New Hire at Linden Lab
Linden Lab, makers of the virtual world of Second Life, hired Joe Miller as their new VP of Platform and Technology Development, according to this press release.
Miller has 30 years experience creating engaging consumer experiences based on a wide range of interactive technologies. Prior to joining Linden Lab, Miller founded Perilux Group, a product design company that was engaged to develop several award-winning products now offered by LeapFrog, Bright Things, Apple, and Fitniks. Past experience includes senior executive positions at Atari, Koala Technologies, Epyx, Convergent, and SEGA of America. He was a founder and CEO of the Knowledge Universe Interactive Studio, and president of MindQ Publishing, two companies focused on lifelong learning services and applications. His diverse career started at Battelle Memorial Institute, where he created a portion of the developer training curriculum for the PLATO educational network.
“Miller will be responsible for extending the Second Life platform to reliably support large scale member communities,” according to the press release. It’s not clear whether this is the kind of thing he was doing in his former positions, but we wish him luck.
Note also that this could be the first sign of a shift that will one day have to take place at LL. LL execs have spoken publicly in the past about the fact that the company won’t be able to support all the servers necessary to run the world once it grows past a certain point. Miller’s position will address challenges on the road to that point, it seems. It’s a moment that’s hardly imminent, but it looks like the world is now moving in that direction.
Feeds
I’m unfamiliar with Perilux Group. Hoping to learn a bit more soon.
wrt “fragmentation”, I noticed something recently that suggested as much. It may be coming sooner than we think.
“Large-scale member communities” — does this mean stuff like the Suicide Girls or the Podcasters? In other words, instead of trying to attract millions one by one from all kinds of demographics, they will try to fold in these pre-existing communities? So, like, all the members of South Beach Diet can come in and make thin avatars and compare recipe notes? or? This route of trying to cater to pre-set groups with last names and free land and perks hasn’t really been very effective. I think they need to go with the existing model of providing low-cost first land and fix the group tools to make businesses and non-profits and various creative projects flourish, then people will make or sustain their own groups.