Don’t Panic

I seized an unprecedented opportunity today at 7am SLT to sit in on the Live Firestorm Q&A hosted by Jessica Lyon with special guests Oz Linden (Technical Director for Second Life) and Pete Linden (Director of Communications, Linden Lab). Included below are my tweets during the event with some more context.

The recent news has got Second Life users and pundits in a tizzy, and this session was meant to offer a forum for the Lindens to share their responses to resident questions.

Jessica got things rolling by asking a point-blank question about the future of Second Life: Is Linden Lab planning to shut down Second Life:

“We have no plans to shut it down” Pete Linden about @secondlife

— Canary Beck (@canarybeck) July 2, 2014

Oz Linden on the lighthearted schtick he’d received from residents about being handed the leftovers (e.g. Second Life) while Linden Lab worked on its shiny new project:

“This was exactly the job I was looking for and I’m more than happy to have it” Oz Linden on being new Technical Director of @secondlife

— Canary Beck (@canarybeck) July 2, 2014

Pete Linden on whether we should be concerned about the impacts of SL 2.0:

“All that’s changed… we as a company have taken an additional step to be more transparent about…what we’re working on” Pete Linden

— Canary Beck (@canarybeck) July 2, 2014

Oz Linden on Linden Lab’s attempt to be transparent with this news and their aims about future communication with residents in general:

“We intend to talk about what we’re doing earlier.. and more actively with the community over time” Oz Linden on @secondlife

— Canary Beck (@canarybeck) July 2, 2014

Pete Linden on what Second Life residents can do to continue supporting Second Life:

“Keep logging in. Keep creating things… continuing on with that keeps @secondlife the awesome environment that it is.” Pete Linden

— Canary Beck (@canarybeck) July 2, 2014

There will be a full transcript and audio of the event on Inara Pey’s blog in the next day or so (to which I’ll link to when available).

Suffice to say, I’m considerably more optimistic about Second Life’s future as a result of this meeting, and will be putting my money where my mouth is over the next couple of days.

If like me, this news gives you some relief, I hope we can now start having creative and productive conversations about what we’d like to see in Linden Lab’s new virtual world platform.

There’s been plenty of discussion so far regarding wish lists about features we’d like. Here’s your chance to contribute your views in an environment that is both positive and encouraging of differing views.

Get involved and throw in your two cents on what you’d like to see in what we’ve now dubbed SL 2.0 at today’s (Wednesday) Basilique Salon, 1pm SLT. See you there!