope to put more and more data out for the community to look at and analyse for themselves. For business owners in Second Life to get more access to information. We’re going through a big phase with that and we need more people to help speed that process up.
- Part 2 in the coming week - Australian specific data, building a community and working at Linden Lab.
Popularity: 9% [?]
An Australian-based SL competitor on the horizon
February 23, 2007
Outback Online is a new virtual world option in development. At SLOz we’ll hopefully see a demo in the next few weeks but until then, read Robert Scoble’s blog posting on the demo he’s received.
The P2P networking and claims of 10000 concurrency per sim is enough to prick any SL member’s ears up.
Popularity: 7% [?]
More Australian Clothing
February 22, 2007
Wolfie Rankin, owner of the Kookaburra pub on the Eragon island, has launched a range of t-shirts.
In Wolfie’s own words:
“I did some Rocky Horror ones, and may do more if people request the other characters.
‘Strewth Mate’ was one of my first, and most popular - a black shirt with text based on the 80s “Choose Life”
shirts was the inspiration there.
‘Dead Dingos…’ is a phrase that even the Americans understand and find funny, so I released that one on a shirt also.
There’s a few funny SL based ones also, such as ‘Object: Hello, Avatar’ which all the scripters would recognise.
I also have ‘The sit ball made me do it’ which is based on the old one about the devil.
Rather too often, Newbies would leave plain cubes around the sim, and that’s where I devised the term ‘Noob Cube’. The concept looked like a good idea for a shirt, and has a nice branded feel about it, currently there are three versions, but there will be more later.
While having something to eat, I had this idea about Linden Labs, and thought that changing the B to a D might work, it sounds like a gang, or some special
police division.
That’s about it.
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Graham Sabre covered a footy jumper shop yesterday and it’s becoming apparent that the Australian identity is well and truly being established in a ‘fashion’ sense.
Popularity: 9% [?]
AFL Footy Fever Jerseys
February 21, 2007
With summer almost over and our cricketers lulling the world into a false sense of security, the beginning of the footy season is now in the offing and fans can prepare themselves by donning their favourite team colours at a little shop I found tonight.
Located at Martinis Bargain Clothes, this small venture caters for AFL team fans. And whilst it does state it is an outlet where you can buy NRL jerseys, that particular section seemed to be still awaiting stock.
At $100 Linden the AFL jersey’s are a little cheaper than their RL counterparts. If you have a hankering to be outfitted and ready to go barracking for your team, perhaps a quick venture to this shop will see you through the season.
As a Rugby fan I didn’t actually find anyone catering for that particular code at a Super 14 level but I did find a place where you can buy a Wallaby jersey. It was located at Taff’s Rugby and the range of footy oriented gear is quite large. With the World Cup not too far away, go the Ra Ra! Oh, they also have the round-ball footy code covered as well.
Popularity: 7% [?]
Linden ends First Land program
February 21, 2007
Linden has today announced an end to the First Land program. The program gave every SL member who upgraded to a Premium Account the ability to buy their first 512m2 of land for $512 Linden Dollars. The discontinuation of this has a number of ramifications:
1. New premium members will have to fork out the Premium Fee and then another significant chunk of money to buy land on the private market
2. Rental options are likely to boom as it becomes an even more affordable option compared to outright purchase
3. There could be an impact on the longevity of some users in SL. Using a RL Example - people arguably tend to treat the houses they own better than ones they rent and tend to have a more sentimental connection to what they own. The majority of rental options require payment to a business using PayPal or other payment option which adds a further administrative burden to the SL user compared to those who purchased First Land. This could all increase the churn rate of SL users
One suggestion made by a number of residents on the Linden blog is the idea of a grandfather clause whereby those who have signed up to Premium accounts prior to today’s announcement be allocated a 512m2 block for $512L.
Linden have stated they are looking at other ways to boost the value of upgrading to a Premium account. Linden Labs’ action in that regard is likely to be as swift as the wider SL community reaction to such a significant change.
Popularity: 7% [?]
Counselling in Second Life
February 20, 2007
One of the main objectives of SLOz is to discuss the wider societal issues that SL raises. Previously we’ve discussed addiction in SL as a double-edged sword in that it can both help to treat real-life addiction but also has the potential to create new addictions. Delving further into the former, finding counselling options in-world is becoming easier and more become available. However, determining what is valid counselling in Second Life is extremely difficult. If you don’t know the difference between Jungian and Family therapy in real life, what hope do you have deciphering the options in SL? Some disciplined Googling wil help clarify some of the terminology but won’t tell you which counselling approach works best - and that’s because there is no one approach that works - it’s a very individual thing. This means that you may need to spend some time with a counsellor in SL before you know whether you feel comfortable, both with their demeanour and approach. Counselling can be one of the most health-enabling things you can do but an inexperienced or inappropriate counsellor can at best be ineffectual, at worst damaging.
An example of a counselling service avilable in SL is Wellman and Wellman Counselling, Coaching and Therapy. We’ll profile them and others over coming weeks. We’re not in a position to recommend any but want to publicise as many options as possible. If you’ve had positive or negative in-world experiences with counselling we’d love to hear from you.
Popularity: 15% [?]
Private Eyes
February 19, 2007
New World Notes discussed in-world detectives way back in 2005. With the burgeoning growth of users and subsequent increase in relationships, I’ve not noticed any great increase in surveillance businesses, let alone an Australian one. With the recent changes in the SL search functionality, finding someone is just a little harder although the standard search would be an unlikely standard approach for someone undertaking surveillance work.
If you’re an Australian business setting up in surveillance we’d be interested to hear from you. But maybe we won’t…
Popularity: 13% [?]
