Designing Worlds Ebbe Altberg Interview Has Strong Community Focus

If you want the full kit and caboodle on the Designing Worlds 250th episode, which features an interview with Linden Lab CEO, Ebbe Altberg, then head over to Inara Pey’s blog post on the subject. Whereas I will embed the video at the end of this post, Inara also has the transcript in text form. I’m not going to cover anywhere near all of the interview, so for  even more commentary, head over to Inara Pey’s commentary on the subject!

The interview itself was conducted by Elrik Merlin and Saffia Widdershins and was held on Mantanzas, a sim owned by Skate Foss. The interview has a lot of meat on its bones and covers a wide array of subjects, including, but not limited to, communities, group chat, Terms Of Service, The next generation virtual world, marketing and much much more.

Ebbe talks a lot and appears to be extremely enthusiastic about his work at Linden Lab. This makes for a largely positive interview although it does have some stumbling blocks for me on a personal level, the most glaring being the terms of service which briefly gets touched upon with Ebbe responding to a question from Saffia regarding the use of user groups to try and avoid issues such as the terms of service :

I don’t know if you could have avoided the Terms of Service – and there was quite a bit of engagement, and a lot of voices heard. I wasn’t here, but I think the way it was rolled-out created more complications than what the change actually was. But obviously, being in touch with the community, understanding the needs of the community is critical, and that is something we cannot do just by watching, But sometimes for us just looking at the metrics might be more efficient for us to get to answers rather than talking to individuals.

Later in the interview Ebbe says :

OK, but we’re trying to make it clear to people that the content is yours, and we just need to have sufficient protections to protect ourselves. But again, it’s obviously not in our interest to make a mess for content creators by ourselves stepping in and starting to be part of the problem, rather than the solution with regards to IP protection.

They really could have done the terms of service differently and the first step there would have been to actually recognise what the issue with the terms of service is and why it still exists today. Linden Lab have never ever made that move and it remains a very disappointing element of Ebbe Altberg’s reign. Ebbe’s words here also don’t encourage me that Linden Lab have much interest in addressing or understanding the terms of service issue from the other side of the fence.

However that aside, I found this to be a vibrant interview. Ebbe talks of opening the Jira back up, how he was quite shocked about the level of engagement between Linden Lab and their community when he arrived and how Linden Lab have made strides towards better community engagement. This has certainly been exemplified by Linden Lab taking a far more active role in their blog postings and therefore leading the conversation.

Ebbe recognises the importance of communities in Second Life and the importance of getting the new user experience right. Ebbe hints that the idea of community portals coming back to Second Life might be on the agenda in a part of the discussion regarding onboarding new users :

I don’t know exactly when we’ll have time to give it sufficient energy to really get it off the ground. We’re working on a number of other initiatives right now that are ahead of it … and it’s one of those things that’s near the top of priorities for Second Life to bring back the idea of the community portals or something like that, where it’s easy for experience creators to attract users directly into their experience from the outside world.

Because ultimately, there are too many experiences in something like Second Life that we can’t mass market to all of these niche experiences that exist. we don’t even understand them all or know that they even exist. Whereas the creators of that experience have a very clear idea of who they’re trying to be useful to and attract an audience. And so we need to give people the tools so they can attract their own audiences into their experiences.

This is positive to read because Ebbe is right, there are lots of experiences within Second Life. A one size fits all new user experience probably isn’t ideal and wider community engagement could be useful here but let’s wait and see what transpires.

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Linden Lab Should Talk To The Virtual World Media

I like Metareality Podcast, there, I’ve said it! I mean Draxtor can talk about his Xanax, Qarl can tell us he got jaded whilst being a Linden, Gianna can sound fed up whilst giggling and the two boys can swear like troopers, but it’s an entertaining affair. I’d like to hear a Linden being a guest, but Gianna has made comments that they keep cancelling at the last minute.

I can recall seeing Lindens make appearances on the former inworld chat show: Tonight Live With Paisley Beebe. Paisley has moved on, as have most of the Lindens she interviewed! Hmmm. Treet TV has a number of shows, although these days Designing Worlds seems to be the big one, not that that’s a bad thing. Some of the shows listed are no longer active but are fun to look back on. Media outlets like this are good for Second Life, it’s a shame they aren’t more widely promoted. Surely Linden Lab are the ultimate world designers? Would they fit in Designing Worlds? Saffia Widdershins of Prim Perfect could probably answer that!

Tomorrow will see the launch of something very interesting from Draxtor Despres who is unveiling a new show on his youTube channel at 10am.

I mention other media channels because I see on the Second Life blog, a blog about improvements to Second Life. The post talks about the CHUI beta viewer, improvements to region crossings, the new email options on the marketplace, the cocoa project viewer, which is intended to improve performance on the mac as well as talking about the forthcoming materials project, for which there will soon be a project viewer. I am extremely pleased to see Linden Lab making better use of their blog. However, how about making better use of their world too?

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SPONSOR SPOTLIGHT — Prim Perfect and Designing Worlds

Prim Perfect Head Quarters
Prim Perfect Head Quarters

Prim Perfect

Saffia Widdershins is owner and editor of Prim Perfect. So what is Prim Perfect?

Prim Perfectis a magazine for Second Life homes and gardens – with lots of wonderful articles about buying or renting your home in Second life, finding the best designers, choosing your furniture, arranging it to best advantage, managing your prim count, landscaping your garden and learning the latest news from the world of interior design.

In addition, they visit the best communities and the most stunning landscapes of various kinds, all across Second Life. And periodically, they travel to other grids as well to see what is happening across the MetaVerse. In other words, there is something for everyone!

PrimGraph
Prim Graph

Whether you are setting up your very first home, hungry for the latest must-haves, or customizing the mansion of your dreams, Prim Perfect has something for you. For those who are prim addicts, there are articles on high-end high class designer furniture too. Each month they showcase the work of a specially chosen designer in an exciting and fascinating region.

New businesses will love their Pathfinder articles, where the best and most experienced content creators in Second Life mentor a group of start-up businesses and help establish them in the Second Life world. Established business can follow their Trailblazer program, which is organizing a series of seminars, workshops and merchant trials for small businesses seeking sustainability.

For all those who love, or need, low prim Design, there are their Linden Home features, where we look at top designers working to create Linden Home furnishings – and also at the different ways that their readers have chosen to furnish their Linden Homes! For land agents, builders, landscapers, and designers – Prim Perfect offers a way for them to reach their clients directly.

Prim Perfect May Magazine Cover
Prim Perfect May Magazine Cover

Prim Perfects advertising rates are very reasonable. In between issues, the PrimPerfect blog keeps you up-to-date with the latest news and gossip. You’ll find news about forthcoming issues – as well as general news, tips, and advice. There is also their very popular art column – Ekphrasis, reviewing art and artists in Second Life.

Many of the articles have a validity that goes well beyond the day of post – search the blog and see what a wealth of information Prim Perfect has to offer! You will see pages from Prim Perfect on the stands on the ground floor of their pavilion. If you would like to read more of an issue, click on that issue on the stand to receive your copy. Or visit their online archive.

Designing Worlds

Designing Worlds is the hit weekly show on design and designers in virtual worlds, brought to you by Prim Perfect Productions, the people behind Prim Perfect in co-production with treet.tv, the leading TV network in today’s virtual environments such as Second Life. From its roots as a “meta-makeover” show, the programme has developed into a magazine/factual format, adding interviews and visits to some of the most impressive locations in Second Life and other virtual environments.

The show goes out live in 720p High Definition every Monday at 2pm SLT/Pacific Time and is repeated through the week on the Treet Lifestyle channel. Shows can also be viewed on the Treet Designing Worlds and downloaded as podcasts via iTunes.

Designing Worlds is presented by Saffia Widdershins, the Editor of Prim Perfect Magazine, and Elrik Merlin of Radio Riel. You can see more on their Designing Worlds website.

We want to thank Saffia and Prim Perfect for being a proud sponsor, and so much more, of the 2011 SL Home & Garden Expo benefiting Relay For Life.

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